Quick, Post Before Something Else Interferes!!

Three weeks without a post. Disgraceful! Sadly, work has interfered WAY too much with my leisure time lately, but I have done some reading - bizarre mix that it has been - and will try to post a quick synopsis before going back to my zillionth attempt to resuscitate my seemingly dead digital camera...

Having left Library Land a year ago this past weekend, I find that in Corporate Land, assigned reading tends to be work-related-inspirational. Each year, my current organization seems to choose a Theme (much like the decision made to call the Senior Prom "Journey to Romance" or "Under the Sea") to infuse the work force with a positive attitude and fresh platitudes for the coming fiscal year. Now I can get behind a good bit of inspiration if I'm in the right frame of mind -- but I have to say that the four books I read involving our New Theme did not get my motor running. Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale & Improve Results is the cornerstone of the quartet and lays out a Morality Tale for Our Times, complete with a multicultural spunky widow who is able to save her toxic division at work through the Divine Intervention of Lonnie the Fishmonger. I would have a greater respect for this book if it were a REAL story - but realizing it is a big set-up totally reduces its value to ashes for me -- much as discovering that Go Ask Alice was NOT written by the young narrator but cobbled together by a social worker did in my early teens. And the big finish? Lonnie the Saint proposes to her at the end of the book by putting an engagement ring in the open mouth of a fish. Oy vey! Book Two - Fish! Tales seemed to be real stories about folks trying to put the Fish into their businesses, Book Three - Fish! Sticks keeps the platitudes coming, and Book Four - Fish! for Life extends the reach of the philosophy into the arena of one's personal life and reunites us with the fictional couple from Book One who are now embarking on parenthood. Come on, say it with me ... YUCK! I've been to the Pike Place Market and it is a fun place. But I wondered why this outfit in the Twin Cities is the purveyor of all things Fish! Did the Pike Place Gang not really believe in their philosophy? I went in search of an answer and discovered When Fish Fly a book co-authored by the owner of the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market. His recounting of the theme is vastly different in tone. Oh sure, the philosophy is still there - but it is not sugar-coated or even particularly appealing. His is a pretty autocratic style of management and though he professes to have changed, I did not feel it was so. Wish me luck in this The Year of The Fish! Still in a work-styles feeding frenzy, I plowed through much of Now Discover Your Strengths and was taken in by the personality quiz format of the book - who doesn't love those? - but had my hopes dashed when I arrived at the page with the secret code to use to take the test online to Discover My Strengths and discovered instead that the code was carefully scissored out to prevent mere LIBRARY BORROWERS from thinking they were entitled to the knowledge without paying full-price for the book. I moved on to the very enjoyable Positively Outrageous Customer Service
which would actually be a much more ideal way to inspire workers than the Fish! Philosophy, but would require actually giving the power to the work force to truly make a difference - and we all know that having an hour's pep rally tossing Fish! is the more likely and realistic scenario. Too bad. I also got Good to Great but was too exhausted from all the corporate speak to muster the strength to open the cover.

Reviewing all of that again, I realize why I may have not felt like reading much for a while.... in any case, I did do some other reading. Cherry Jones is due in town to perform her Tony-winning role, and so I read the very short (58 pages!) script for Doubt. It is an interesting character study and does deal with the edges of a controversial topic, but I was not truly engaged by it. Guess I will have to see if it arrests my heart and mind more in performance. I finally got around to reading my copy of How I Live Now, too. I admired the voice, but found myself skimming through the war scenes just to get to the expected reunion of the star-crossed lover cousins. Not one I would read again. For sheer pleasure, I read Laura Lippman's new Tess Monaghan mystery No Good Deeds and was happy to get to hang around with Tess and Crow in Baltimore again. If you haven't read any of these and like a female detective tale on occasion, I recommend them. I also treated myself to T.C. Boyle's latest Talk, Talk.
I am completely besotted with T.C. and always enjoy his phrasing, quirky plotting and unique notions for a story. This tale of a deaf woman's struggle to regain her life after her identity is stolen is all Boyle all the time. (And the jacket photo! What a singular character!)


I have shared many books of late -- Boyle's The Road to Wellville, Clement's Frindle, Hill's Ursula Under and Aidinoff's The Garden have traveled from my bookshelves to new hands.

I recommended In the Shadow of the Ark, The Eight,
Timeline, I am the Messenger, Honey, Baby, Sweetheart and The Sterkarm Handshake. And I bought Yoko's World of Kindness for an about-to-be-a-new-big-sister gift.

I am back on the waiting list for The Book Thief since I'm a big fan of Zusak's other books and so many of the KitLitosphere crowd has spoken highly of it. I also look forward to my number coming up on the reserve list for New Moon
because I was surprisingly taken by Stephenie Meyer's first book about vampiric love. I'd love to ditch out of work tomorrow afternoon to go hear Jacquelyn Mitchard speak at the public library, but am also being realistic and just adding my name to the wait list for her new book Cage of Stars.

A year out from my last Summer Reading Program, I continue to receive the great lists and reviews of new books from all of the publishers - and if I were still the Queen of Library Land, I would be ordering Bats at the Beach
ASAP to read at Story Time!!!

Happy August! Hope we all find some time to read in these Dog Days of Summer

War Stories

I find that the most delightful thing about living in a multi-suburb city with library reciprocity is the smorgasbord of available titles. This week I am indulging in guilty pleasures like mysteries and bestsellers along with my usual YA lit. No surprise then that I've read an odd mix of books in the past two days. What has been a surprise, though, is that the first four books I've read all seem to be war stories.... Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed is a book I tried to read when it first came out without success. This time I read without stopping. The young protagonist - without name, family, nationality or memories of a past - makes a powerful statement about the nature of all of those very things we so take for granted. Its view of the Nazi atrocities of war through the eyes of such a child are doubly powerful. (And whether realistic or not, I was terribly glad at Spinelli's ending.) Graham Salisbury's Eyes of the Emperor is a gripping look at the aftermath of Pearl Harbor for a group of Japanese-American soldiers living in Hawaii. I was stunned by the racist cruelty meted out so callously to the young men and was horrified by their savage assignment as human bait for training attack dogs on Cat Island. It is a memorable book about the effects of international war on the homefront. My first non-YA title was Nicholas Evans' book The Divide. I remembered the breathless shock induced by the opening scenes of The Horse Whisperer and this opening was also jarring. Despite its seeming thread about environmental activism, it is at its heart a terrible, brutal story of the cruel wars that rage inside a family. I was deeply saddened after reading it, as each character in this novel is scarred immeasurably at the hands of those they love. The guiltiest pleasure on my weekend list is Oakdale Confidential. I admit it, I grew up watching As The World Turns, and though my viewing is so sporadic these days that I recognize very few of the characters, I could not resist bringing this one home for old times' sake. With an over the top plot and cheesy romance-novel phrasing, it was a refreshing change of pace to read. But today's news of longtime ATWT cast member Benjamin Hendrickson's suicide makes this one of my weekend's war stories. A man who struggled with reconciling his Juilliard training with two decades in the soaps and who was devastated by depression after his mother's death fought and surrendered in what may be the most personal war of all.

So Many Read, So Little Said

It's been a busy week and though I have read, I've not had a chance to say much. I am pressed for time, now, too, but want to at least say a few words about this week's books....

I had trouble with Alex Bradley's 24 Girls in 7 Days. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but I just didn't click with this tale of looking for love in all the wrong places. So, too, was my experience with Finding Lubchenko. I was disappointed with this, because I had really liked Michael Simmon's book Pool Boy but I did not like this kid, or his father, or his friends. In much the same way that I dislike watching Ferris Bueller, I was sorry to have wasted two hours traipsing around Paris with three spoiled brats. I waded into Carl Deuker's Runner and stuck it out to the bitter end, but again, came away disappointed in the story of a boy so easily drawn into crime. Things looked up with Joseph Bruchac's Code Talker, in which I learned a great deal about the Navajo, the work of the Code Talkers, and more than I wanted to know about the horrors of war. Carol Gorman's Stumptown Kid was an Iowa-based look at baseball and prejudice that was well-paced, but not always believable. I'd wanted to read Shelley Pearsall's Crooked River because I had really enjoyed Trouble Don't Last and I was pleased with the slice of frontier life that illuminated the notions of prejudice and justice while using verse in a wonderfully effective way. Tracey Barrett's Cold in Summer turned out to be a fine ghost story on the order of Elaine Marie Alphin's Ghost Soldier. And Eve Bunting's The Presence could happily haunt the space on the shelf right next door. Margaret Peterson Haddix put her spin on the effects of cloning on a family in Double Identity but I felt I had read a similar story before in Katherine Lasky's Star Split. Mike Lupica managed to get me involved in the intricate relationships and athletic machinations of Travel Team , but I was less taken with the round-robin style in Nora Baskin's Basketball (or something like it). Jeanne Du Prau provided a dark look at the roots and results of war in her sequel People of Sparks. Marlene Carvell creates a heart and soul-wrenching tale of two Mohawk sisters with the free verse in Sweetgrass Basket. Anna Myers hooked me completely with her frightening tale of a girl smitten with John Wilkes Booth in Assassin. I had two visits with "differently able" teenagers in Eoin Colfer's Supernaturalist and in James Patterson's Maximum Ride:The Angel Experiment. I found Patterson's book an okay quick read - but felt Colfer's was much more intricately plotted and well-written. And as a rare treat I read a "grown-up book" today - Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle. I have enjoyed some of her other books, and used My Sister's Keeper with my teen book club, but this one did not have the same impact for me. The graphic novel elements were interesting (though I did not like the "secret phrase" hunt malarky) but I felt the plot was too muddy, too open-ended, too all-encompassing.

And there you have it, another week's pages turned.

Music Therapy

Jordan Sonnenblick pulled the old bait and switch on me last night. I began his book
Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie and was delighted by the wry, 14-year old voice of Steven Alper as he negotiates his way through the minefields of his last year in junior high. His devotion to music (specifically drumming) and his endearing/exasperating relationship with his much younger brother Jeffy had me completely hooked. And then, much as it happens for Steven himself, the switch from Charming Family Tale to Brave Child With Leukemia Tale laid me out cold.

Now to be fair, the book morphs well into its new guise and continues to be well-told and well-handled. I am not a huge fan of the dealing with illness genre, but Sonnenblick portrays the family's strengths and struggles evenly and with compassion. I continued to admire Steven's character - the same junior high minefields are still in his daily path and he works to juggle it all in a believable and heart-wrenching way.

The secondary characters are also well-drawn - particularly Annette, the girl we all know Steven should end up with - and of course young Jeffy with his precocious descriptions of his horrific cancer treatments and of Steven's imagined love life. The grand concert at the end of the book pushes the story over into Extreme Makeover: Home Edition territory, as does the inevitable death of the waiflike and tragic teen girl in the hospital, but I stuck with it and came away glad I'd picked up the book. I'd like to see what the author can do with a less tragic plotline sometime....

Great Zeus! Are You Reading AGAIN This Weekend?!

So said my spouse as he discovered me after breakfast, curled up with Rick Riordan's
The Lightning Thief. What can I say? It looked like rain, I have the day off, and dust and laundry are eternally patient.

It's been a long time since I had to read about Ancient Gods, but that did not hamper my total enjoyment of this book. (In fact, I discovered I wished I had paid more attention back then - and wished this book had been around to recommend to the kids I knew who were struggling to connect with those same lessons!) The nearly 400 pages read quickly as the twists and loops of the plot kept the pace humming. I loved discovering his Half-Blood status along with Percy, and being along through each of the increasingly apocalyptic run-ins between the three godlings and their unknown enemies. (Especially the altercation in the St. Louis Arch!)

A wild ride through mythology, complete with two cross country journeys and a side trip to the Underworld? What a way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon!

48 Hour Book Challenge: Finished Books List!

Here's the list of books completed by the 48-Hour Challenge Participants. I culled them from everyone's blogs, so if I missed any, let me know and I will update the list! I did not include the picture books and board books that some of the alternates read - but if you are looking for some great recommendations in those genres, stop by those blogs.

Incredibly, there was only ONE BOOK that more than one participant read - two of us read Betty Birney's The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs. Many read books from the same authors:Caroline Cooney and Beverly Cleary and Helen Frost and Sharon Creech were represented -- but in terms of most appearances by an author with the most unduplicated titles - definitely Hilary McKay and her Casson clan.

What a fine array of books, too! Books in verse, series books, non-fiction, autobiography, fantasy, graphic novels, classics - a true reader's buffet!

Thanks everyone for reading and posting so many great suggestions for those more leisurely weekends when we are looking for a new book to savor!

-ZG



THE LIST!



12 Again by Sue Corbett

A Great & Terrible Beauty by Libby Bray

Absolutely, Positively Not by David Larochelle

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Amazing Grace by Megan Shull

Angel Monster by Veronica Bennett

Angel's Grace by Tracey Baptiste

Art Geeks & Prom Queens by Alyson Noel

Beany & the Meany by Susan Wojciechowski

Before Wings by Beth Goobie

Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White

Bound by Donna Jo Napoli

Caddy Ever After by Hilary McKay

Charlie Bone & the Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo

Charlie Bone & the Invisible Boy by Jenny Nimmo

Chasing the Jaguar by Michele Dominguez Green

Chicken Boy by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Clementine by Sarah Pennypacker

Code Orange by Caroline Cooney

Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones

Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock

Dawn Undercover by Anna Dale

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams

Eager by Helen Fox

Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham

Fairy Realm #1: The Charm Bracelet by Emily Rodda

Fairy Realm #2: The Flower Fairies by Emily Rodda

Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads by Joel Best

Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart

Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees& Other Creatures Unique to the Republic by Robert Lanham

Ghosts of Albion:Atray

Gooney Bird Greene & the Room Mother by Lois Lowry

Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry

Happy Kid by Gail Gauthier

Heartbeat by Sharon Creech

Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck

Hit the Road by Caroline Cooney

Hitler Youth by Susan Bartoletti

How I Found the Strong by Margaret McMullan

I Was a Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block

Indigo's Star by Hilary McKay

Ingo by Helen Dunmore

Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid by Yvonne Collins

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Journey Between Worlds by Sylvia Louise Engdahl

KIng Dork by Frank Portman

Little Long Nose by Wilhelm Hauff

Looking for Bapu by Anjali Banerjee

M or F? by Lisa Papademetriou & Chris Tebetts

Men of Bronze by Scott Oden

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Moccasin Thunder edited by Lori Marie Carlson

Mondays Are Red by Nicola Morgan

My Life in France by Julia Child

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachael Cohn & David Levithan

Night Flying by Rita Murphy

Olivia Kidney by Ellen Potter

Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl

Paradigm of Earth by Candas Jane Dorsey

Party Princess by Meg Cabot

Permanent Rose by Hilary McKay

Prom Anonymous by Blake Nelson

Radically Both by Christopher Golden

Rainy Season by Adele Griffin

Ramona's World by Beverly Cleary

Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech

Runaways 2 by Brian Vaughan

Runaways 3 by Brian Vaughan

Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay

Sammy Keyes & the Psycho Kitty Queen by Wendelin Van Draanen

Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman

Secrets of Dripping Fang: The Onts by Dan Greenberg

Shredderman:Secret Identity by Wendelin Van Draanen

Sing a SOng of Tuna Fish by Esme Raji Codell

Sir Thursday by Garth Nix

Skellig by David Almond

Snow, Fire Sword by Sophie Masson

Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton

Squashed by Joan Bauer

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Stay With Me by Garret Freymann-Weyr

Store-Bought Baby by Sandra Belton

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

The Blue Mirror by Kathe Koja

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Braid by Helen Frost

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton

The Fairy Tale Detectives: Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright

The Fourth Horsemen by Kate Thompson

The Gift Boat by Peter Dickinson

The Great American Mousical by Julie Andrews Edwards

The Grey Zone by Tim Blake Nelson

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E. L. Konigsburg

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

The Red Judge by Paukline Fisk

The Secret World Of Alex Mack:You're Glowing! by Diana G. Gallagher

The Secret World Of Alex Mack:Cleanup Catastrophe by Diana G. Gallagher

The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs by Betty Birney

The Wave by Todd Strasser

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett

Two Times the Fun by Beverly Cleary

Valiant by Holly Black

Victory by Susan Cooper

Well-Wished by Franny Billingsley

What's Yer Poison? by Christopher Golden & Jose Nieto

When the Mississippi Ran Backwards by Jay Feldman

A Little Slice of Heaven at Road's End

Books read: 14
Time spent reading & reviewing:
about 26 hours
Pages read: 3155

For me, participating in the Book challenge this weekend was a little slice of heaven. Before moving to a different state nearly a year ago, I spent the 5 happiest work-related years of my life as the youth services director of a small public library. Book and kids (from babies to college kids) were my life and I loved every single second of it : booktalks, serving on state book award and summer reading committees, doing story time, ordering books, dreaming books, living and sharing books.
After the move, despite my best efforts and glowing recommendations, the library doors stayed firmly closed to me. I am now working in a job that does not give me that joyous high anymore, and I miss the kids and books every single day - so immersing myself in this challenge all weekend was truly a slice of heaven. Thanks for inviting me!

Whipped Cream and a Pumpkin On Top

What more can you ask of a book than to let you spend some time with a real girl who triumphs through her own talents and the support of people who believe in her? For that sort of fix, there is no one like Joan Bauer. (Though I admit, with Tree and Mickey she's created some pretty great guys, too.) And as a Midwestern girl, I truly enjoyed Squashed with it's hometown flavor and State Fair spin on competition and the notion of growing wholesome vegetables as a means to personal fulfillment. I'm not a grower of anything myself, but I did admire Ellie's unwavering commitment to Max, and the determined care she lavished on him. I cheered with the arrival of Wes and his talk therapy program (both for Max and for Ellie) and I loved the much maligned mongrel, Spider. Joan Bauer is so full of life - I've gotten to meet her on a couple of occasions and am always struck by her sincerity and joy - and that same quality comes through in her characters. Ellie's description of having fallen in love with a pumpkin because it was the first thing the Fairy Godmother transformed in Cinderella was a wonderful passage in the book and the final moment of her sitting with Wes, her new dog and Max's tiny offspring in the Iowa sunshine -- is indeed "A perfect moment in agriculture" and a perfect way to end the 48 Hour Book Challenge.

Long Live Wendelin Van Draanen

Okay, I have decided to finish up the Challenge with two purely personal delights - and the first of these was just the dessert I was hungry for: Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen by Wendelin Van Draanen. Having spent all of my allowance money on Nancy Drew growing up, I am still a sucker for a smart girl detective and boy, howdy, does Sammy fit the bill! I love the interconnectednes of the series and I love the supporting players. But most of all I love Sammy - her bravado, her insecurities, her struggle to make the best of the hand she's been dealt. I love the way she collects intriguing new people into her life in each book and how they reappear and deepen their relationships with her in the subsequent novels. Van Draanen's book Flipped is one of my favorite books of all time - and Sammy Keyes is one of my top reading treats. What a fun couple of hours I've had with Sammy and Hudson and Grams and Casey and a school full of pro wrestlers and a warehouse full of illegal cat-fight organizers - like hot fudge on this reading weekend sundae!

Soul of a Chicken

I recall Dovey Coe fondly, and I expected to like Frances O'Roark Dowell's Chicken Boy. I wasn't disappointed. Though it has a lot of the trappings of many other young people's novels - dead mother, grieving family unable to cope or communicate, young protagonist who finds a friend and a sense of purpose and belonging - in Dowell's hands it is a fresh story with the unexpected and very entertaining addition of flocks of chickens. I liked the idea that the whole family was troubled by the death of their mother and that all of them were included in the therapy scenes. I loved the buoyant optimism of the Otis brothers and their revitalizing effect in Tobin's life. I felt very close to Tobin and wanted his life to find an even keel all the way through the novel. I also found myself wishing I were not reading alone as there were passages I wanted to read aloud to someone: "And then the words sank in and so did the hurt, going deep into places I didn't even know could hurt just from somebody saying they didn't want you." It's true writing and honest writing. I'm glad it made my list this weekend.

Cadmium, Indigo, Rose & Saffron

Hilary McKay's Saffy's Angel is a lovely jumble of things: a hunt for truth, a madcap artistic family of oddly endearing misfits, a friendship story, an adventure tale through foreign lands. The Banana House brought to mind The Burrow of the Weasley clan in it's tumbledown collection of family members and messy charm, though I felt that Mr. Casson struck me as more than a bit of a cad. I did enjoy learning each characters little quirks like Indigo's determination to overcome his fears - and I was terribly pleased to have Mr. Casson admit that his wife's painting of the children was a talented bit of work at the end - though I am fairly certain he did not say it aloud. Saffy's struggle to find her place in this topsy-turvy world was bittersweet and helped along immeasurably by her unexpected friendship with rich, manipulative Sarah -- who reminded me of a character that might have been played with great spunk by a young Hayley Mills. I know the author has gone on to write other books about this family, but I think my hour with them was enough. Saffy has her angel, Caddy is off to school, Indigo is over his fears, and Rose is most definitely Permanent. I can leave them happily circled around the repaired and burnished Angel of Siena.

Wonderful Times Seven

Sometimes it's a title that makes you want to peek inside the cover of a book. So it is with Betty Birney's The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs. Reminiscent of small town tales of folks like India Opal Baloni and George Bailey, this is the story of Eben McAllister's week-long search to discover seven wonders in his own small community of Sassafras Springs, Missouri. The week unfolds into a surprising adventure of discovery about many of the people Eben has known all of his life - and the things he comes to see as little miracles and marvels changes both his views and those of his neighbors. Accompanied by lovely little pencil drawings (like the ones I love in the original Harriet the Spy book) this is a loving, wise and enchanting book that had me smiling with tears running down my cheeks as I closed it. Definitely my favorite of the challenge so far!

Zone of Secrets

I was a big fan of Adele Griffin's Sons of Liberty, so seeing her name on the spine of Rainy Season was enough to get me to pick it up. Reading that the book was set in the Panama Canal Zone cinched the deal as I was born there - daughter of an Army man - just as Lane and Charlie are in the novel. As in Liberty, the story plays out as the efforts of keeping in a horrible family secret finally unravels - all the while illuminating the pain and fragility of the relationships of everyone in the family - particularly the two siblings. Descriptions of Army life, of the tensions between the Panamanians, Zonians and Military, of the Canal itself, and of living in a place that seems to be a completely separate world were all fascinating. My family left Panama when I was very small, and I have no conscious memories of living there. I was able to take a cruise several years ago and saw some of the area from the deck - but was advised that my safety would be in jeopardy should I venture onto shore to try to see the places from my parents' stories - which made me very sad. Later on, I had to get a new Social Security card, and when I told them my place of birth was the Panama Canal Zone, I was informed that such a place did not exist in the computer system and that I would have to choose another place of birth to add to my file. The sense of loss and loneliness that moment held for me is mirrored in many of Lane's waves of grief in this book. A very moving story of a family and a place steeped in lies and loss.

Be Careful What You Wish For....

Ah, the universal song of a wish comes in many forms: blurted out in desperation or agony; coolly uttered after eons of planning; thrown viciously to take revenge; offered up willingly to save another. But in Franny Billingsley's Well-Wished, a wish is a once-in-a-lifetime affair that must be planned out carefully and intricately worded - for the Wishing Well has a way of interpreting a wish that often results in your getting nothing of what you thought you'd asked for. I heard the author speak mention this book at a conference several years ago and I've wanted to read it since then. I am always intrigued by wish books (like the wonderful picture book "The Faerie's Gift") and I was intrigued by this one as well. I thought the pain and confusion brought about by Nuria's wish were well described and I was delighted that it had an all's-well-that-ends-well finale - particulary in regard to the fate of the wicked governess. That said, I must also say that sometimes I felt like I was reading two books joined by a wishing well -- Heidi (Avy & Nuria's story) and The Secret Garden (Catty's story).

Rogue Wave

I had never heard of Todd Strasser's book The Wave until a bunch of high school students came in looking for copies for a school reading assignment. I happened upon a copy not long ago at a used book store and brought it home. I just finished reading it, and rather than making me feel badly about human nature and the Holocaust, it mainly annoyed me with its wooden plot and awkward writing. There are a zillion books that portray more forcefully the notion of power in the hands of a few, and a zillion more that have greater impact about the horrors of the Holocaust. I did some web surfing for information on the original Wave classroom experiment that Strasser's book is to have been based on and was struck by the irony of the existence of websites denying that The Wave ever existed, just as there are sites denying the same about the Holocaust itself. I'd like to know what students required to read this have to say afterward. As for me, I'd rather have spent the hour rereading Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic or Warren's Surviving Hitler.

An Angel in Trinidad

What is it in me that connects so strongly to stories about young girls searching for their fathers? It is not a journey from my own life - so maybe it is just the power of the emotions these young women experience? Or the fascinating dichotomy of belonging to a family that both loves and lies to you? Whatever it is, Angel's Grace by Tracey Baptiste belongs on the shelf with Angela Johnson's Bird and Pam Munoz Ryan's Becoming Naomi Leon. Grace's feeling that she does not look as much like her parents as her younger sister does, and the explosive reaction of her father over an old tale her mother used to tell her about the hand-shaped birthmark on her shoulder come to a flashpoint during a summer in Trinidad with her maternal grandmother. While looking through an old photo album with her aunt, Grace sees a blurry image of a young man at a beach party who has an identical birthmark -- and it is not her father. This sets off a voyage of self-discovery which uncovers old secrets and a painful truth that all of her family must own together. I enjoyed Grace's spunk, the descriptions of Trinidad, and the bittersweet ending of her search. A very satisfying short read.

Jaws & Job

I ended up swapping out of fiction for some autobiography with Bethany Hamilton's book "Soul Surfer". I remember the initial news reports about the young surfer who lost her arm to a shark attack, but learned a lot more about that event and about her life during the past 90 minutes. I had not realized that the attack took place off of a beach in northern Kauai in the Hawaiian islands -- a spot where I spent one of the most idyllic vacations in the history of the world -- and her descriptions of the beauty of the island and the laid-back kindness of its inhabitants brought back many memories. I did admire her calm determination and courage, as well as her unshakable faith in God in the face of such a serious accident. It did bother me that there were so many references to the surf gear company that sponsors her - though it's great that they didn't drop her after the attack, it did seem like a long string of prominent product placements in the narrative. It will be interesting to see what path this young woman takes in life - at 14, she was just beginning to carve out a path (or a wave) for her future and is now sifting the options to see what's next. She certainly has the guts and compassion to succeed.

A Pox On Both Your Houses

Caroline Cooney. Great talent for creating a compelling page-turner. Code Orange is no exception. Mitty Blake's transformation from rich, good-natured lunkhead to biological weapon of terrorism turned unsung international hero was a fast and interesting read. I had read the excellent "Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster" a couple of years ago, and found myself harking back to that text as I read this chilling tale of the potential for smallpox re-emerging in our much more mobile world. Though a bit heavy-handed at times ("It had now been four days since Mitchell John Blake had inhaled the particles of a smallpox scab.") it certainly does raise important questions about disease in a global community, power, terrorism, vaccine funding, and individual morality. Like those television ads that say "Felled by a clot no bigger than a grain of rice" or the thought that a mere piece of paper can slice through the "protective" skin we rely on to guard us from the world's physical evils, this book makes it very clear that a virus is a serious threat. And BOY HOWDY do I wish I had Louise Rennison's new Georgia Nicholson book about now -- I need a bit of fun in my next read!

Djinni & Foliots & Imps, Oh My...

All right, I admit that I am always reluctant to dive into one of these sorts of books. They're always so fat and imposing, with bizarre titles and artwork, an overarchingly serious tone, and sure to have the phrase "part of a trilogy"on the cover somplace. So, it was with a sigh of resignation that I picked up Jonathan Stroud's "The Amulet of Samarkand" as my third book of the challenge. Yet, it only took about three pages of Bartimeaus' world-weary, snarky narrative to change my mind about my decision. Young Nathaniel's precocious and precarious career as a magician, with its fits and starts of bravery, insight, doubt and regret, are well-drawn. The developing relationship between Bartimaeus and his young master is also surprising. And I appreciated a world where the evil being done was mainly confined to magical powers against another of their own. Sure some of the passages get a little over the top with the elaborately described fight scenes, endless mocking footnotes, and long litanies of magical beings, and there's no sense of closure on the last page (remember "trilogy" being featured prominently on the cover!). But darn it all, if Stroud hasn't now gotten me wondering about the rest of his trilogy and whether Nat's new master is really someone to be trusted, and if Bartimaeus may have to be recalled, and whether the next book might provide more insight into the members of the Resistance.......

A Tale By Any Other Name....

After a late night of airship-travel, I decided to choose a smaller tome to devour with my breakfast - Donna Jo Napoli's Bound. Her books always have intriguing titles and covers and my first impression of this one was that it might have to do with foot-binding ala Ties That Bind Ties That Break by Lensey Namioka - and it does in a roundabout way. It took a good portion of the book for me to remember that Napoli's stock in trade is the reworking of traditional tales. I was probably half-way through the book before I had that V8 moment of "Sheesh, this is Cinderella!". After that point I found myself too aware of looking for the threads of the traditional tale to enjoy the immersion in another culture that had enchanted me during my earlier reading. It didn't ruin the book for me and I admired Xing Xing's character and certainly wanted her to be happy at the end - (especially after the Mother Fish Episode - YIKES!) - though frankly her decision to marry the Prince surprised me as she had spent much of the book becoming personally strong and independent. Nonetheless, it is always great to read about another girl with big feet (like me) who comes to realize that though others may make fun of them, they enable you to have a firm grip on the world and to stand tall!