I am attempting to dive back into YA lit (and book reviews), but it’s not going great. So far this is pretty mediocre and contains a lot of plot points that have suddenly become mandatory in young adult literature: semi-appealing teenage female (Clary) feels boring and normal and is somehow unaware that her male BFF (Simon) is lusting after her, and, even though he would probably care for her unnaturally well and love her forever, she is instead drawn to a murderer (the main supernatural character, Jace. At least he looks like an angel and acts like an a**hole). Of course this (self-declaring) unattractive, moderately intelligent, semi-interesting female has a superpower that makes her inexplicably desirable to the “otherness” characters. I’m assuming this superpower will later be conveniently explained as a result of the absent parental figure providing the necessary DNA.

To its credit, the book tries to dive right into the action instead of dragging us through a back story that would also be unattractive, moderately intelligent, and semi-interesting; however, I would say it dives in a little too soon. There is a completely rushed exposition explaining all of the characters and how they know each other, and then suddenly people are being kidnapped, killed, and whisked into other dimensions (five, to be exact). At this point because I don’t care enough about the characters to suffer as they suffer. I feel like the author assumed we had read so many other books with the same plot that we would unconsciously feel support for Clary, pity for Simon, lust for Jace, and a strong desire that Clary and Jace would hook up, but I judge characters as I judge people: individually and based on consistent action. A singular slap does not a heroine make.

The blurb obnoxiously printed on the cover of the book is from Holly Black, declaring the book is funny, dark, and sexy. So far, on a scale of one (absolutely incorrect) to ten (bless you, Holly Black, you’re always right) the book reads as follows:

Funny: 1. Cliché, dull dialogue between teenagers trying to sound smarter than they are has failed to get me going for about, oh, ten years.

Dark: 3. Things killing and kidnapping other things, mostly children and their mothers? Sounds like another night watching public-access prime time.

Sexy: 0. Not even a whisper of sex. I’m at a point where I dearly hope I never have to encounter any of these characters having sex, and not just because they are all 15.

What? A princess
Me Yeah, right.
Mia Thermopolis is pretty sure there’s nothing worse than being a five-foot-nine, flat-chested freshman, who also happens to be flunking Algebra.
Is she ever in for a surprise.
First Mom announces that she’s dating Mia’s Algebra teacher. Then Dad has to go and reveal that he is the crown prince of Genovia. And guess who still doesn’t have a date for the Cultural Diversity Dance?

I can’t tell you how much I liked The Princess Diaries. Well, I guess I can.

As I mentioned before, I got this book as my first audiobook on Kindle through the library. I needed something to listen to in the bath, and since this is one of those books that everyone is supposed to have read, I really wanted to give it a try. I was honestly surprised at how much I liked it. Anne Hathaway reads this so well and shows the character of Mia the way she was intended. That’s the best part of this book; the character of Mia. While this is just the start of her journey as a princess, the voice of Mia was really endearing. She’s funny and clueless and overdramatic and you want to keep reading her diary. She’s a good role model too, so she’s definitely a positive female lead in a novel, even though it’s a pink cover and about a princess. I love books written as a journal or epistolary style as well – they just give you a nice, strong sense of who the character is and what they’re going through.

I know that it is a little predictable for Josh Richter, the cutest boy at school, to end up being a tool, and Lilly ending up being her best friend again after she sees what kind of crap Mia’s been going through. And Michael being the real object of Mia’s affection was totally obvious, but I loved that anyway. It had all the charm of a typical teenage movie. I have seen bits of the movie with Anne Hathaway, but I’ll have to watch it on Netflix this week to see if it really did the book justice.

A lot of fantasy books I’ve read are basically this whole idea of a young girl discovering she’s a princess. This is just done so much better than the books who sort of force you to feel bad for them, since they’ve inherited some magical kingdom or something. It’s no secret that I don’t love high fantasy, so a cute, contemporary, young adult novel really pleases me. I would most definitely read more of The Princess Diaries books in the series.

My info packet–and coffee, of course.

In her keynote speech at NESCBWI, Sharon Creech mentioned, “Words generate words.” She was talking about the act of inspiration, and how ideas come to you, but I think this is also a good lens with which to look at rest of the weekend. Enthusiasm sparks more enthusiasm, creativity creates more creativity.

Which is one reason I like going to conferences like NESCBWI. When you put a bunch of writers and illustrators in a room, our excitement and dedication and talents are amplified, which is a pretty cool thing to be a part of. Writing can be a very solitary business and even though the internet has made it easier to connect with like-minded people, you can’t beat the feeling of gathering in one place for a weekend.

Last year was my first at NESCBWI, so I didn’t really know anyone and was afraid of not having anyone to talk to. This year, I felt like I kept seeing people I knew, both from real life and from social media. I wasn’t just someone at a conference; I was part of a community, a vibrant community that supports its members.

Of course, I got to experience lots of great panels and workshops and speeches from awesome writers and illustrators. A few conference highlights:

• Great keynotes by Sharon Creech and Grace Lin. I want to take a poetry class with Creech, who quotes Rilke and Robert Frost and Walter Dean Myers in her speech. Creech also mentioned the importance of taking naps for inspiration–duly noted! And Grace Lin was so dynamic and enthusiastic. Not being an illustrator or picture book author, I didn’t expect to connect with her speech as much as I did, but she was honest and thoughtful and energetic. Between her humor, her spirit, and her talent, Lin’s one of the coolest people ever. (And she dresses snazzy, too!)

Lauren and Julia show off our awesome shirts.

• My critique group got matching t-shirts to celebrate member Tara Sullivan’s upcoming publication of Golden Boy. We rocked the guerrilla marketing.
• Very cool panel about the review process. Leila Roy of bookshelves of doom represented, which made me go all fangirl. Her blog has been a favorite since back before I knew I wanted to focus solely on writing YA. Also, very glad to hear that professional reviews really want to love every book they start, and that they want to find ways to connect books with potential readers.
• Workshopping first chapter/pages with Nova Ren Suma. She led a great session, and the other workshop attendees were all thoughtful critiquers. (Lots of us are trying to keep in touch online; can’t wait to see how all those first pages end up!)
• Great session on writing characters outside of your culture. It’s something several future novel ideas of mine involve, but I want to make sure I represent these characters and their backgrounds accurately and thoughtfully. One suggestion I liked was not to be afraid to go beyond the “romantic” parts of a culture, like holidays and folk traditions–get into the messiness of real life.
• On the social media side, one session about connecting with book bloggers (something I need to prepare for in the debut process) and making videos (something I should be doing now). My goal is to start a regular video feature here, so get ready for some visual aid.
• Getting to spend a weekend with my awesome critique group members, getting to see other friends and making new ones.

My critique group! Including one very new member who charms us with his smiles and tiny kicks. Image by Lauren M. Barrett.

Thanks so much to this year’s organizers for putting on a great conference. I’m already thinking of next year when might book might be out, too. Eee!

For more conference recap goodness, check out these other posts. If you went to NESCBWI this year and have a recap post/thoughts about the conference, please share in the comments.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

I listened to The Princess Diaries on the Kindle during our holiday to Liverpool this weekend. I’m almost finished with it. Such a cute book.

What did you recently finish reading?

Divergent was the last book I finished before the holiday. I still have to post a review for it on here.

What do you think you’ll read next?

I just got Along for the Ride online from the library for my Kindle this morning. I want to keep up with the non-fantasy, contemporary YA for a bit. I’ve had two Dessen books in the past that I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t finish. (Is it perfectly normal to be impressed with someone’s online presence as much as I am with Dessen’s?)

Happy Reading and Happy Wednesday!

Well, I think I found the book that’s finally catching my attention:

In Beatrice’s world, people are divided into five different factions. When they turn 16, they are given an aptitude test to determine which faction would be considered the best fit. The initiates don’t have to choose a faction based on their results, but it would seem to be the best fit for them. When Beatrice takes her test, she is told that she could fit in three different factions, a process never heard of before: A Divergent. In the end, Beatrice chooses the faction that best suits her, but at what cost?

I haven’t stopped reading it since I started it last night. I want to know what happens and if she’ll see her brother and parents ever again and what the secret of this dystopia is and how it’ll all come crumbling down.

]]> http://challengingthebookworm.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/time-between-us/ Wed, 08 May 2013 14:00:54 +0000 challengingthebookworm http://challengingthebookworm.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/time-between-us/ Title: Time Between Us
Author: Tamara Ireland Stone
Narrator: Amy Rubinate
ISBN: 9780307967862 (hardcover 9781423159568)
Discs/CDs: 8 CDs, 9 hours
Pages: 368 pages
Publisher/Date: Hyperiod, an imprint of Disney Book Group, c2012.

And while the thief is distracted by the contents of the safe, three things happen, so fast and overlapping that they seem to take place simultaneously. Bennet disappears completely, and suddenly he’s kneeling next to me on the floor. He grabs my hands and closes his eyes, and I must follow suit, because when I open them, the store is gone. The robber and his knife are gone. And Bennett and I are in the exact same positions–him kneeling, me sitting, still holding each other’s hands–only now we’re next to a tree in the park around the corner, the wind throwing snow violently around us. (99)

Anna sees a teenage boy she’s never met watching her as she does her morning run. Upon meeting her observer at school and identifying him as new student Bennett, she confronts him and he denies the incident. Against the advice of her friends and her gut instincts she is attracted to Bennett, but Anna can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right about Bennett. During a robbery attempt, Bennett finally reveals that he is hiding a huge secret and is actually a time traveler from 17 years in the future. Pulled inexplicably to each other, Anna relishes the opportunity to fulfill her life long dreams of travel. But as their relationship prompts them to continually break rules that Bennett has established, Bennett’s prolonged presence might be causing consequences that he cannot fix.

More mild-romance than mind-bender or mystery, if you combine Twilight with The Time Traveler’s Wife, you get this book, but in both cases I would go to those other books first. While this book also has a time traveling couple, The Time Traveler’s Wife had depth and substance and emotional draw that this book seems to lack. However, you still having the brooding teenage girl in a relationship that everyone cautions her against yet she feels that unexplainable and instantaneous attraction/attention towards him. I guess that’s actually the problem, because while we see the relationship in Time Traveler’s Wife grow and evolve, I didn’t get that sense here. It feels like their relationship grows out of intrigue rather than love, with all of the long, lingering looks and none of the emotional sparks that are supposed to materialize.

Anna’s friendships, including her relationship with Bennett, are less than appealing. It seems like she’s using Bennett because of the promise of travel opportunities, which she absolutely is intent on taking advantage of. Bennett himself strikes me and Anna’s friends as slightly creepy, what with his popping in and out of Anna’s life. Anna’s friend Justin, whom she has known since she was five, plays a very minor part in the book, and also seems to be used by Anna for music, whether in the form of personalized mixes she can run to or tickets to the hottest concerts. His possible attraction to her is mentioned ever so slightly and then ignored for most of the rest of the story, only to be thrust in our face suddenly towards the end. Even her friend Emma doesn’t seem fully fleshed out, playing the role of comedic side-kick more than a true friend. When the characters fight, which they do sporadically, they all seem to solve their problems by ignoring each other until one or the other gives in for no reason.

This is especially true when applied to Bennett’s rules regarding time travel, which he broke once with disastrous consequences yet that doesn’t stop him from considering breaking the rules for Anna, a girl he’s just met. The time travel portion of the plot is also marginally explained. While Bennett subconsciously/inexplicably realizes that he can’t travel to a time before he was born or into his future, the ending climatic separation between Bennett and Anna has no explanation. I don’t want to reveal too much here, but I wonder if answers will be more readily available in October with the upcoming sequel, which will be told from Bennett’s perspective. Also, as a reviewer pointed out on Goodreads, at one point in the story there are three Bennett’s in the same time line, which was loosely explained as possible because they weren’t “within range of our other selves” and therefore won’t “disappear”, which seems like a flimsy reason.

And don’t get me started on the ending, which I’m sure to spoil for readers who get that far. Let’s say the problem is solved but with no satisfactory explanation to decipher what caused the problem or how it was solved. I honestly wish it had ended differently. Amy Rubinate did a passible job at narrating the material she was given, but the plot left a lot to be desired in my opinion. Goodreads reviews are full of star-struck readers swooning over what I see is a lackluster love story. Maybe it just wasn’t meant for me.

If you are a female author, you are much more likely to get a package that suggests the book is of a lower perceived quality. We’re the high fructose corn syrup of literature, even when our products are the same.

This is especially a problem for women who write YA books. As you may be able to tell, I read a lot of YA lit. I love it, but when I try and speak to people about these stories, I have to fight to keep their attention. No, not their attention. Their esteem. Many people think that because a story is about young people, because a story includes romance, because it includes magic or science fiction or paranormal whatever, it is not worthy of their attention. It is not important. If you slap a ridiculous cover on that book featuring a young woman in a pretty dress, that is just adding insult to injury. None of these things mean the story doesn’t have something to teach you.

(Just to be clear – if you are an author and you want your book cover to feature a young woman in a pretty dress, go for it. You should have exactly the cover you want.)

I have friends who say they are feminists but then say they hate reading books by female authors. Not just specific books – all books written by women. And you can’t tell me part of the problem is that even my friends have fallen prey to the publishing industry’s weird marketing that stories written by women are not worth their time.

Be sure to check out the experiment Maureen Johnson did in imagining if books were written by authors of the opposite gender. Read it HERE.

x abbey

Australian cover for A Corner of White

Back to A Corner of White. The story utilizes two braided strands. One takes place in modern day Cambridge, England. It mainly follows Madeleine Tully, a fourteen-year-old girl who has trouble adjusting to life after she and her mother run away from their luxurious life with Madeleine’s father. Madeleine’s mother took only a sewing machine with her when she left, leaving her struggling to make ends meet through mending clothes. As the novel is narrated in omniscient third-person, this strand of the narrative also includes some scenes between the two other students with whom Madeleine is homeschooled, Jack and Belle. Through Jack’s perspective, Madeleine is initially characterized as mysterious and ethereal, causing readers to wonder if she might be connected to the magical world of the other narrative.

This magical world of the second narrative strand is called “the Kingdom of Cello.” It does have many similarities to our world – televisions and trains and high school physics. However, it also has some notable differences. While Cello does have much of the same technology, they still rely heavily on fax machines. The organized sport of choice, deftball, revolves around some sort of supercharged, skyrocketing root vegetable. The biggest difference, however, is the Colors in their world. Rather than simply a visual phenomenon, they’re natural disasters:  Violent Purples, fatal Yellows, waves of Red that send everything haywire. The protagonist of this strand of the novel is fifteen-year-old Elliot Baranski. He’s nearly single-minded in his determination to rescue his father, Abel. Elliot believes his dad has been abducted by Purples (although most of the town believes that Mischa, the fetching high school science teacher who disappeared simultaneously, to be a far more likely cause of Abel’s disappearance).

U.S. Cover for A Corner of White

It wasn’t until probably a third of the way through this 400-page novel that I felt myself becoming fully engaged. I always have trouble switching between narrative strands. As soon as I found myself beginning to understand Madeleine, I was yanked back to Elliot, and vice versa. The story really took off for me once Madeleine and Jack started communicating – writing letters to each other via a Crack between Cello and the World. In Madeleine’s world, the Crack is located in a parking meter. This leads her to believe that her penpal is some fantasy-enthusiast who takes role-playing a little too seriously. Through Elliot’s letters to Madeleine, Moriarty is able to explain some of the idiosyncrasies of Cello to readers. I also greatly enjoyed Madeleine’s letters to Elliot. In them, she critiques Elliot’s description of his life and kingdom as though it’s entirely made-up, the humor being that of course it is completely made up, but to the readers, not the characters. Through events in both worlds, Madeleine and Elliot come to rely upon each other.

I would give this book a solid four stars. I thought it did a great job setting up the worlds, plot, and characters for the next book in the trilogy. I also thought it did a great job showing character growth. Both Madeleine and Elliot start the novel as somewhat unsympathetic characters, but gradually become more aware of themselves and others. Although A Corner of White got off to a slow start due to two very disparate narrative strands, it eventually picked up the pace and became a compelling read in a world I can’t wait to revisit.

Which book cover do you like best, the U.S. or the Australian? Let me know in comments!

Jaclyn Moriarty’s Website
A Corner of White on GoodReads

As many of you probably already know, I love to read. Last summer I stumbled upon this book series in the library called Delirium by Lauren Oliver. At the time, the first two books were out, and the second had just recently hit the shelves. Well, the third one finally came out a fewish weeks ago, and I managed to snag it at the library and read it in three days. I loved this trilogy and author so much, I had to share.

The trilogy has 3 books:

Book #1: Delirium

Book #2: Pandemonium

Book #3: Requiem

I loved each book for different reasons, but if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be the first one. The series is about a girl named Lena who lives in the United States years into the future and everyone believes love aka Deliria is a disease. At the age of 16, all children have the procedure done that removes the part of your brain that feels love, and they are left with a 3 pronged scar on their necks marking they are “cured”. Each cured is then paired with a mate from society that the government matches with them based on social status, likes, dislikes, and other data. They are then granted children, and a calm life free from anger, bitterness, resentment, and love. Right before Lena is about to have her procedure she falls in love with a boy named Alex. At the end of the first book, Alex and Lena plan out an escape, past the walls into the “wilds” where all the uncureds have fled. Lena makes it over the wall, and Alex doesn’t. Alex is shot multiple times and taken by the police.

In book 2, Lena wanders until she finds a homestead (group of uncureds who work together to survive) and stays with them and helps in the resistance (movement to bring down government). Through this whole book the torment of losing Alex is unbearable, and she assumes he is dead. She eventually gets a fake scar and ends up back on the other side to help further in the resistance. She ends up at a huge rally, in which she is supposed track a character named Julian. Julian is the son of the leader of the Deliria Free America or DFA a group specializing in promoting a love free country. She ends up following him into underground tunnels and they both get trapped. They end up falling in love, escaping, and heading back to the wilds, and Julian becomes part of the resistance. The killer with book 2 was, at the very end, as Julian and Lena are walking up to the safe house, Alex walks out. It ended like that and I had to wait a year to see what happened!!!

So finally awaited book 3! This book follows the uncured group from book 2 and with it new people of course, Alex and Julian, and a girl named Coral ends up joining them. To sacrifice himself and allow Lena to be happy, Alex tried to tell her he never loved her, so she will move on and be safe with Julian. Then Coral comes along and becomes Alex’s love interest, which of course drives Lena up a wall. The group acts more in this book with the resistance. At one point, Julian and Alex get in a fight, and Alex takes off. Lena realizes she loves him more than she can love anyone else. In the end, they end up back in Portland, where Lena is from, and complete the resisting by tearing down the boarder wall. Alex finds Lena and they tell each other they both loved one another all along.

All three books go back and forth between characters, each chapter is told from a different point of view. I left out in all my details about Hana, Lena’s best friend, she ends up staying in Portland and following through with the procedure…so that is how you can flip back and forth and see what happens on both sides of the wall.

The literary devices and writing style of Lauren Oliver are AMAZING! She draws you right in, and you are feeling the pain and happiness of every character. All 3 books were the kind you just can’t put down, and  you get excited all day long to finish work so you can go home and read them (am I the only person who feels like that? lol). My only disappointment with this series was, the last book ended too quickly. At the end of the novel, I had too many questions that went unanswered, and I just wanted to know what happened. I think Lauren Oliver should write a 4th book about the teens as older adults or even base it off Lena and Alex’s children or something, and show us what happened to the whole world after book 3.

None the less…you should most definitely read these books, they are literary genius!

Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson  

Three months ago Amy’s dad died in a car accident, and Amy hasn’t driven since. Because, after all, she was driving then. She knows she’s responsible for his death.

So when Amy’s mom decides to move cross-country from California to Connecticut, she first puts Amy’s drug-addled twin brother in rehab in North Carolina. She then leaves Amy to look after herself for a month while she finishes her junior year in high school. Once Amy finishes the school year, her mom has a plan for Amy: she will cross the country with Roger, the nineteen-year-old son of a friend who also needs to get back East, to Philadelphia, to see his father. Amy’s mom has provided maps, driving instructions and pre-paid hotel reservations. The two teens should make it to Connecticut in four days.

What could go wrong?

Just about everything.

But what’s so great about this story is that what goes wrong is what goes right—it’s full of the happy mistakes that make memories of a lifetime.

It isn’t that Amy is some happy-go-lucky girl. Quite the opposite. She’s guilt-ridden and her hair is starting to fall out from stress. She’s immersed in grief, thinking of her father’s death as the endless interruption of a conversation. He was a history teacher who loved Elvis Presley. Amy had always been his navigator on long road trips. Theirs was a close relationship, and no one in the family has tried to appropriately deal with his death.

Road trip books are always fun, and Amy and Roger have the valuable experience of ‘getting ready for the party being more fun than the party itself.’ They first get off track when they decide to go to Yosemite. Amy’s family had taken vacations there together, and she longs to see it again. Once the pair is committed to disobeying Amy’s mom and traveling wherever they like, taking as long as they want, it becomes clear that Roger is on this trip because he wants to confront his ex-girlfriend, for whom he still carries a flame. Too bad, because he’s incredibly good looking.

Many of the stops on this cross-country adventure have connections to other books—for example, the detour to Kansas, where Amy questions what home really is, and whether you can go back there when someone in the family is missing. It’s a sweet nod to The Wizard of Oz.

The trip includes unexpected meetings with eccentric characters, all of whom enrich Amy and Roger in some way. There’s lots of good fast food—different franchises in each state—and there’s always good music as Roger creates playlists based on the pair’s emotional state that day or on their destination. (Don’t let the unfortunate opening with Billy Joel songs put you off. The wackier, more creative choices are coming right up!)

Amy’s mother is so angry at her disobedience that she cuts off her credit card. Amy and Roger pool their funds and have to arrive back East just as the money runs out. When they get there, Amy has learned much—about life as well as death. And she’s ready to have the conversation that she and her mother have been putting off.

Just about any teen will enjoy this one.

Note: Morgan Matson, the author of Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour, is scheduled to be at this Saturday’s Ontario Teen Book Fest at Merton Hill Auditorium (on the Chaffey High campus–corner of Euclid and Fifth Street).  The book fest will be  9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. It’s free, but you must reserve a ticket to get in. Call 909-395-2225 to reserve your ticket. You may also pick up a ticket in the quad–May 9 at Chaffey High, May 10 at Colony High.

Road Trip! Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson 

Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour

Three months ago Amy’s dad died in a car accident, and Amy hasn’t driven since. Because, after all, she was driving then. She knows she’s responsible for his death.

So when Amy’s mom decides to move cross-country from California to Connecticut, she first puts Amy’s drug-addled twin brother in rehab in North Carolina. She then leaves Amy to look after herself for a month while she finishes her junior year in high school. Once Amy finishes the school year, her mom has a plan for Amy: she will cross the country with Roger, the nineteen-year-old son of a friend who also needs to get back East, to Philadelphia, to see his father. Amy’s mom has provided maps, driving instructions and pre-paid hotel reservations. The two teens should make it to Connecticut in four days.

What could go wrong?

Just about everything.

But what’s so great about this story is that what goes wrong is what goes right—it’s full of the happy mistakes that make memories of a lifetime.

It isn’t that Amy is some happy-go-lucky girl. Quite the opposite. She’s guilt-ridden and her hair is starting to fall out from stress. She’s immersed in grief, thinking of her father’s death as the endless interruption of a conversation. He was a history teacher who loved Elvis Presley. Amy had always been his navigator on long road trips. Theirs was a close relationship, and no one in the family has tried to appropriately deal with his death.

Road trip books are always fun, and Amy and Roger have the valuable experience of ‘getting ready for the party being more fun than the party itself.’ They first get off track when they decide to go to Yosemite. Amy’s family had taken vacations there together, and she longs to see it again. Once the pair is committed to disobeying Amy’s mom and traveling wherever they like, taking as long as they want, it becomes clear that Roger is on this trip because he wants to confront his ex-girlfriend, for whom he still carries a flame. Too bad, because he’s incredibly good looking.

Many of the stops on this cross-country adventure have connections to other books—for example, the detour to Kansas, where Amy questions what home really is, and whether you can go back there when someone in the family is missing. It’s a sweet nod to The Wizard of Oz.

The trip includes unexpected meetings with eccentric characters, all of whom enrich Amy and Roger in some way. There’s lots of good fast food—different franchises in each state—and there’s always good music as Roger creates playlists based on the pair’s emotional state that day or on their destination. (Don’t let the unfortunate opening with Billy Joel songs put you off. The wackier, more creative choices are coming right up!)

Amy’s mother is so angry at her disobedience that she cuts off her credit card. Amy and Roger pool their funds and have to arrive back East just as the money runs out. When they get there, Amy has learned much—about life as well as death. And she’s ready to have the conversation that she and her mother have been putting off.

Just about any teen will enjoy this one.

Note: Morgan Matson, the author of Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour, is scheduled to be at this Saturday’s Ontario Teen Book Fest at Merton Hill Auditorium (on the Chaffey High campus–corner of Euclid and Fifth Street).  The book fest will be  9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. It’s free, but you must reserve a ticket to get in. Call 909-395-2225 to reserve your ticket. You may also pick up a ticket in the quad–May 9 at Chaffey High, May 10 at Colony High.

Are any of these on your TBR list?  If so, which are you looking forward to most?

I love the idea of everyone processing their own story and realizing the expanse of possibilities through reading. Maybe you’re not going to tesser to other planets and save your dad from a giant brain, but you can still better process your own life and the lives of those around you having learned about  Meg Murry’s expansive love and bravery. All kinds of art can show you the possibilities of other stories, but I think there’s something to be said for reading in particular–it’s intimate and personal while still being expansive.

Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Society has been divided into 5 factions.  Each focuses on 1 virtue—to the exclusion of all others.

Delirium, Pandemonium, and Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Love has been categorized as a disease that must be eradicated when one turns 18—often with sad results. 

Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

North America has been divided into a Capitol and 12 Districts.  As the result of an uprising, every year the districts must send 1 boy and 1 girl between the ages of 12-17 to fight in a battle to the death—until only 1 child remains.

Matched, Crossed, and Reached by Ally Condle

Society analyzes every aspect of you to make your every decision—including who you will marry and what job you will have.  What do you do when freedom becomes virtually non-existant?

Legend and Prodigy by Marie Lu

In this society, when you reach a certain age, you are put through your “trials” to see whyat the rest of your life will hold.  If you’re score is low, your choices are few—and none of them are good.

Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Oxygen on Earth is controlled by the company Breathe because natural oxygen has been virtually used up.  Only the rich can afford to do anything involving extra oxygen, and everyone must live in the Pod.

Maze Runner, Scorch Trials, Kill Order, and Death Cure by James Dashner

The world has been destroyed by solar flares and plague.  Certain organizations (like W.I.C.K.E.D) will do and sacrifice anything to try to find a cure—even if it means risking and sacrificing innocent children for the cause.

City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass (The Mortal Instrument Series) by Cassandra Clare

Shadowhunters are the descendants of Angels.  They have been charged with protecting mortals (mundanes) from Downworlders (demons, rogue vampires, etc).

Angel Experiment, School’s Out—Forever, Saving the World, Max, Fang, Angel, Nevermore (The Maximum Ride series) by James Patterson

Genetically altered children (who are part human and part bird) must save themselves—and the rest of the world, too (of course).

Witch and Wizard, The Gift, The Fire, The Kiss by James Patterson

A brother and sister due (who are also a wizard and witch) must fight against a totalitarian government who has, among other things, outlawed entertainment and magic. 

Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, Sea of Monsters, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian by Rick Riordon

Modern day descendants of the Greek Gods find themselves having to become heroes in order to work together to help protect the world from the likes of the Titan King Kronos.  When one of their own betrays them, the battle becomes even more serious.

Description (From GoodReads):

Lupita, a budding actor and poet in a close-knit Mexican American immigrant family, comes of age as she struggles with adult responsibilities during her mother’s battle with cancer in this young adult novel in verse.

When Lupita learns Mami has cancer, she is terrified by the possibility of losing her mother, the anchor of her close-knit family. Suddenly, being a high school student, starring in a play, and dealing with friends who don’t always understand, become less important than doing whatever she can to save Mami’s life.

While her father cares for Mami at an out-of-town clinic, Lupita takes charge of her seven younger siblings. As Lupita struggles to keep the family afloat, she takes refuge in the shade of a mesquite tree, where she escapes the chaos at home to write. Forced to face her limitations in the midst of overwhelming changes and losses, Lupita rediscovers her voice and finds healing in the power of words.

Told with honest emotion in evocative free verse, Lupita’s journey toward hope is captured in moments that are alternately warm and poignant. Under the Mesquite is an empowering story about testing family bonds and the strength of a young woman navigating pain and hardship with surprising resilience.

My thoughts:

Under the Mesquite is a beautiful book.  While it was a quick read, it lingered in my mind.  I found myself continuing to think about it days after I’d finished it.  It’s a book that is certainly worth a second (or even third) read.  The first time through I was engrossed in the story, only subconsciously aware of the beauty and simplicity of McCall’s verse. When I returned to the  novel later, I found myself incredibly moved by the imagery and sentiments conveyed through McCall’s words.  I think Lyn Miller-Lachmann describes it best in her own review: “. . .one of the most achingly beautiful novels I’ve read in a long time. It is a story from the heart, not written to fit into a marketing category but to remember, to honor, and to bear witness.”

As many of you may already know, one of my favorite reads from the past year was

Photo taken by Rosa Say
Courtesy of flickr creative commons

Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.  To borrow Lachmann’s words, it too, was achingly beautiful.  I found myself reminded of Sammy & Juliana as I read Under the Mesquite.  Both are poignant coming of age stories that refuse to sugar-coat the reality of their protagonists who have to grow up too quickly, shouldering responsibilities not meant for teenagers.  Like Sammy, Lupita is strong–she struggles, but she is resilient.  Often times our students learn too early that life isn’t always fair, much like Lupita.  Unfortunately, they’re not always given the support or the knowledge to deal with it. Under the Mesquite offers an example of how to not only survive, but to eventually thrive.  An important symbol throughout the story is the mesquite tree.  No matter how hard Mami tries, she can’t seem to get rid of the mesquite growing in her rose garden.  Yet, by the end of the story, the mesquite has come to represent Lupita as she writes,

I agree, but it isn’t its beauty
that strikes me.  I envy the mesquite
its undaunted spirit, its ability to turn
even a disabling pruning
into an unexpected opportunity
to veer in a different direction,
flourishing more profusely than before (p. 141).

Lupita’s strength doesn’t just show in how she deals with the death of her mother, but also in how she navigates the difficult waters of identity.  Lupita must struggle to determine for herself what it means to be a Mexican and a woman.  When Lupita becomes involved in drama, her teacher Mr. Cortés, suggests that they must work on getting rid of her Spanish accent.  Yet, when Lupita does this, her identity as a Mexican is questioned by her closest friends:

“You talk like you’re one of them.”
She spits out the word in disgust
and looks down at her lunch tray,
like she can’t stand the sight of me.
“One of them?” I ask.
“Let me translate for you,”
Sarita sneers.  “You talk like
you wanna be white “. . .
“What,” Sarita asks, “you think you’re
Anglo now ’cause you’re in Drama?
You think you’re better than us?”
“No—”
“Then stop trying to act like
them,” Mireya says accusingly.
“You’re Mexican, just like the rest of us. . . ” (p. 80-81).

But Lupita doesn’t let others define her identity.  Instead, she responds,

Being Mexican
means more than that.
It means being there for each other.
It’s togetherness, like a familia.
We should be helping one another,
not trying to bring them down.
. . . I’m not acting white! I want to shout
after my so-called friends.
I couldn’t be more Mexican
if you stamped a cactus on my forehead (p. 83).

One of my favorite poetry sections is “señorita” where Lupita describes the various ways her family members and friends define the significance of señorita. Lupita must grapple with what it means for her, and the conclusions she arrives at reveal the ways in which Lupita has realized she must grown up.  For Lupita, a señorita

. . .is the end of wild laughter.
The end of chewing bubble gum
and giggling over nothing
with my friends at the movies, our feet up
on the backs of the theater seats.
. . .I’m trying my best
to be a good daughter and accept
the clipping of my wings,
the taming of my heart.
. . .Señorita is a niña,
the girl I used to be,
who has lost her voice (p. 77).

By the end of the story, the reader has experienced all four years of high school with Lupita.  We see Lupita struggle to define herself as she deals the harsh realities of life, and we get to see her begin to heal and move on a stronger person.  This is one of the reasons I think Lupita is such a powerful protagonist for our students.  Lupita doesn’t let the struggle defeat her:

. . .at last I feel something unfurl within me.
Like a shoot growing from what remains–a tiny piece
of buried mesquite root–
determination flourishes (p. 194).

I’m not alone in thinking Under the Mesquite is an amazing book–it is the winner of the 2012 Pura Belpré Author Medal, the 2012 William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist, and the 2013 Tomás Rivera Children’s Book Award. I hope you’ll consider adding it to your classroom library.  Click here to be taken to our Educator’s Guide for the book.

If you’d like to read what others have thought about the book check out the links to other reviews below:

• Lyn Miller-Lachmann’s review from De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children
• Sarah’s review on Slatebreakers

If you’re an Albuquerque local I hope you’ll join us tonight at Bookworks from 5-7 for some coffee and conversation about Under the Mesquite!

–Katrina

Good for: Gathering Books AWB Challenge (2012 Pura Belpré Author Medal, the 2012 William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist, and the 2013 Tomás Rivera Children’s Book Award) and My Overstuffed Bookshelf YA Reading Challenge

Pop into your local branch to pick-up your blue registration card.  Once you’ve read 5 books, bring it back to the library for a free messenger bag, and a free book.

You’ll then receive a ruby card.  Complete 5 more books, return your card, and get a voucher for free baseball tickets (whilst supplies last).  You will also receive an entry form for our “First Pitch Contest”.  Tell us why you should get to throw out the first pitch at a Cardinals game, and you could win the chance to do just that.

After ruby, comes your emerald card.  Read 5 more books, return your card, and get a rainbow lollipop.  What’s that I hear you say, “No more incentives, why should I continue reading”?  Well, each card you turn in gets you an entry into our grand prize drawing.  This gives you the chane to win movies tickets, an iPod Shuffle, or an iPad 2.  So, the more you read, the more entries you get, thus the better your chances of winning one of our grand prizes are!  For more information, check out our website http://www.slpl.org/slpl/library/summer_reading_club.asp

Our Summer Reading Club runs from May 6th – July 27th.  So, pop into the library and get reading today!

I redid the cover for the book I most recently read. I was not entirely satisfied with the outcome. Oh well.

I thought this was mildly interesting. Figured it belonged here, so enjoy.

Aedan, Central TLLC, 16

Module 14: CRANK

Image Source: Books In Print. Retrieved from: http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:4442/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|13720841|10112767&mc=USA

 Reference: Hopkins, E. (2004). Crank. Margaret K. McElderry Books.

 ISBN-13: 9780689865190

 Summary:  Crank tells the story of Kristina, a good, high achieving student, who after visiting her lowlife drug-addict of a biological father in Albuquerque, NM she meets Adam and gets introduced to “the monster” or “crank” a street name for methamphetamine. After three weeks time, when she returns home to Reno, NV to her mother and stepfather and sister, who is a lesbian, she falls in with the wrong crowd due to being addicted to crank. Soon after Kristina’s alter ego, Bree, shows up. As Bree, Kristina ends up meeting Brendan and Chase, gets raped by Brendan, falls for Chase and after landing in juvenile hall after getting arrested she becomes connected to a meth lab in Mexico by someone she meets there. Having become a dealer as well as a user Kristina/Bree’s life spirals into chaos and out of control. By the time Kristina finds out she’s pregnant she is too far gone into drugs. Deciding to keep the baby pushes her into trying to get clean but after her baby is born the end of the books leaves us with the lingering question as to Kristina’s cleanness.

 Impressions:  I have to admit that at first I did not like the book at all. Not being a big fan of poetry or short stories (other than those of Edgar Allan Poe and the like) I decided to read this book seeing how popular this book series was with teens and wanted to find out why. It was at times for me disturbing, especially when Kristina was raped, and sad but I found I was glad that I finished the book. It was a hard ride at times but it helped open a window into a drug-addicts life.

 Professional Review:

 Kirkus Review

 May 20, 2010

 ”Hypnotic and jagged free verse wrenchingly chronicles 16-year-old Kristina’s addiction to crank. Kristina’s daring alter ego, Bree, emerges when “gentle clouds of monotony” smother Kristina’s life—when there’s nothing to do and no one to connect with. Visiting her neglectful and druggy father for the first time in years, Bree meets a boy and snorts crank (methamphetamine). The rush is irresistible and she’s hooked, despite a horrible crank-related incident with the boy’s other girlfriend. Back home with her mother, Kristina feels both ignored and smothered, needing more drugs and more boys—in that order. One boy is wonderful and one’s a rapist, but it’s crank holding Bree up at this point. The author’s sharp verse plays with spacing on the page, sometimes providing two alternate readings. In a too brief wrap-up, Kristina keeps her baby (a product of rape) while Hopkins—realistically—offers no real conclusion. Powerful and unsettling. (author’s note) (Fiction. YA)”

 Kirkus Review. (2010). Crank. Retrieved from: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ellen-hopkins/crank/

 Library Uses: Considered a free verse novel, this may be a great option to complete a book talk on. The fact that it deals with drug addiction, rape, and teen pregnancy makes it an ideal candidate to keep on shelf for teens to read. With guidance, provided during the book talk, it can be a great way of educating teens.