Response

February 24, 2009 | Tasha

Response by Paul Volponi

Volponi does it again with another short novel that is fast paced and filled with hard-to-answer ethical questions. Noah and his friends go to an Italian-American neighborhood to steal a Lexus. Before they are able to, they are jumped by three boys who shout racial epithets and beat Noah’s head in with a baseball bat. Noah survives the attack and finds himself at the center of a racial controversy. Was the other boy right to defend their community from theft? Or was Noah and his friends targeted because they are black?

The fast-moving prose is interspersed with police interviews of the suspects, adding to the drama. Volponi does not come up with simple answers to the complicated questions that are raised here. Part of his skill is in formulating the scenario and the questions but allowing the teen reader to make up their own mind. Even the attackers are not cardboard, each emerging as a person themselves.

So much is done in such a short number of pages that it is staggering. Noah’s own family is not stereotypical at all. His complicated relationship with the mother of his baby girl is equally deep and complex. Noah’s eventual response to his attack is nuanced and mature.

Sure to be a popular read among teen boys who have probably already discovered Volponi, this book is appropriate for ages 14-18.

Heartsinger

February 23, 2009 | Tasha

Heartsinger by Karlijn Stoffels

Steeped in traditional fairy tales, this book offers a framing story and then a series of smaller stories that illuminate the many forms of that love can take. A boy whose parents are deaf and dumb, becomes a gifted singer who can reveal a person’s life in his own mysterious language. A girl whose parents fight and curse nearly all the time, plays music that has everyone dancing and feeling merry. The two are destined to be together. As they slowly journey toward one another, readers get to see a princess who looks only into the mirror, a sailor’s sweetheart who loves the sea she sees in her husband, and a fluting soldier who saves everyone he can.

Repetition, lilting phrases, and classic fairy tale characters keep this book closely tied to its tradition. Readers will immediately recognize the type of book they are reading, but will be amazed at the lyrical prose, the lack of sentimentality, and the power of this small book. Love here is seen not in saccharine sweetness, but in reality, sometimes obsessive, strangely brutal, and always powerful.

This book is a box of chocolates with hidden depths of spices and heat that surprise and delight. Highly recommended for teens who want a bit of classic tale and truth in their romance. Appropriate for ages 13-17.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

February 23, 2009 | Tasha

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly.

In1899, girls are expected to grow up to be either wives or teachers. So what is a girl like Calpurnia to do? She is much more interested in different species of grasshoppers than in tatting or cooking. She would rather spend hours with her grandfather in his shed doing experiments than learning to knit all of her six brothers socks. As the only daughter in the family, Calpurnia is expected to be ladylike, play the piano, and eventually be launched into society. Calpurnia is much more likely to be muddy, wet, and dashing about just as fast as her brothers. Where is the place for Calpurnia? Readers will love to try to figure it out as they see the wonderful day-to-day of her family and all of the animals on their farm through Callie’s eyes.

Callie’s voice is so clear and true to character that it brings the entire book to life, not just her character. Her dismay at her mother’s and society’s expectations, the pull of her own personal interests, and the glory of her grandfather’s scientific endeavors are vividly displayed in this gem of a novel. Kelly’s writing is crisp and clear, revealing a previous century and what a girl’s role is. But the book is more about Callie as an individual than Callie as a symbol for any type of feminist movement.

The characters of the book are so well-written. Each of the six brothers is unique, quite an achievement in itself. Callie’s parents and grandfather are just as complex as she is, as are the servants in the house. The small touches in the text, single phrases at times, reveal just as much as a paragraph would have.

This book reminded me of Caddie Woodlawn, a favorite childhood book of mine. It has the same feisty heroine girl, the same muddy pinafores, and the same clever, even sly, writing. Highly recommended, this book is appropriate for ages 8-12 and would make a great read aloud.

Ready to Dream

February 19, 2009 | Tasha

Ready to Dream by Donna Jo Napoli and Elena Furrrow, illustrated by Bronwyn Bancroft.

Ally and her mother take a trip to Australia together. Ally carries her backpack filled with art supplies, drawing all that she sees. At Alice Springs, she meets Pauline, an older Aboriginal woman who is also an artist. Throughout the month she is there, Ally shares her art with Pauline. Pauline notices small touches that Ally considers mistakes or accidents. Pauline shows her how each of these ties into the nature of what she is drawing, more fully expressing it. As the month progresses, Ally takes more risks with her art, looking for media that will really explore the essence of what she is trying to capture.

I am a fan of books that get children thinking about art, media and expressing themselves in that way. This book takes it one more level by having Aboriginal artist, Bronwyn Bancroft do the illustrations. Her art lifts this book to another level, making it mystical, sensual and eye-opening. Napoli and her daughter, Furrow, have captured that same feeling of freedom and expansiveness in their words that is represented in the illustrations.

Share this book with art teachers, artists and others who will appreciate its take on creativity and connectivity. Recommended for children ages 5-8.

Trudy

February 19, 2009 | Tasha

Trudy by Henry Cole.

Esme’s grandfather takes her to the farm auction where she is going to pick out an animal to take home. Her grandmother is allergic to feathers, so the ducks, roosters and pigeons are out. The pigs are too stinky and the cow is too big. Esme picks out Trudy, a goat who is being given away free at the auction. Trudy is given a small red barn to live in with her own fenced yard with an apple tree. Trudy goes out every morning to her favorite spot. Until one morning when she heads out, smells the air and returns to the barn. That day, it snowed. This happens again and again. Trudy returns to the barn, it snows. Crowds begin to gather to see the weather-forecasting goat. But then, Trudy returns to the barn and it doesn’t snow. What could that mean?

This book has many of the same charms as Cole’s On Meadowview Street. Cole’s illustrations once again capture a feeling, a setting, a mood. The setting here is especially clearly done for a picture book, with the feel in each and every picture of modern but small farm life. The book reads aloud very nicely, with touches of repetition, moments of revelation, and its own pace. I appreciate a book that shows a child living with her grandparents as matter-of-fact and unexplained. Just normal and factual.

This book is a charmer. You may have to create a goat story time just to share this one. Oh, and who wouldn’t want to pair it with a very different but equally great goat story – Gregory the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat.

Waterstone's Children's Book Prize

February 19, 2009 | Tasha

The Thirteen Treasures by Michelle Harrison has been awarded the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. The prize is meant to recognize new and emerging children’s authors who are writing for ages 7-14. It is unique because it is decided by booksellers across Britain. Authors have to have written two fiction titles or fewer; this is Harrison’s debut novel.

Thirteen Treasures will be released in the US in September of this year.

What I Saw and How I Lied

February 18, 2009 | Tasha

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Of course I had big expectations for this National Book Award Winner and they were very nicely met. After World War II, Evie’s stepfather returns from the war and decides to turn his life around. He buys a few appliance stores and it looks like Evie and her mother will be well off. But when a strange phone call comes and they decide to head to Florida on the spur of the moment, everything becomes unsettled. Living in a nearly-vacant hotel in Palm Springs, Evie falls in love with the charming Peter Coleridge who knew her stepfather during the war. All is not as it seems and Evie must figure out the truth and then decide who to share it with.

The setting of this novel is amazingly vivid with the hotel and its rather surreal emptiness. This same surreal feeling carries through the book, as reader lenses shift trying to find the truth in a sea of lies. Evie is a fascinating main character, struggling with becoming an adult, often frightened but not showing it, and filled with much more moxie than most. She wasn’t an entirely likeable character, which I find an intriguing part of great teen novels.

Highly recommended. This is a historical novel that will appeal to teens who enjoy modern literature about risk, love and truth. Lots to grapple with here, this manages to be a novel with depth that reads easily.

Marcelo in the Real World

February 16, 2009 | Tasha

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork.

Marcelo has always heard internal music that is hard for him to pull away from. Because of this autism-like disorder, Marcelo has attended a special school, Paterson, where he is now going to help with care and training of the ponies. Marcelo’s father has never approved of him going to a special school and challenges his son to enter the real world by working in the mail room at his law firm. If Marcelo refuses or fails, he will be placed in public high school instead of Paterson for his senior year. Marcelo excels in the real world until sudden knowledge about his father’s job forces him to make an impossible decision.

This book is written from Marcelo’s point of view, allowing the prose itself to become as poetic, strange and amazing as Marcelo’s inner dialogue. It is a book where you feel the world around you shift as you see it through Marcelo’s eyes.

There is an enticing thread of religion and music that weaves throughout not only the book but through Marcelo himself. It is a point of entry for the reader into understanding him. Lovely, poignant and vivid, this book will capture you, change you, and then release you with tears streaming down your face at the beauty you have found.

Highly recommended for teen readers who are looking for a novel with depth that surprises and delights. Appropriate for ages 16-18.

2009 Rainbow List

February 16, 2009 | Tasha

From ALA’s Rainbow Project comes the 2009 Rainbow List that features books with "authentic and significant gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered/questioning (GLBTQ) content for youth from birth through age 18."

There are 34 titles on the list all published in the last 18 months. They include a couple of picture books, two middle-grade novels, two graphic novels, and four adult books amongst the teen titles.

Four titles were selected as being especially noteworthy: