The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson.

I loved Pearson’s A Room on Lorelei Street and so immediately tore into her new book.   And was completely surprised and amazed by what I found.

Jenna has just awoken from a coma that she was in for over a year.  She had been in a horrible car accident and has to relearn how to speak, walk and return to a normal life.   She lives with her grandmother and mother in an old grand house in California while her father lives in Boston where the accident occurred and Jenna used to live.  Jenna has lost her memory after the accident and doesn’t remember her childhood, who she was or the accident itself.  As she watches movies of her life, she slowly begins recovering her memories and one thing becomes clear to Jenna and the reader: all is not right with the situation and Jenna is not being told the truth.  As Jenna begins to search for the truth, she and the reader begin a quest to discover what really happened in the accident and afterwards.

Pearson has created a story that reads as a teen medical drama but is so much more.  It is set in the near future where many medical breakthroughs have happened.  Part of the fun of the book is discovering this new society along with Jenna, finding out the new laws and agencies that have been put in place to protect the public.  And a larger part of the joy is discovering Jenna herself, a heroine who is complicated and caught in a situation beyond her control. 

Pearson’s writing is masterful as she slowly reveals the truth to Jenna and the reader with great control but wonderful surprises as well.  Her secondary characters are just as complete and complicated as Jenna is and the time period itself is complete enough to be considered another character in the book. 

Highly recommended, this book will appeal to fans of Lurlene McDaniel who are willing to take a look at something with great writing, vivid characterization, complex issues, and no need for a box of Kleenexes at the end.  It will also appeal to mystery readers and science fiction fans.

A Story with Pictures by Barbara Kanninen, pictures by Lynn Rowe Reed.

The author has forgotten to giver her manuscript to the illustrator, so the illustrator doesn’t know what to put in the book.  But the illustrator goes ahead and starts to illustrate the book, starting with a duck which does not belong in the book.  The author then discovers she is a character in her own book and has no control over the setting or the story until she gets a paper and pencil from the duck and decides how the book will continue.

Uproariously funny, this book will teach children about plot, characters and setting without them even realizing they are learning something.  The illustrations are wonderfully quirky with a mix of collage and paint which suits the strange story to a tee.  There is plenty of slapstick humor to keep children engaged.  The entire effect is rather like my childhood favorite:  The Monster at the End of This Book. 

Perfect to share in classrooms learning about the structure of stories, this is also a great readaloud in general.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

What Will Fat Cat Sit On?  by Jan Thomas.

Fat Cat doesn’t know what he will sit on.  Will he sit on the cow?  On the dog?  On the mouse?  No!  He will sit on the… chair!  Yes!  All of the animals are greatly relieved to find they won’t be used as a seat.  But them comes the final twist of the book, what will Fat Cat have for lunch?  All of the animals run off in terror, especially the mouse.

Thomas’ Fat Cat is a delightful very easy reader that parents and children alike
will enjoy reading.  This is a great beginning reader for a few reasons.  First, the words are simple.  Second, the words are easily figured out from the illustrations.  Third, it has a huge humor factor as well as a repetitive structure that will get kids going and keep them reading.  The illustrations are equally successful with their thick lines and goggle-eyed critters. 

One of the best and easiest readers out there.  Pick this up for your preschooler or kindergartener who is starting to read. 

Jazzmatazz by Stephanie Calmenson, illustrated by Bruce Degen.

Some jazz picture books work, others are only successful when people with great rhythm read them, and some shouldn’t be used with children because of the stress they cause the reader.  This is one of the books that work, even if you aren’t gifted with your own jazz beat.   The book is about jazz, so the story doesn’t matter much.  It offers a lovely little child in jammies whose home is invaded by a mouse who heads directly to the piano to start playing.  All sorts of other pets join in the music in their own way until everyone around is drawn into the song.

The book has a rhythm that is impossible to read incorrectly and that carries the jazz forward.  The repetition of the words make the entire book work as well.  Add to that Degen’s bright, warm and simple illustrations that hearken back to Sendak in certain ways and you have a real winner of a book.

When I did toddler story times, I was always looking for books that would capture children.  This is one that will work on many levels.  I’d read it through first, being loose and having great fun with it, then I’d distribute instruments to the kids (drums, bells, whatever) and have them play along to the rhythm, making a great cacophony.  Guaranteed to have tiny toes tapping, this book is perfect for 2-4 year olds.

Thank You, World by Alice B. McGinty, illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin.

This picture book is a thank you to the entire world.  It thanks the sun, the sky, grass, breezes, trees, clouds, and much more.  The text speaks to the universal experience of us all.  Then the detailed illustrations come in and make this book about things that are at the same time universal and specific to a culture.  Each page has eight panels that highlight life in Mexico, Mali, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, India, France, China and the U.S.  The book can be enjoyed at many levels and in many ways.  You can read it quickly, enjoying the text and the illustrations, you can pore over the illustrations following each specific country through every page, or you can take the theme of the page and enjoy the play and mix of the cultures represented. 

McGinty’s words are a wonderful dance with each line leading to the next in a sweeping joyous move.  Halperin’s illustrations echo that dance with the crayon drawings that will inspire children and adults alike to dig for unused colors in their Crayolas. 

A marvelous book for celebrating both diversity and commonality at the same time.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean.

The winner of the Printz this year, White Darkness is a book that is impossible to summarize, intense, gripping, breathtaking and easily misunderstood.  It is a book that you travel deeper and deeper into, losing yourself in its coldness until nothing is surprising except for your all-encompassing wonder at the writing.

I consider this an impossible review to write.  First, this is a huge prize winner, so why am I trying and second it is truly impossible to write a summary of even the premise of the book without making it sound dull, strange and fragmented.  And while it is a strange book, it is far from dull and certainly not scattered in any way. 

OK, so I am reviewing it because I have heard from people that they either hate it or love it.  I obviously fall into the adoration category.  And I made a stink when Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian didn’t win the Printz and frankly there is no book I would rather have had beat it this year.  Though Alexie was still robbed of an Honor! 

I have sat here at the keyboard trying to summarize it, and typing, and deleting, and typing, and deleting, and taking a break, and typing, and deleting.  I can’t do it.  Let’s just say this:  This is a deeply disturbing quest into a girl’s psyche as the conflict in her body and mind are played out through a madman’s trip to Antarctica.  The language of the book, the pacing, the setting and Sym’s mental state all contribute to an icy slick of a book that is mesmerizing in its desperation. 

Confused?  Yeah, well, it’s the best I could do.  Read it yourself, and you try to sum it all up.  Anyway, the writing is flawless.  Sym is a complex character with layer upon layer of lies, self-deception, pain, and ice.  She is one of the most completely understandable and yet completely foreign characters I have ever read.  Amazingly written, she is not only the main character of the book, but the Pole of it.  The book is really all of us journeying toward Sym. 

And the writing goes beyond characterization.  At times it is breathtaking in its beauty, its ability to describe and through the description reveal a deeper truth.  Here is one of my favorite passages early in the book:

The long pink hours dyed the cloth of the tents and made them glow.  The wind rattled at the skeleton of the dead plane, tearing free the odd strut or piece of steel cladding to fall with a clanging clatter through the wreckage.

This is a book that lives in your mind, takes up its own space.  It is a book you enter into, submerge, and leave gasping.  It is simply wondrous.

Highly recommended to teens who are willing to journey deep into a character, try to survive and emerge out the other side changed.

Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed, illustrated by Doug Chayka.

This powerful picture book is a finalist in the Cybil Awards.  It is the story of two young girls living in a refugee camp in Peshawar on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Relief workers bring used clothes to the camp and Lina discovers a brand new sandal, bright yellow with a blue flower, but only one sandal, not a pair.  When Lina looks up, she sees another girl wearing the other half of the sandal pair.  The girls eventually speak together and start sharing the sandals, each wearing the pair for a day.  The sharing brings the girls closer together and they become friends.  Then one of the girls is lucky enough to leave for America, and the sharing of the sandals serves as a symbol of their friendship in the future.

The writing here is direct, simple and therefore powerful.  The destitution of the refugee camps is obvious in both the words and the illustrations, but neither are afraid to also show the humanity, the connections and the strange beauty of them as well.  At times the message of the book is a bit too strong, I think some of it could have been done with a gentler touch.  But the message is also an important one to have children understand the state of refugees in the world.

A good book to start discussions about war and its impact on children, it is appropriate for ages 7-11.

Out of the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst.

Due out in June 2008.

I was fortunate enough to serve on the Cybils Committee nominating a final slate of science fiction/fantasy books to the judges.  Into the Wild by Durst was one of our selected books for younger readers.  And then I was lucky enough to nab an ARC of this new book from someone who attended ALA Midwinter (thanks Marge!)

Out of the Wild is one of those incredibly rare sequels that is even better than the first book.  The green hungry mass of the Wild has returned to hiding in Julie’s bedroom, but her community still feels the effects of having once been swallowed by the Wild.  When the Wild swallows one of the Three Blind Mice, Julie and her mother are astonished to see that her father is spit out, returned to her mother after 500 years apart.  Her father is confused by this new world, but continues to act as a prince in a fairy tale.   He can’t be stopped from trying to rescue Sleeping Beauty despite the fact that his beloved is also in some danger.  Julie chases after her father on his quest, desperate to continue protecting the secret of the fairy tale characters living in the real world.  But her father is impossible to stop even when they realize that they are walking into a trap.

Durst’s writing continues to be the same high quality as the original book.  Her tone is completely consistent between the books, two halves of a whole story.  After the first story, I never expected a sequel.  It had been a completely satisfying and complete tale.  But now having read the second book, I realize that half of the story was missing though I didn’t know it at the time.  What an accomplishment – to create a complete tale and then create another book that makes the first even more complete and powerful.

Durst’s books are very friendly, filled with humor, and will be enjoyed by many types of readers.  This is fantasy that has an ease about it and should be recommended to readers who enjoy fantasy but also to any child who enjoys a great read.  Highly recommended for ages 9-12.