Month: August 2008

Paper Towns

| Tasha

Paper Towns by John Green

Released October 2008.

Green has created another winner for teens, and it just might be his best book yet!

Quentin is a high school senior who lives a quiet but not horrible life.  He has two best friends, Ben and Radar, two loving and still-married therapist parents, and a natural abhorrence of the prom.  His quiet life is changed when his life-long crush, Margo Roth Spiegelman, comes to his window wearing black face paint and inviting him on an all-night revenge spree.  It is the longest and most amazing night of Quentin’s life, but when he heads back to school to see Margo she has disappeared.  Now all he has are baffling clues that she left behind to help him find her.

The characters here are so amazing it is hard to put it into words.  Green has captured what it is to be a nerd or geek in school.  It isn’t lonely or harsh, just unique.  Quentin and his friends are intelligent, esoteric and hysterically funny guys.  They are well-developed characters that readers will love spending time with.  Other characters are equally interesting. Green has created a living, breathing high school here with a deft tone with dialogue and humor.

Green’s inclusion of Whitman, Moby Dick and other works of literature does more than invite teens to pick those books up.  He makes these tomes and others come to life, intertwine with the modern world and be relevant and meaningful.  A masterful accomplishment.

This book will fly off the shelves with the great dual cover, but make sure that it gets into the hands of well-adjusted, bright and unique kids.  They are the ones who will love the jokes, the characters, the literature, and the quest.

A Printz contender to be sure.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Happy Blog-Birthday to Me!

| Tasha

Today I celebrate my fifth blog-birthday!  And what a marvelous five years it has been. 

A huge thank you to all of my fellow kids lit bloggers who have created a community filled with warmth and acceptance for all.  Rather like our library shelves that way, ain’t it? 

Recently we have heard lots of bloggers (and not only in kid lit land) talk of the ongoing grind of blogging, the pressure of accepting books to review, and the guilt of not being able to do it all.

Here is my advice as one of the ancient blogging aunties:  DO IT FOR YOU.  There is no responsibility to the publishers.  There is no guilt about not liking a book, not being willing to review it, not having the time to even crack the cover.  This is about you.  Your love affair with the written word.  Your joy of discovery.  Your blog.  Your words.  Your passion.  This is your space and it should be free of such worldly worries and fretting.   Write what you want, shout it to the heavens, rant, rave, but be you and do it for you.  That’s all.  No expectations.  Just you.

And so this is just me.  Thank you for reading for all these years.  Thank you for sharing your comments.  Thank you for being part of my passion for children and books and the magic of combining the two.

It's Not Fair!

| Tasha

 

It’s Not Fair! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld.

With a rhythm and rhymes that add to the fun, this book about the unfair part of life is a pleasure to share with children.  My only warning is that you don’t start a conversation about what hasn’t been fair in their lives because it would be impossible to end.  All children have a catalog of the wrongs that have been done them by siblings, parents, teachers, and even people in the grocery store. 

The book has charming illustrations that capture childhood with thick black lines and bright colors set on white backgrounds.  The list of unfair scenarios is silly but with some truth behind it.  This is a light, fun read for preschoolers and their parents.  My favorite touch is the back of the book which I  won’t spoil for you, but the final page inside the book is a winner too.  It has a book on a bookshelf thinking how unfair it is:

Why can’t books go on and on?

No more endings only Once Upons…

It’s not fair.

And the readers will feel the same way as the book ends.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.