This month’s book: Flip by Martyn Bedford

As I was reading over my review of Flip, I remembered how much I liked it, and I thought, “Hmmm…why don’t I use this for this month’s book?”  So, here you go.  For the review, see below.

Review of Flip by Martyn Bedford

Alex wakes up one morning after a night out, and he’s in a strange bed in a strange house.  Someone is shouting for him from downstairs, but they’re calling, “Flip!” He’s sure it’s just some kind of mix-up, until he gets his first look in a mirror and doesn’t recognize the person he sees. How did he end up in someone else’s body? Can he get anyone to believe that he isn’t who they think he is? And what happened in the 6 months since his last memory as the old Alex, and his first memory as Flip? About the only one who knows that Alex isn’t Flip is the Garamond family retriever, Beagle, who growls at him each time he sees him. Alex is confused and desperate, but, at the same time, he’s kind of fascinated by his new life and family. There are some great things about being Flip (being popular at school is one.  Having any number of girlfriends is another), but he’d rather be himself again. Flip’s family and friends are bewildered by his new habits (really his old habits), and it’s funny to watch Alex having to deal with a body that doesn’t work the same way his own does. When he abandons cricket and hanging out with his crude friends, his buddies are really worried. Then he falls for a sensitive, intelligent girl. Alex finds other people on the internet who have experienced what they call psychic evacuation –when a soul leaves a body and enters another body, usually because of the imminent death of their own body. I’ve watched lots of movies that involve people swapping bodies, but it’s always with someone they know. It’s really intriguing to watch Alex try to navigate a life as someone he’s never met, and surrounded by people he doesn’t know. There’s plenty of suspense as Alex tries to figure out why his soul took over Flip’s body, and how he can get back into his own before it’s too late. Review by Stacy Church

Want To Read More Books Like Me, the Missing, and the Dead?

Here are some more books about life going on after a death in the family

Defining Dulcie by Paul Acampora

Boy2girl by Terence Blacker

Feels Like Home by e. E. Charlton-Trujillo

A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd

The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson

Let's Get Lost by Sarra Manning

Girlhearts by Norma Fox Mazer

After the Wreck, I Picked Myself up, Spread My Wings, and Flew away by Joyce Carol Oates.

Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb

A Gathering of Shades by David Stahler, Jr.

Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine

Jenny Valentine

Here’s what Harper Collins Publishers has to say about Jenny Valentine, author of Me, the Missing, and the Dead:

Jenny Valentine worked in a food shop for fifteen years, where she met many extraordinary people and sold more organic bread than there are words in her first book. She studied English literature at Goldsmith's College, which almost made her stop reading but not quite. Her debut novel, Me, the Missing, and the Dead, won the prestigious Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in the UK under the title Finding Violet Park. Jenny is married to a singer/songwriter and has two children. She lives in Hay on Wye, England.

When asked in an interview by The Bookbag what her inspiration for the book was, Valentine said:

Ah, well I knew a lady called Eileen when I was nineteen and she was about eighty. She was the first disgracefully behaved old lady I had ever met and I thought she was brilliant. When she died she was cremated and her ashes were left on a shelf - not a mini cab office - but somewhere very odd. The difference is I don't think Eileen minded, but Violet does.

This Month’s Book: Me, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine

This is a story about looking for clues to solve one mystery, only to find that the solution is inextricably linked to the central mystery of your life. The story starts with Lucas finding “a tenner” in his coat pocket after staying too late at his friend’s house and deciding to take a cab home. In the mini-cab office, he sees an urn up on a shelf and when he asks about it, is told that it was left in a cab 18 months ago. Lucas can’t stop thinking about the abandoned urn; in fact, he thinks the inhabitant is talking to him. He finds out her name is Violet Park, and he concocts a plan with his grandmother, Pansy, (who swears all the time, but without actually saying the word, “just mouths it with her face screwed up”) to liberate Violet from her purgatory. One of the things I really love about this book is how detailed and original the descriptions are. For instance, when Lucas is looking out over the heath, unable to sleep: That part of the heath is covered with enormous crows. They’ve got massive feet like they can’t believe how big they are. They all look like actors with their hands behind their backs, rehearsing the bit in that play when the king says, “Now is the winter of our discontent…” Lucas’s family is pretty messed up –his father disappeared five years ago, and they’ve never been able to move on. Lucas idolizes his father, which drives his mother insane, and his sister is just angry. Lucas has quite a funny voice, and the story is broken up by lists, such as this one about parents. “You start off thinking they own the world, and everything is downhill from there. Parents do so many things to wake you up to the idea that they are less than perfect.

• Speak like they think teenagers speak (always wrong, excruciatingly wrong).
• Get drunk too quickly or too much.
• Be rude to people they don’t know.
• Flirt with your teacher and your friends..
• Forget their age.
• Use their age against you.
• Get piercings.
• Wear leather trousers (both sexes).
• Drive badly (without admitting it).
• Cook badly (ditto).
• Go to seed.
• Sing in the shower/car/public.
• Don’t say sorry when they’re wrong.
• Shout at you or each other.
• Hit you or each other.
• Steal from you or each other.
• Lie to you or each other.
• Tell dirty jokes in front of your friends.
• Give you grief in front of your friends.
• Try to be your mate when it suits them.”

As I’ve already hinted, by the end of the book, Lucas has solved more than one mystery, and has come to some sort of peace with the world, and his mother especially.  Review by Stacy Chur

What Inspired Chris Wooding To Write The Haunting…?

The story came out of the scenery really. I had just moved to London from Leicester (where I’d returned after Uni in Sheffield), and I absolutely hated it. I just couldn’t get on with the Underground, the unbelievable amount of time it took to get anywhere, the sheer size and riotous expense of the place. The dark, perpetually foggy and dangerous city in the book was just an exaggeration of what I felt, and the rest fell out from there. It started as a riff on how much I disliked living in London, mixed in with a bunch of H.P.Lovecraft that I was heavily into at the time, and somewhere along the line it developed subtext, themes and even, dare I say, a message. –from http://www.chriswooding.com

This month’s book: The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding

This is a very creepy book. It's set in London in what appears to be the 19th century, but none of the events described in the story have any real place in history. In this parallel London, the city was bombed and nearly destroyed by a German airship fleet, and in the ensuing years becomes overrun by wych-kin, supernatural monsters that prey on human beings. The only protection comes from wych-hunters who use ancient rituals to track them and kill them. Thaniel Fox is a 17-year-old wych-hunter who learned the craft from his father, and then his mentor, Cathaline. The book opens with Thaniel chasing a Cradlejack (much more dangerous than it sounds: it's like a vampire that preys on babies) into an abandoned building where he stumbles across a crazed young woman who attacks him and then collapses. He takes her home, and with Cathaline's help, tries to unravel her mystery. The only thing she remembers is her name: Alaizabel Cray. Cathaline surrounds her room with talismans to ward off any evil pursuers, but Alaizabel insists that during the night something cold, wet and horrible tried to get into her room, even though no one else heard or felt anything. Is she insane or is something really trying to get her? Thaniel and Cathaline soon realize that the girl they saved is the key to a conspiracy that could bring the ultimate evil into the world. Along the way, they join forces with the vagrants, pickpockets and other unsavory people who inhabit the Old Quarter, an area of London most people avoid. Besides the wych-kin and wolves that inhabit the Old Quarter, there's also the serial killer Stitch-face, clearly modelled on Jack the Ripper. This is a real page-turner, but don't read it unless you have a strong stomach for gore. Review by Stacy Church

Favorite Quotes from The Edenville Owls

“In bad weather, especially when it was raining and windy, I used to like to go down to the empty bandstand and sit in it alone, protected by the pointed roof, and look at the way the rain and the wind made the harbor look.” (page 23)

“There was something in his voice, like a piece of broken glass.” (page 31)

“I wondered if it was a sin to think about her with her clothes off.  I hoped it was only a venial sin.  I mean, guys thought about stuff like that.” (page 33)

“Well, so far I’ve lied and broken my word and skipped school and broken into Miss Delaney’s house,” I said  “I mean, am I a good guy or a bad guy?” (;age 108)

Review of Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

I have to confess, I put off reading this because I thought, “Oh, no, another paranormal romance book,” so I was pleasantly surprised when I finally gave in and started it.  I really enjoyed it!  It’s not about vampires, werewolves or other spirits; it’s about angels.  Clara has just recently started to have the vision, the vision that will tell her what her purpose is.  “All angel-bloods have purposes of different types –some are messengers, some witnesses, some meant to comfort, some just doing things that cause other things to happen –but guardian has a nice ring to it  It feels particularly angelic.”  She sees a bit more of the vision each time she has it, and her mom quizzes her carefully to try to tease out enough information so she can help Clara fulfill her purpose.  Despite her mom’s close attention to the development of Clara’s angelic qualities, she is strangely reticent on sharing her own history and information about angels in general.  It’s not until Clara finds out her new friend Angela (at the school Clara goes to now that her mom moved them to Wyoming where she thinks Clara needs to be for her purpose) is an angel, too, that Clara starts to get some real facts about her own kind, including Black Wings, or fallen angels.  Well, you knew there had to be a good vs evil battle, right?  I think my favorite thing is the description of Clara when she kisses the boy she cares about and experiences glory –“…then I realize that it’s too bright in there, too bright for the shady dark of the barn, and the light’s coming from me, radiating off me in waves.  I’m in glory.”  Even though this is the first book of a planned trilogy, it’s not too much of a cliff-hanger.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

It’s hard to find any word other than inspirational to describe Van Draanen’s book about a 16-year-old runner whose leg has to be amputated after her track team’s bus is involved in a terrible accident.  Jessica goes through all the stages you would expect a teen (or anyone else) to go through, but the author moves the story along, focusing just the right amount on the difficulties she faces.  Her parents are just as devastated as she is, but they manage to hide from Jessica the financial trouble they are in because of the school’s attempt to deflect responsibility. After Jessica goes back to school, her track coach shows her YouTube videos of runners with prosthetic legs, and she begins to think that maybe she can run again after all.  The cost is prohibitive, but the team is determined to raise the money, and even convinces Jessica to let herself be photographed in shorts, showing her temporary prosthesis, which looks like a pipe.  There’s a side story of Jessica becoming friends with a girl in her math class who has cerebral palsy  Jessica has always looked right through her before, but now that she has to share her table in the back of the room, realizes that she is a smart, funny math genius.  Like everything else in the book, this could come off as cliched, but Van Draanen pulls it off.  This is a great story of how someone’s life can go on after a terrible tragedy, and in fact can be even better than before.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel

Here I am writing reviews of two horror books in a row, when I don’t usually like horror.  Well, this one is a graphic novel, so there’s more to appeal to me than with the usual horror story.  I found this book really charming.  The story begins with Frank Gallows, a sort of has-been ghost catcher who tracks down ghosts who have snuck back to earth from the afterlife, accidentally zapping Garth Hale into the ghost world when he was trying to capture a living dinosaur skeleton.  Frank zaps both of them, and Garth names the dinosaur “skinny” and rides him around the afterlife trying to escape other marauding dinosaurs, and eventually the evil Vaugner who has taken over the rule of the afterlife with the help of some giant bugs.  Ok, it sounds ridiculous, and the story is much too confusing to try to explain, but the artwork is great, there’s romance, suspense, lots of gory fights and killing…what more could you ask for in a graphic novel?  Review by Stacy Church

Review of Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck

I’m not usually a big fan of horror books, but this one really was “chilling and compulsively readable” as the inside flap says. Kerry Williamson has always felt she was invisible at school, but it never mattered to her until this year, sophomore year, because her best friend went off to boarding school.  Now she has lunch by herself every day, watching the three most popular girls (Tanya, Natalie and Makenzie) and listening in on their conversations, until the day they invite her to sit with them.  Now, most girls who have such a true perspective on their own position in the social hierarchy would be suspicious enough to protect themselves, but Kerry lets herself be drawn into their circle, even when they involve her in a plot on Halloween to play a creepy “prank” on another girl at school by breaking into her house and leaving a bloody baby doll on her pillow.  It’s all downhill from there, and you can’t stop reading until finally you find yourself in the middle of a scene where Kerry is roller-skating with a bunch of dead girls in an apartment in New York City, dressed in bizarre prom outfits (“Tanya’s billowing skirts. Natalie’s peekaboo black bra and red satin dress. Makenzie in lace and leg warmers”) If you like horror, you’ll definitely like this one, and you’ll probably like it even if horror isn’t your usual cup of tea.  Review by Stacy Church

Want To Read More Novels about Basketball?

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Try one of these:

The Perfect Shot by Elaine Marie Alphin

In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle by Madeleine Blais

On the Devil's Court by Carl Deuker

Night Hoops by Carl Deuker

Tears of a Tiger by Sharon M. Draper

Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems by Mel Glenn

Rebound by Bob Krech

Hoops by Walter Dean Myers

Slam! by Walter Dean Myers

Game by Walter Dean Myers

Ball Don't Lie by Matt de la Peña

Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws by Janette Rallison

The Hoopster by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

Black and White by Paul Volponi

Rucker Park Setup by Paul Volponi

Playing without the Ball: A Novel in Four Quarters by Rich Wallace

Review of The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood

I have to say I’m not sure how I feel about this one.  I liked the beginning: Jessamine keeps a diary of her lonely life with her father in a remote cottage in Northumberland.  Her father, Thomas Luxton, isn’t a doctor, or a butcher (what he calls surgeons), but when people are sick, they send for him  He is called an apothecary, but he considers himself a gardener, nevermind that many of the plants he grows are poisonous.  In fact, he has a special walled garden that’s kept locked, which is full of all varieties of poisonous plants.  Jessamine’s life changes when the local owner of an insane asylum drops off a strange, orphaned teenaged boy who’s accused of curing the inmates of their madness.  It’s hard to believe that in that time period (late 18th century?) Jessamine’s father would have left her alone in the cottage for days at a time with a boy her own age, but it’s more believable when you realize later in the story that he has nefarious plans for them.  Thomas Luxton would give anything to learn ancient secrets of healing plants that have been lost through the ages, and it appears that the foundling boy, Weed, somehow has that knowledge.  The story gets pretty wild, but it’s certainly suspenseful.  I would have to call this a fantasy since the plants talk to weed, and Prince Oleander, the Prince of Poison, is masterminding it all.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of Trash by Andy Mulligan

I loved this book!  The story is told in a number of different voices, as each person tells of their involvement and contribution to the development of the drama.  Behala is a rubbish-town, populated by dumpsite boys (and adults).  People live in boxes, stacked up high; of course no one has running water or toilets.  Dumpsite boys spend their days (and often their nights, too) picking through the trash, looking for plastic, paper, tin cans, cloth or rags.  There’s a Mission School, and even though most of the kids have to work instead of attend, Father Julliard and Olivia try to watch out for them, giving them the occasional bit of money or food.  The day everything changed started with Gardo and Raphael finding something unusual –a small leather bag containing a wallet, a folded-up map and a key.  They’re just happy to have the money, but when the police come to Behala questioning everyone about whether anyone has found anything unusual, they start to realize that there’s more to the story than just some lost money.  The boys can’t let it go until they find out what it’s all about, and they enlist the help of a boy named Rat who’s shunned by pretty much everyone in Behala to help them hide what they found.  There’s murder, political corruption, embezzlement, and a code that can only be cracked by visiting a dying man in prison.  It’s a great story, and uplifting to read about boys growing up such crushing poverty displaying such heart and courage.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins

This is another well-written story by Mitali Perkins, this time set during the conflict in Burma (renamed Myanmar) between the military rulers and the ethnic minority Karenni.  Chiko is a book-smart boy trying to avoid being forced into the military like most boys his age.  Tu Reh is a Karenni refugee who hates the Burmese soldiers for burning his home.  Chiko responds to an ad in the paper for boys who want to becomes teachers, but finds that instead it is a trap to force boys to serve the military government.  The two boys are destined to meet, and through their relationship, work through their feelings about what’s going on in their country.  I won’t say there’s a happy ending, but both boys show great courage and heart.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of Life, After by Sarah Darer Littman

Life, After is a window into a culture and time period that I knew almost nothing about –Argentina during “the Crisis" in the late 1990’s, when the nation’s banks failed.  People left Argentina after losing everything, many of them were Jews who emigrated to Israel, or the US.  Dani’s home life is miserable –her mother works long hours at the hospital to try to support the family after they lost the family business.  Her father is depressed, and only comes out of his depression to yell at Dani and her younger sister.  Her aunt died in a terrorist bombing when Dani was 7, and her father has never gotten over it.  Dani’s best friend left for Israel.  She does have a boyfriend (her novio), but his family decides to move to Miami.  After Dani’s mother was injured in a protest outside her hospital, she finally convinces Dani’s father that they should move to America, too.  Although some parts of the story seem too pat (how quickly Dani makes new friends and finds a new boyfriends in America, and how her dad’s depression lifts so completely once he decides to take medication), I really enjoyed Life, After for it’s portrayal of what life in Argentina was like –the food, the political history, the family values, and the difficulties Dani faces as she tries to fit into a new school in a new country.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

I guess Ship Breaker is technically classified as science fiction, because there are creatures called half-men that are engineered to be part human, part tiger and part dog.  Its set in a futuristic world, which, because of its bleakness, seems post-apocalyptic, but I guess that’s just how things turn out to be.  Nailer scavenges copper wiring from wrecked clipper ships, but he knows that as soon as he grows too big to fit into the passages his usefulness will be over.  His father is a foul-tempered bully whose temperament is made worse by the drugs (crystal meth?) he uses.  Nailer thinks he’s found a way out of the poverty and drudgery of his life when he and his crew-mate Pima find a newly wrecked clipper ship.  They plan to take all the salvage and keep it to themselves.  As they’re pawing through the wreckage, they come upon the body of a girl, crushed under the weight of furniture, but as they go to cut off her fingers to get the rings she wears, her black eyes blink.  Pima is all for finishing her off, but somehow Nailer just can’t do it.  His decision to save the girl changes the course of his life, for better or worse it’s hard to tell.  The savagery of Nailer’s world is well told in this story, but there’s plenty of heart, too, and a really interesting rendering of how New Orleans evolves after the hurricane.    Ship Breaker kind of reminds me of Salt by Maurice Gee. It’s pretty clear that Bacigalupi has left the door open for a sequel.  Review by Stacy Church

This month’s book: Edenville Owls by Robert B. Parker

This book has it all: drama, suspense, sports, history, romance.  Bobby and his friends play basketball, but since their junior high school doesn’t have a gym, they are an unofficial team –no coach, no uniforms, and they hitchhike to most of the games.  When Bobby finds out there’s an extra slot in the local tournament, the Owls really get down to it.  Bobby starts hanging around the high school practices to see how they practice, and he tries to get the Owls to do the same drills.  The suspense comes into play with their new (and attractive) teacher, Miss Delaney.  One day when Bobby is staying after school for detention, he looks out the window and sees a man threatening Miss Delaney. He scares the guy off by yelling out the window, but he just can’t let it go until he finds out who the man is and why he’s hassling Miss Delaney.  The ensuing surveillance turns up Nazi connections (the book takes place just at the end of WW II), a secret marriage and a phony identity.  The romance comes with Bobby’s best friend, Joanie, who Bobby maybe has more feelings for than he realized.  The Owls are great friends –always there for each other, even when they clash about what to do on the basketball court or who is Joanie’s boyfriend.  If you’ve read any of Parker’s adult novels about the detective Spenser, you’ll recognize his character in the young Bobby.  There’s a ton of historical information inserted in separate sections of the book that really set the scene of the time period.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of Flirt Club by Cathleen Daly

If you love Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, this is the book for you.  Flirt Club consists mostly of letters back and forth between Isabelle and Annie (also known as Cisco and the Bean), with a few journal entries thrown in for good measure.  Cisco and the Bean share the hilarious disability of being unable to flirt with boys. As Bean (Agent #66) writes to Cisco (Agent #88) “SO, I think our next undercover, secret-agent-girl operation should be learning how to FLIRT!  What do you think, No. 88? …let’s see if we can adopt identities that don’t clam up, blush, stutter, sputter, and basically run away and die around boys…Write me back if you can, my little pork chop.”  The writing is very funny, and of course, the voices of the two girls are much too clever to be the voices of two actual girls, but that’s ok because it’s so darn funny.  At the end of the first meeting, here’s what the girls wrote:

“In Conclusion/Things we have learned at Flirt Club:

1.Smiling,questions/showing interest are a good start. (The worst thing that can happen is that someone feels cared about.)

2. Hair flipping is not a good approach for either of us.

3. I am considering throwing things (that don’t hurt) at an ADT (Actual Designated Target).

Review by Stacy Church

Review of Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castellucci

  Despite a somewhat melodramatic beginning, this is a really engaging story about two teen-aged girls living in New York City: Rose, an American girl and Yrena, a Russian girl.  They’ve lived next door to each other for a couple of years, and although Rose and her brother, Todd, see Yrena in the mornings (they leave for school at the same time), and Rose and Yrena have watched each other through their bedroom windows, they’ve never met until the evening Yrena climbs through Rose’s bedroom window and is suddenly there.  Rose’s brother spends a lot of time fantasizing about Yrena, and they’ve both made jokes about the KGB and CIA agents who stand watch outside Yrena’s house, It’s the 1980’s, and the Cold War is on between Russia and the US.  Rose goes to Performing Arts High School where she studies ballet.  Yrena studies ballet also, but has no passion for it, although her dancing is brilliant.  The entire book takes place in the 24 hours after Yrena comes to Rose’s house –they sneak out to join some other Performing Arts students on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art because Yrena wants to go to a real American party.  The funny thing is that Rose is completely withdrawn socially.  She decided to go to Performing Arts HS even though her best friend, Daisy, told her their friendship was over if she didn’t go to Science with her.  For once Rose stood up for herself and decided to do what she loved, which was dance.  She’s so afraid of being hurt in another friendship that she makes no effort to make any friends at her new school, and it’s only because she’s trying to show Yrena a good tiime that she gets out of the house.  The girls’ disappearance practically causes an international incident.  Rose Sees Red opens a window into a time period not written about very often in children’s or young adult literature, and readers will probably find it hard to believe that Russia and the US were so openly distrustful of each other.  Review by Stacy Church

‘

Review of Cloaked by Alex Flinn

Not a lot of books can carry off a story based around a teenaged shoe repairman, but that part of the story isn’t the problem with Cloaked.  I love the details about Johnny’s life running his family’s shoe repair business in a swanky hotel in Miami.  Johnny’s family is poor, especially since his dad disappeared, and he’s trying to keep things going so his mom can pay the rent, and, he knows a lot about shoes.  It’s not often you hear a teenaged boy talk about Manolo Blahniks.  And on the sly he designs his own shoes and makes up models with the scraps of leather left over from repairs.  The problem with the story comes more with the fairy tale aspect.  Of course there’s a quest, with the promise of the visiting princess’s hand in marriage if he can find the frog her brother was turned into by the evil witch.  The princess’s accent is tiresome.  The talking swans are cool (they used to be human, so with special earbuds Johnny can understand what they’re saying).  I don’t mind the travelling cloak, or how clueless Johnny is about who he really likes.  But honestly, the plot is so hard to follow there were times when I went back and reread to see if I missed something that would explain what was going on.  I enjoyed the first half of the book, so maybe if you’re a big fan of Alex Flinn’s other books, you can hang in there through the whole thing.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of See What I See by Gloria Whelan

Gloria Whelan’s latest book tells the story of Kate Tapert as she prepares to leave home to attend a prestigious art school where she has won a full scholarship.  No one knows that her father is the famous Dalton Quinn, a reclusive people-hating artist who has fallen into obscurity.  Dalton left Kate and her mom years before, and her mom is distraught when Kate tells her she plans to live with Dalton while she attends school.  The truth is that Kate wrote to Dalton, but never heard back from him.  Showing up on his doorstep unannounced is just one of the bad decisions Kate makes.  She finds out firsthand how nasty he can be, but when she learns (by snooping in his bedroom) how sick he is, she decides she has to stay and take care of him.  Although I enjoyed reading See What I See, I often found myself questioning how realistic it was for Kate to be making the choices she made: lying to her mother about what was going on, giving up her own work to help her father get ready for one last show.  I don’t think this is Gloria Whelan’s best, but it’s still worth reading.  Review by Stacy Church

About Melissa Glenn Haber

“When I was writing The Pluto Project, for example, one of the main challenges I had in revision was making the two main female characters different from one another. While I was first writing the book, I didn’t really distinguish clearly between their characters. My editor helped me see that the two girls were really very different—one of them, Alice, was very smart, unsentimental, and a great match for the main character, Alan, while the other, Juliet (the one Alan likes) is committed, passionate, but not exceptionally bright. Once I realized my editor was right, I found lots of places where I had given Juliet dialog that really belonged to Alice, and I began to see that the brilliant ideas Juliet had really needed to come from other characters. And doing that made the book much richer, because it adds to the story that Alan (who really values wit and intelligence) should find himself attracted to someone for her passion and not for her brains. Plus, it makes the book more real, to have supporting characters who are really their own people.”

To read the full interview with the author of The Pluto Project check out her website http://www.melissaglennhaber.com/oaqs.php

More Books about Teens as Detectives

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery by Abrahams

Rat Life by Arnold

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Berk

The Musician's Daughter by Dunlap

The Christopher Killer: A Forensic Mystery by Ferguson

The Dying Breath: A Forensic Mystery by Ferguson

Something Rotten: A Horatio Wilkes Mystery by Gratz

Lulu Dark Can See through Walls by Madison

The Venetian Policeman by Rabb

The Death Collector by Richards

In Too Deep by Rushford

From Charlie's Point of View by Scrimger

Live and Let Shop by Spradlin

Creature of the Night by Thompson

The Uninvited by Wynne-Jones

Review of The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman

Reading this book reminds me of why I love Pete Hautman (author of Godless, Rash, Sweetblood).  The writing is terrific: quirky, funny, believable.  The Big Crunch is divided into four sections, one for each season, and it follows the relationship of Wes and June.  June is the new girl at school, a role she knows all too well.  Her father is a workout specialist, which isn’t what you would think –he’s hired to come in and help companies that are in trouble get out of trouble.  So most of his jobs are temporary, and June’s mom and dad have a number of annoying phrases they use to try to get June on board with having to move all the time, things like, “There is no reverse gear in time machine.”  Wes spends the first part of the book running away from June, who he calls Aqua Girl because of the color of her eyes.  She tries to stay away from him, too, because her goal is to not get too attached to anyone.  In other words, find an ok, boring, but nice, boyfriend, who in this case is Wes’s best friend, Jerry.  Of course once Wes and June get together, it blows the friendship apart, and then June’s dad has to move for a new job, and she doesn’t even get to finish the year at her new high school.  Hautman gets the push/pull of Wes and June’s relationship just right.  One minute they’re doing crazy things so that they can be together, and the next minute they’re wondering what the heck they’re doing.  Even while you root for them to work everything out, you know how unlikely it is, given all the circumstances (including their age) conspiring against them.  Still, the ending is about as hopeful as you could ask for.  Review by Stacy Church

This month’s book: The Pluto Project by Melissa Glenn Haber

This book isn’t new, but somehow I just discovered it.  14-year-old Alan works hard at being unobtrusive (just one of the words his favorite teacher, Mrs. Perry, uses to describe him, others being misanthrope, cynic, curmudgeon), trying not to get noticed by Rory Frankel and his gang, who spend most of their time beating up Morris Kaufman, just like they have since elementary school.  Alan lives in a big empty house, almost empty even of furniture, with his dad and his aunt Trish, who moved in after his mother died.  Alan and his group of friends spend a lot of time hanging around in a culvert by the side of a road, listening to the conversations of passersby, and pretending to solve crimes by discovering clues to the activities of CRAP, Conspiracy Rule American People. “The whole thing had all started off as a joke.  Of course it still was a joke, but not the way it had been when they’d first started the game…”  In fact, Alan comes to believe it isn’t a joke at all, when he thinks they’ve heard a conversation linked to the assassination of the governor.  Alan is amazing at finding meaning in lines of poetry at school, and he becomes obsessed with finding meaning in the clues he discovers in the culvert.  I’ve just learned there’s a word for this: pariedolia, which means the tendency to ascribe meaning to random stimuli. Alan also becomes obsessed with the new girl at school, Juliet (“like the play), and as his obsession grows, he neglects his other friends.  Alan’s home life is pretty terrible, and the pressure of his father forcing his new girlfriend, Cheryl, into Alan’s life, along with Alan’s belief that he is the only one who can stop another assassination attempt, pretty much drive him around the bend.  I love everything about this book –the characters, the suspense, the sadness, Alan’s poetic interpretations.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

The cover of The Replacement definitely wins the contest for creepiest book cover ever.  No one else at the library even wanted to hear me talk about the story after seeing the cover. Now I, on the other hand, love the cover, and it really matches the creepiness of the tale inside.  Mackie Doyle is different than everyone else in the small dismal town of Gentry.  Even though it says right on the cover that he’s a replacement (a changeling, if you will), it takes a while for the reader to really understand what that means.  Apparently, the town of Gentry has a dirty secret that no one has spoken out loud about for a long time, and Mackie is determined to make them face it.  Because he’s the one replacement who didn’t die young like he was supposed to.  Mackie can’t live with the horrors of his life anymore –his sickness at the smell of blood, the way his skin burns if he goes onto consecrated ground (awkward since his dad is a minister) – and he can’t stand watching other people suffer, like his classmate Tate, whose baby sister has just gone missing, so he finds his way underground to Mayhem and wages war with all kinds of demons to save the town of Gentry from their grasp.  The underworld creatures are so creepy, and there’s romance, too.  I don’t usually like horror books, but the combination with fantasy kept me from putting this one down.  Review by Stacy Church

Is It Really Reading?

Here’s a question for you:  If you read a wordless graphic novel like The Arrival, is it really reading?  What does “reading” really mean, anyway?  Well, here are the first four definitions of “read” according to dictionary.com

–verb (used with object)

1. to look at carefully so as to understand the meaning of (something written, printed, etc.): to read a book; to read music.

2. to utter aloud or render in speech (something written, printed, etc.): reading a story to his children; The actor read his lines in a booming voice.

3. to have such knowledge of (a language) as to be able to understand things written in it: to be able to read french.

4. to apprehend the meaning of (signs, characters, etc.) otherwise than with the eyes, as by means of the fingers: to read braille.

So I’d say yes, reading The Arrival really is reading.

Favorite Quotes from Shaun Tan

I think stories that represent the world as hopeless or dark are valid and some of them I really enjoy but the truth is that there is hopefulness in every situation.

Drawing a good picture is like telling a really good lie – the key is in the incidental detail.

--http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/27/shaun-tan-unexpected-details

All fiction is false; what makes it convincing is that it runs alongside the truth.

I just find myself strongly attracted, in an empathetic way, to images of isolated figures moving through vast, often confounding landscapes.

I would go so far as to say that all art and literature is about some kind of disconnection, brokenness or discrepancy.

I'm very interested in things that are overlooked, and in trying to find value in things that are not considered valuable.

--http://www.bookslut.com/features/2009_07_014748.php

Want To Read More Books about Immigration?

Check out these titles about the immigrant experience:

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Fresh off the Boat by de la Cruz

Threads and Flames by Friesner

Uprising by Haddix

Voss: How I Come to America and Am Hero, Mostly by Ives

Someone like Summer: A Novel by Kerr

Life, After by Littman

Riot by Myers

A Step from Heaven by Na

Habibi by Nye

The Night of the Burning: Devorah's Story by Wulf

Learning To Fly by Yee

This month’s book: The Arrival by Shaun Tan

What a pleasure to come back to this book!  The Arrival is a graphic novel completely without words (unless you count the ones in an imaginary language). The setting it futuristic, but the artwork is all sepia tones and distressed-looking pages.  The beginning is heart-breaking: the first pictures are of household items, then a family picture, then you see the picture being wrapped and packed in a suitcase, then a picture of a wife with her hand over her husband’s hand on top of the suitcase, and it’s clear that they’re very sad.  The husband tries to comfort his wife and daughter as they see him off at a train, and the wife and child return to a city overshadowed by some kind of danger, represented by a serpent-like tail.  In Part II we see the man on an ocean journey with many other people.  They arrive to a scene much like Ellis Island –long lines, physical exams and paperwork.  Then you finally get a glimpse of the city the man has arrived in.  The artwork is amazing, and clearly shows how strange and disorienting the city is for the new arrival.  Many people have pets, all amazing fantastical creatures, and a particularly adorable one, who becomes his constant companion, is waiting for him in the room he rents.  Part III follows the man as he tries to find work.  He encounters people who help him, and each of their stories is told in a series of images.  Most of the people are fleeing terrible things.  In Part IV he tries a few jobs, and is told more personal stories of other immigrants.  In Part V he sends for his family, who come to join him in the new land.  The books ends with his daughter passing on to a new arrival the kindness shown to her father when he arrived in the new land.  There are parts of the book I don’t understand (what is the dragontail menacing his old land?), but some things I understand better as I read the book over again.  The Arrival conveys the new immigrant’s bewilderment at his new surroundings better than any book with words ever could.  Review by Stacy Church