It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 11/16/15

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

My pick of the week is Wish Girl by Nikki Lofton.  Beautiful, lyrical, heartbreaking, but ultimately uplifting, Wish Girl is Lofton's follow up to Nightingale's Nest.  While I appreciated the extraordinary writing and carefully crafted characters in Nightingale's Nest, the darkness of that book was hard for me to absorb.  What was unwritten and unsaid was almost as powerful as what was written and said; for me, it was an unsettling read.

When I started Wish Girl I was afraid that I might be in for a similar sort of uncomfortable reading experience.  Peter doesn't fit in his family; he is quiet and reflective where his parents and sisters are brash and loud.  When the family has to move to the hills of the Texas countryside, everyone is stressed out by the change.  Peter, though, takes comfort in the nature around him, reveling in a magical valley, where he finally feels at home.  It is in the valley that he meets Annie, the "wish girl."   Annie has cancer and she is attending a nearby camp, sponsored by the Make a Wish Foundation.  

What could have been a grim, dark story is actually surprisingly filled with light and beauty.  That is partly because of the way that Lofton describes the valley - the sunlight, the flora and fauna, the sense of peace that it exudes - but also because Annie is, despite being in a very perilous position health wise, a complete fire cracker.  She is joyful, funny, and an amazingly loyal friend.  Together she and Peter discover the mysteries and magic in the valley, while also uniting against a couple of local bullies.  

I felt a fair amount of trepidation as I neared the end of Wish Girl but, without giving away too much, I'll say that I thought that the resolution was perfect.  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10/26

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

As we draw closer to the end of the year, I feel a great urgency to read as many middle grade c2015 titles as I possibly can for Maine Student Book Award contention.  Before I was on this committee, I really had no idea how incredibly challenging it is to develop a well-balanced, please-everyone list!  Because the MSBA list targets students in grades 4-8, it includes a huge age range of readers.  It's rare to find a book that would suit that full spectrum of ages, not to mention the full spectrum of interests.  I'm grateful to other members of the MSBA committee who are as obsessive as I am about ferreting out possible titles for the list!

So, here's one in contention: My Diary from the Edge of the World (publication date November 3) by Jodi Lynn Anderson.  Magical realism can sometimes be a bit hit or miss for me, but in this book Anderson takes such great care with both the magical elements and the realism.  Gracie and her family live in Maine, until they decide that they must take a huge leap and try to find the Extraordinary World.  You see, life on this planet is really different - sasquatches, angels, and dragons all coexist with humans and life can be very dangerous with this heady mixture of creatures.  Most unnerving is the fact that a dark cloud has gathered and appears to be coming for Gracie's younger brother, Sam.  In this world, a dark cloud means death and the family is determined to outrun it.  They set off for the Extraordinary World, a place that Gracie's dad is convinced exists.  There is an adventure aspect to this book, then, as the family traverses across the continent, dodging dragons, befriending (sort of) a sasquatch, and relying upon an angel to deliver them safely.  But, each character also goes on an intense internal quest, of sorts, as they determine who they are and where they are going.  Anderson's storytelling is, at times, truly lyrical and a surprising late plot twist truly took my breath away.  This is a beautiful book, about the journeys that we all must make over the course of our lives - at times joyful, at times painful.  

It is also a very long book, which will require a fair amount of stamina for middle grade readers.  Resolute fantasy readers will love it!  


Some other books I've read and enjoyed recently:

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10/5/15

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

It was an exciting week for me because Brian Selznick's The Marvels arrived in the mail.  Wow, this book  is quite a presence even before you open it - it is massive (bigger than a brick), the cover is a lush, rich purple and the pages are gilded on the edges.  So, it is impressive before you even crack it open.  Once inside it feels quite similar to The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck; one notable difference is that the first half is almost exclusively illustrated, while the second half is almost exclusively text (whereas in the previous two books there was some text interspersed with the illustrations).  I love Brian Selznick's illustrations because they truly do set the scene in impeccable detail.  The Marvels spans decades and centuries and the drawings capture each era perfectly.  

For me, the switch from illustration to words was just a little bit jarring.  I wasn't quite ready to leave the world of pictures behind (or make the leap two hundred years forward to the 1990s), but once I adjusted, I was just as captivated by the words as I had been by the illustrations.  That said, I was so happy that Selznick chose to return to the art of visual storytelling at the very end of the book.

For those who love Brian Selznick's style, The Marvels will not disappoint.  For those who are unfamiliar with his work, this will be, well, a marvel.  As an elementary school librarian, I think this book is a little more complex than Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck; I found myself making quite a few mental connections and leaps as I was reading, wondering if my students would be able to keep up.  I know that they will be awed by the book and I'm looking forward to seeing what they think!

Other books I read and enjoyed this week:

This is SUCH a cool book!  Great for all ages.

              

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/18/15

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

Jennifer Nielsen's The False Prince was on the Maine Student Book Award 2013-'14 list and it was (and still is) one of the most popular books in my library.  Kids were drawn to the action and intrigue and the extremely sympathetic main characters.  I recently read a book that reminded me a bit of Nielsen's False Prince and I am hopeful that it, too, will be wildly popular for middle grade readers.

The Whisperer by Fiona McIntosh is a retelling of The Prince and the Pauper (although one doesn't need to know the original tale to enjoy McIntosh's version). In this telling, Lute is the crown prince who is in grave danger at the hands of his own uncle, who wants the throne. Griff can hear the thoughts of people around him, which feels more like a curse than a gift when his unscrupulous traveling show manager forces him to use this power for profit. The two boys are connected in a surprising way and with the help of Tess and her menagerie of mystical creatures (including a gryphon and a centaur) they must save their lives and the kingdom.  

Readers who enjoy fairy tales, action and adventure, and strong protagonists will love The Whisperer!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/11/15

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

After a rather lengthy blogging vacation, I'm back!  My blogging hiatus helped me realize that I read too much to try to extensively review all the books I read.  So, in this new, improved version of my blog, I am only going to highlight one (or maybe two, if I can't help myself) book from the previous week.  I'll continue to review books on GoodReads, but here at Bibliothecary Prescriptions I'm going to really just focus on my favorite books, or maybe those that are the most thought-provoking or question-inducing.  So, without further ado...

Pam Munoz Ryan's latest book, Echo, is truly magnificent.  It is getting lots of Newbery buzz and was starred by School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.  Oddly, I was a little bit reluctant to read it.  It is HUGE, and I mean HUGE, coming in at almost 600 pages.  Generally I don't shy away from long books, but I know that many of my upper elementary student readers do.  So, I didn't want to waste my time reading a book that my students won't touch simply because it is so long.  Having read it, though, I now know that the trick will be convincing them that despite its heft, this is a surprisingly quick read.  Once I picked it up (sitting outside in the sun, which was an astonishing thing to be able to do here in mid-coast Maine after an epic winter), I truly couldn't put it down and finished it over the course of a weekend.

Echo is a beautiful blend of fairy tale, fantasy and historical fiction.  It opens and ends with a fairy tale and sandwiched in between are three different stories, all tied together by one unique harmonica.  The three middle stories take place just before through just after World War II.  Without giving too much away, I will only say that the voices of Friedrich, Mike and Ivy are all distinct and unique.  Ryan captures something beautiful and lonely in each of them.  One extraordinary, magical harmonica unites them and  readers can feel, almost viscerally, how music can bring comfort even in the most desperate of situations.  The end of this book - don't worry, no spoilers here - is truly brilliant, breathtaking, astonishing... all the superlatives that can be applied to a book.  

I love this book.  Now, my challenge as a children's librarian is to figure out how to convince my middle grade students that 600 pages is not too many when the story is this extraordinary!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/15/14

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

By accident I read several books that fall in that in-between middle grade and YA readership this week.  These are great books for kids who aren't quite ready for some of the themes and topics that appear in YA lit, but have moved a bit beyond elementary school.






When Audrey Met Alice by Rebecca Behrens is told alternately in the modern-day voice of Audrey, first daughter living in the White House, and Alice Roosevelt, former first daughter.  I found this book quite compulsively readable, even as I was mentally critiquing the lack of authenticity of Alice Roosevelt’s supposed diary. The premise is just really fun - a modern day first daughter (with very modern interests and worries) connects to a turn of the century first daughter via a primary source. Audrey’s voice was much more credible than Alice’s, but I both characters convey well the inherent challenges of being a teenager in the White House.  This is a quick fun read.






How could I not love a book entitled The Ninja Librarians?  The first book in a planned series by Jen Swann Downey, this installment introduces us to Dorrie and Marcus, siblings who accidentally fall into a passage to Petrarch's Library.  There, they discover an undercover world of "Lybririans" who are using very unconventional means to essentially save the world.  The sword-wielding, freedom fighting, time traveling librarians are a hoot!






Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire really defies classification.  Is it a fairy tale?  Sort of.  Is it a fantasy?  Yes, and... so much more.  Elena lives in the impoverished Russian countryside, desperately trying to keep her sick mother alive, despite a dire lack of food and warmth.  One day a train comes to town (it is definitely the year of the train in children's literature), carrying Cat, a noble girl on her way to present an important gift to the tsar.  Through a series of mishaps, the girls end up trading places and the peasant Elena is on the train hurtling towards the tsar and Cat is left hungry in the village.  From there, things get very interesting, as Baba Yaga and other fairy tale creatures and characters appear.  The magic is perfectly blended into the realism and the suspense of what might happens next kept me turning pages briskly.  This is a long book (almost 500 pages) so it requires some stamina, but it is worth it!




Finally, J. Patrick Lewis's Harlem Hellfighters is something beautiful to behold. Free verse poetry and amazing illustrations about a regiment of African American soldiers who fought in World War I alongside the French. The text is fairly minimal for such a big topic and yet it manages to convey the magnitude and music of the Harlem Hellfighters. This is a very impressive offering.

It's Monday! What are You Reading? 12/8/14

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

I'm behind on my blogging, so here's what I've been reading of late:


The Perfect Place

Sparkers

The Map to Everywhere

Saving Lucas Biggs

Nightmares!

Boys in Blur

Seven Stories Up

Like Water on Stone

Hunt for the Bamboo Rat

Winter Bees

A Sudden Light

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 11/10/14

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

Here are some highlights from my last week or so of reading:

Recommended for gr. 6-12

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander: 
What a wonderful voice for middle school readers!  Josh Bell plays basketball and the words on the pages of this book express the lyricism of the game.  It's not just about basketball, though.  I was impressed by how deftly Alexander wove themes of family and friendship into this poetic narrative, and all does not end happily, to my surprise.  I appreciate it when authors have the nerve to inject sorrow into the end of their books - it's rare and I know that not everyone likes it, but to me it feels true to life.  Alexander manages to do sorrow without being depressing, which is a feat!





Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana:

Recommended for gr. 5-8

It's interesting that 2014 brought more than one exceptional Hurricane Katrina book to the world of children's literature.  I loved Rodman Philbrick's Zane and the Hurricane and I thought it was going to be hard to top it in terms of emotional impact, but Lamana's story is both brutal and realistic.  Readers who felt that Philbrick's treatment of the subject contained a few too many coincidences and and an unrealistic happy ending might appreciate Lamana's hopeful yet honest conclusion.  The characters in Upside Down and in the Middle of Nowhere will stay with readers for a very long time. 

Recommended for gr. 5-8

The Castle Behind Thorns by Merrie Haskell:
Mending magic, curses, saints and princesses - this is a rich fantasy with both fairy tale and dystopian elements.  The two main characters, children from very different backgrounds who are stuck together in a castle guarded by malevolent thorns, are both sympathetic and realistically flawed.  The world that they create behind the castle walls is lovely and magical.  Fantasy readers will delight in this beautifully written and well imagined tale.

Recommended for gr. 8-12

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia 
by Candace Fleming:
Another winner by Fleming!  This is a very fascinating account of the end of the Romanov family rule in Russia.  While it is ostensibly a family biography, Fleming provides a vast backstory, including information about the Russian society, politics, religion, history and economy.  I was captivated and now have a few other Romanov books on my "to read" list.


 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10/20/14

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

                            A kid foodie...                                                               A band of kid thieves...

                         
                           A boy who can speak to ravens...                               A plague run amok...


My week of reading highlights for me the amazing diversity of children's literature!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10/6/14

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.


Finally, a middle grade fantasy with cats!  Given the title and topic of The Forbidden Library, I thought it might be one of those books that appeals more to librarians than anyone else. As it turns out, though, it is a rich fantasy with a sympathetic protagonist and some interesting (and shady) secondary characters.  Set in a Victorian-era-esque time, Alice overhears her father being threatened by a menacing fairy shortly before his death. She is sent to live with an “uncle” who has a creepy, magical library. Before long, she is entering books (à la Inkheart) and trying to figure out who is friend and who is foe.  One of the more endearing characters in this rich book is Ashes, a talking cat (or, as he likes to remind Alice, half cat).  Like so many other characters in this story, Ashes is not clearly good or clearly evil - his identity keeps shifting, keeping readers guessing about his intentions.  The Forbidden Library appears to be the first in a planned series and I look forward to the next one!



Tony Abbott has published ninety nine books.  Yes,  ninety nine!  He has it down.  His latest series, The Copernicus Legacy starts with The Forbidden Stone.  In it, four preteens and one dad head to Europe to attend the unexpected funeral of Uncle Henry, an astronomy professor who has, as it turns out, been murdered.  One of the kids has a star chart given to him years before by Uncle Henry; quickly the group realizes that the chart holds the key to a tremendous, deadly mystery.  Together, they try to solve it.   For whatever reason, I had a hard time feeling invested in this quest.  The characters all worked well, but their mission itself never quite became cohesive to me.  This may be because The Forbidden Stone is only the first of a planned twelve book series and it is just getting off the ground.



The most astonishing thing about Just Jake is that it was written by a 7th grader (Jake himself).  Jake is living at the pinnacle of "awesomeness" when his family must abruptly move from Florida to Maryland, where he is decidedly less cool.  He slowly makes inroads with his new peers, constantly assessing the best way to become cool once again.  The format of this book is very friendly, with cartoons, sketches and photographs embedded throughout.  For readers who enjoyed The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and are ready for a slightly older narrator, this will be a hit!







Finally, I was thrilled to receive an advance readers copy of Anita Diamant's The Boston Girl from NetGalley.   I've read a few of Anita Diamant's books and my memory of them is that they are a bit tome-like.  The Boston Girl was much lighter, easier, in a sense, to read.  It takes place in Boston in the early 20th century and it is really the coming of age story of three sisters who are daughters of immigrants.  The narrator, Addie, is the youngest daughter and she yearns to escape the confines of her parents' rigid upbringing and the constrictions placed on women in the early 1900s.  Through her eyes, we see the way a woman, a family, a city and the world change over the course of close to one hundred years.



Now that the (Red Sox) baseball season is over, I'm happily becoming even more of a book geek.  Happy reading to all!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/22/14

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.



I received a big box of books from Penguin recently (thank you Penguin!) and it is full of potential award winners, including...


The Glass Sentence by S.E Grove is a big, meaty fantasy that takes place in an alternative world.  It’s 1891, but not the1891 that we know.  In this version of the world, something called the Great Disruption has caused the globe to essentially break apart, leaving it forever altered. Instead of different cultures and languages across the world, there are different ages. Sophia's parents have disappeared into another age and she is being raised by her uncle, a brilliant cartologist.  When he is kidnapped, though, Sophia goes to the dangerous Baldlands to search for him. She is a smart, strong character and her relationships are achingly vulnerable.  Although it took me a few chapters to get my head around this altered reality, Grove’s world-building abilities are truly quite amazing.  This is a big book (in every way) and I think it would be most appreciated by readers who love to fully and completely immerse themselves in an imaginary construct.



There has been so much discussion about the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign that the first thought I had when I saw The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond was "Ah ha!  A diverse book!" which is, of course, a rather limiting (and limited reaction) to a book.  Thus, I was really pleased to discover that this is a story with rich characters who evolve in meaningful and realistic ways.  What I especially loved about this book is that although it is about a biracial girl finding her identity, her voice is universal and one doesn’t need to be biracial to relate.







Kristin Levine's follow up to Lions of Little Rock is another historical fiction, but The Paper Cowboy is much darker.  Set in the 1950s, Tommy dreams of being a cowboy, but instead he’s quickly becoming a bully in response to the abuse that he suffers at the hands of his mother.  I literally could not read this for extended periods of time because the physical abuse combined with the bullying that the protagonist engages in was just too much for me.  Readers would benefit from some background knowledge on McCarthyism and will need a strong stomach to handle the difficult issues raised by Levine.  This is a powerful book!





Finally, my book group chose two YA reads for this month and reading both was like snacking on sweet chocolate candies... I couldn't stop!