This month’s book now in! Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd

This month’s book, a wonderful story of a boy growing up on the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland, is now available for pickup in the Young Adult Dept.  Review to follow.

75 belongings

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I’ve been mulling over Larry’s claim to only have 75 belongings.  I think he was cheating, because he didn’t have to count any of the things that belonged to his parents, but which he used to make his life comfortable on a daily basis.  I know, I know, he did go live in that hole in the ground, but that was only temporary.  Now here are the things that I would have trouble doing without.  I would add books, but instead I’ll have a library card, which will give me access to endless numbers of books, magazines, etc.  Theoretically,  I could use the computers there, too, but I’d really rather have my own. 

Stacy’s Review of The Gospel According to Larry

I first read this book right after it came out in 2001 (wow, that was 8 years ago!) and absolutely loved it.  I eagerly awaited the publication of the sequels and devoured them as well.  I chose the book for this month’s selection at the urging of some teens who love it, and I was so happy to find that on rereading, I enjoyed it just as much as the first time.  Of course the set-up of having the author pretend that the book they’re publishing is someone else’s manuscript given to them for safekeeping has been used before, but it does work for Tashjian, and is pretty much necessary for the way she wraps up the story.  The main character, Larry, is funny, and for me it’s totally believable that a dorky high-school kid would set up a web site where he could publish his own personal rants about society.  It’s also believable that people would stumble on the web site and take it to heart, particularly when the subject is anti-consumerism.  And poor Larry, all he really wants to do is move from friends with his best friend, Beth, to something else.  Some parts of the story are not so believable (would any teen, even a dork, sit at the make-up counter in a department store to talk to his dead mother?), but are entertaining enough to overlook the believability factor.  And really, an underground room that he dug himself?  Didn’t anyone ever tell him about the dangers of a cave-in? I love the photos of Larry’s possessions that he posts on his website to see if the clues can lead anyone to guess his identity.

This month’s book: The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian

Available now in the Young Adult Dept. I’ll post the review soon!

Fantasy Trilogies

Sometimes nothing beats a good trilogy. Try some of these other great fantasy trilogies.

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Juvenile

• N.E. Bode – The Anybodies
• Kevin Crossley-Holland- Arthur
• Nancy Farmer – Sea of Trolls
• Susan Fletcher – Dragon Chronicles
• Cornelia Funke- Inkheart
• Charlotte Haptie – Karmidee
• Brian Jacques – Castaways of the Flying Dutchman
• Elizabeth Kay – The Divide
• R.L. La Fevers – Lowthars Blade
• Katherine Langrish - Troll
• Tanith Lee – Dragonflight
• Tanith Lee - Unicorns
• Ann McCaffrey – Harper Hall
• Cliff McNish - Silver
• Cliff McNish - Doomspell
• William Mayne – Hob
• Ian Oglivy – Measle Stubbs
• Christopher Paolini – Inheritance
• Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials
• Guillaume Prevost – Book of Time
• Emily Rodda – Deltora Shadowland
• Kate Thompson – Missing Link
• Kate Thompson - Switchers
• Megan Whalen Turner – Thief
• Anne Ursu – Cronus Chronicles
• Jane Yolen – Young Merlin

Young Adult

• Hilari Bell – Farsala
• Holly Black – The Good Neighbors
• Holly Black - Modern Fairy Tales
• Terry Brooks – Genesis of Shannara
• Terry Brooks - Original Shannara
• Terry Brooks - Voyage of Jerle Shannara
• Terry Brooks - High Druid of Shannara
• Michael Cadnum – Book of the Lion
• Kate Constable –Chanter of Tremaris
• Clare Dunkle – Hollow Kingdom
• Catherine Fisher – Oracle Prophecies
• Geoffrey Huntington – Ravenscliff
  
• Justin Larbalestier – Magic or Madness
• Juliet Marillier – Bridei’s Court
• William Nicholson – Noble Warriors
• Garth Nix - Abhorsen
• Tamora Pierce – Beka Cooper
• Tamora Pierce - Daughter of the Lioness
• Sherwood Smith - Wren
• Jane Yolen – Tartan Magic

Bart’s Guide to London

Bartimeaus’s Guide to London, from the author’s website

http://www.bartimaeusbooks.com/bart_guide.html

This month’s book: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

This long, involved, original and exciting fantasy is the first book of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, and is set in an alternate London, during a time when England is in the power of magicians who hold all government offices. The one dirty little secret that magicians don’t want the commoners to know is that on their own they have no power at all. What little power they do have is gained through the various demons (efrits, djinnis and other spirits) they summon and control with elaborate rituals and protections that force the demons into servitude. Nathaniel is a boy who was sold by his parents at the age of six into apprenticeship to a pompous and stuffy mediocre bureaucrat, Arthur Underwood, who doesn’t see the boy’s exceptional talents. Underwood tutors Nathaniel in magic, but as the pace is so slow and boring, Nathaniel takes the initiative to advance his education behind his master’s back. When he is ten Nathaniel suffers a very public humiliation by an up-and-coming politician Simon Lovelace. He takes revenge by using some of secretly gained knowledge to summon a powerful 5,000-year-old djinn named Bartimaeus. He instructs Bartimaeus to steal an artifact called the Amulet of Samarkand from Lovelace. Little does Nathaniel know that Lovelace himself stole the Amulet (and killed its original owner) and will stop at nothing to get it back. Lovelace has big plans for all of England that involve the Amulet (think overthrow of the government). As if Nathaniel doesn’t have enough problems, he finds out that Bartimaeus has learned his real name, which makes it possible Bartimaeus to gain his freedom from Nathaniel, and to take his revenge on him.

The story is told in alternating chapters: a third-person narrative about Nathaniel (not a sympathetic character by any means, being whiny and self-absorbed), and first-person by Bartimaeus, who is cynical, wise-cracking, and has an extraordinarily high opinion of himself. Bartimaeus’s chapters are filled with very funny footnotes explaining the finer points of magic, details about different planes of existence, types of demons, and the history of magic and the world. Don’t be tempted to skip the footnotes; they’re my favorite part of the book. Review by Stacy Church