Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck
by Brian Selznick

Ben is now living with his aunt and uncle in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota.  His mother just died.  He never knew his father.  Always hard of hearing in one ear, he recently lost the hearing in his good ear because of lightning.  The only clues he has as to who his father might be is the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.  Rose is a deaf girl living in New Jersey.  Her parents are not sympathetic to her.  They keep her trapped in the house for fear of what could happen to her.  She escapes to New York City to stay with her older brother.  His story is told in words, hers in pictures.  And they’re told 50 years apart.  But the allure of the magic of museums ties these two stories together.

For the first part of the book, I was afraid that this was going to be just like Hugo Cabret.  Even though Selznick is now telling two stories, the format of Hugo was just so groundbreaking, no one had seen anything like it before.  We have seen something like this before.  And that’s not to say it isn’t good.  It’s a wonderfully written and told story.  I loved it.  It definitely became its own creation when the two stories started to twist together and you’re not at all thinking of Hugo.  Like with his last book, Selznick did massive amounts of research to get the experiences of what it was like to be deaf during each of the eras he discusses.  The work is seamless and believable, even when it surprises you.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

Stupid Fast

Stupid Fast
by Geoff Herbach

Felton Reinstein has always been a bit off.  His little brother is crazy good at the piano.  His mom is a hippy.  And his dad committed suicide.  He’s either been ignored or bullied by almost everyone in the neighborhood until the summer he is 15.  That’s when he gets stupid fast.  Stupid fast, stupid strong, and stupid hairy.  He doesn’t understand it, but it makes him all of the sudden be noticed by the jocks and noticed by a particular new girl in town who is even crazy better at the piano than his brother.  This situation seems great, except that being stupid fast makes Felton’s mother stupid crazy.  While trying to maintain the cool image outside, his home life is falling to pieces.  None of it makes sense.

I don’t normally read sports stories.  I couldn’t care less about football.  But I’d heard good things about this book.  And here is what I agree with: it’s a great book for guys who don’t like to read.  It’s about a popular topic; and it’s not written in complicated language – it sounds like Felton has some kind of developmental disability and he’s not altogether there.  Or maybe he’s just socially awkward given his upbringing.  But he’s got a very relatable voice, one that I recognized in some young men I knew growing up.  This book definitely has a gender bias and I probably wouldn’t recommend it to too many girls.  But there’s enough adrenaline in this book to keep a guy powering through to the end.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

So B. It

So B. It
by Sarah Weeks

Heidi doesn’t know a whole lot about her family.  She has her mother, So B. It, who is mentally incapacitated and only knows 23 phrases.  And she has Bernadette, her agoraphobic neighbor who raises her and homeschools her and helps her with her mother.  She doesn’t know about her father or her grandparents or even where the name Heidi came from.  Her quest for this knowledge about her own life consumes her.  It stems from one of her mother’s words: soof.  She can’t figure out what it means or who it means.  When she finds a picture of her mother, pregnant, a woman who is possibly her grandmother, and an address that goes along with it, Heidi is determined to cross the country to figure out who her family is and who she is.

It’s really hard to describe this book in a short paragraph – it packs a lot between the covers.  This was recommended to me by one of my coworkers.  It is beautifully written with characters you want to get to know.  These are people I came to care about in the few pages I was with them.  Heidi is also inexplicably lucky, and it was interesting to see how her luck played out in the story.  Each chapter is one of So B. It’s 23 phrases.  I don’t know in what order Weeks picked them, if she wrote the story first and then picked the words or had the words in mind and then built a story from it, but either way, it’s enchanting.  If you’re not the fantasy fluff type, this book might just be the thought-provoking, heart-playing read for you.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

The Uglified Ducky

The Uglified Ducky
by Willy Claflin and James Stimson (illus.)

Have you ever felt like maybe you were born into the wrong family?  Like a porcupine born into a family of kangaroos?  Or a bunny born into a family of rhinoceroses?  Well this is the story of a little moose who felt that way because he’d been born into a family of duckies.  And no matter how hard you try, you can’t make a moose act like a ducky.

This is not a book to make kids feel better about awkward feelings they may have toward their family.  This is a book for kids who can have a good laugh at the expense of a classic fairy tale.  This book is for me.  I say hooray for the sillyness and moosy accents and morals like “Everybody is a beautiful something or other.”

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

Stitches: A Memoir

Stitches: A Memoir
by David Small

David Small grew up in a harsh family.  His mother never displayed any emotion but anger.  His father never displayed any emotion at all.  His older brother kept to himself, which meant that David was alone with his thoughts and his drawings.  When he was 11, he discovered a growth on his neck.  His parents did not have it operated on until he was 14.  When he woke up from the surgery, his vocal chords had been destroyed.  He’d stayed silent by choice as a child in his household – now the decision had been made for him.  Among many of the secrets they kept from him, his parents never told him it was cancer.  Stitches chronicles the very hard beginnings of the now very respected artist and author, David Small.

While reading this graphic novel, all I could really think of was, “Wow.  This is an awful way for anyone to grow up.”  This is not a story for the faint-hearted.  There is not really anything visually grotesque about Small’s illustrations.  No, everything that disturbed me about this book is in the story.  The sad, true story.  The haunting images that establish the setting just augment the bleakness.  Very powerful.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

Another Faust

Another Faust
by Daniel and Dina Nayeri

The Faust children are more than remarkable.  Belle is a ravishing beauty.  Victoria is a genius.  Christian is a star athlete.  Valentin’s poetry could bring Shakespeare to tears.  And Bicé probably knows more languages than anyone else alive.  They all have strange and wonderous “gifts” and “talents.”  All of them were adopted by their strange and powerful governess, or so two of them think.  The other three really know how they came to live there and know the full extent of the situation in which they are living.  Having lived abroad for many years, their governess has brought them now to the prestigious Marlowe School in New York for them to hone their talents and essentially begin to take over the world.  But the five children could never predict what would happen this year.

If you know anything about the legend of Faust, you probably know the basis of this story.  I didn’t.  I went here to learn more about it when I was around 1/4 into the book.  I started to get a lot more out of the book.

I really wanted to read the 2nd book in this series (Another Pan), but I figured I should read the first one first.  When I got hold of it, I was immediately intrigued by the cover.  It reminded me of the movie Cruel Intentions, because teenagers do not dress or live like that, and that story is one of my guilty pleasures.  I thought this book was great.  First of all, I’m impressed that a brother-sister team wrote it.  I don’t think I could write a Christmas card with my brother, let alone a series of novels.  Secondly, I enjoy modern tie-ins with classic literature.  Even though I’d never read any of the Faust legends, this book made me want to read them, and hopefully it will inspire teens to do the same.  Thirdly, I was captivated by the writing style from the introduction.  When there are many characters involved in a story, some authors have difficulty writing each character clearly so that you can imagine each one.  Not the Nayeris.  I could distinguish each character, primary and secondary, throughout the entire novel, and I truly appreciate that.

I feel like I’m not doing this book justice in my review of it.  But I don’t want to give too much away.  I guess you’ll just have to pick it up for yourself.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

Because I Am Furniture

Because I Am Furniture
by Thalia Chaltas

Anke has witnesses many terrible things every day, all because of her father.  She sees him disrespect and cheat on her mother, beat her brother, and the aftermath of repeated sexual assaults on her sister.  But he ignores her.  For whatever reason, she doesn’t attract any of his attention, positive or negative.  Anke doesn’t know how much longer her family can go on living like this.  Any family, even an effed up one like this, is better than no family, right?  Maybe not.  One place where she finds solace is in her high school volleyball team.  And she also finds out she has strength.  And a voice.  Perhaps it’s finally time for someone to speak up about the atrocities that happen at home instead of keeping them secret.

It may sound awful, but my thoughts toward Anke’s father is that this man hit the abuse home run: verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect.  And I don’t mean that to be funny.  It’s sick and sad, and there are people who live like this.  But then there are people like Anke who are willing to risk everything in the face of such evil to protect what she loves.  Between yesterday’s post and today’s, I am amazed at how the verse novel tends to evoke such horrid situations.  But the broken phrases I suppose reflect the broken thoughts in a battered heart.  I think I’m done with novels in verse for a little while.  I had some residual ones hanging out from a blog project this semester, but I think it’s time I get back into some prose.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

A Step from Heaven

A Step from Heaven
by An Na

A Step from Heaven follows the life of Young Ju from early childhood through her teenage years.  Beginning in Korea, living with her parents and grandmother, her family moves to America when she is 5.  It’s not quite what she thought it would be.  She though America would be heaven, where she could see God and her grandfather.  Instead it’s a strange country where she has to learn a new language and her family changes in many, many ways.  She gets a new baby brother, she hardly sees her mother because of the jobs she has to work, and her father becomes an angrier, more abusive man.  Young Ju is torn between her Korean devotion to her family (mostly her mother) and the new found freedoms America offers to women.

I had a difficult time reading this book.  The language is complex, including undefined Korean terms.  It became easier to read the further along it goes and Young Ju learns more English, but, for example, you have to figure out for yourself pretty early on what the difference between Apa, Uhmma, Halmoni, and Harabugi is.  For someone like me who has had little experience with the Korean language or culture, it can be a deterrent from reading this book.  I was not able to relate much to this character, either.  Overall, I’m unimpressed, and I wonder why this book beat out the other nominees for the Printz Award.  I will say, though, that it had an absolutely perfect ending.  I might not have cared much for the story, but its conclusion was beautiful.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

The 39 Clues: Into the Gauntlet

The 39 Clues: Into the Gauntlet
by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Warning!!!  Contains spoilers!!

Amy, Dan, and Nellie are close.  So very close to the end of the clue hunt, they can taste it.  It’s hard to believe that only a month before, they were at their grandmother’s funeral.  Now they are racing against time and against one of the most evil women on the planet for the most powerful thing on earth.  This final series of clues takes them to London, England, and through the life of the great bard, William Shakespeare.  Of course, Amy, Dan and Nellie are not the only ones to have figured this out.  All of their enemies are right in front of their faces: Alistair, the Holts, the Kabras, Jonah Wizard, and a few surprise others, all waiting for the Cahills’ next move and waiting to take whatever they find from them.  But that’s not what Madeleine and Olivia Cahill had in mind when they began this clue hunt.  Will their ultimate goal prevail?

IT’S HERE!  IT’S HERE!  My second most highly anticipated series conclusion of the summer is sitting beside me, leaving the reader with multiple varieties of satisfaction.  The previous books, especially the 9th one, set up the story in such a way that there was really only one way it could end.  So there weren’t many surprises as a reader (save one)… but the rest of the family is in for some huge surprises.  You already know everything of course, if you’ve been reading along.  But all of the kids from each branch of the family begins to learn the unsavory truths about their families… and they begin to learn the truth about themselves.  Are they really as ruthless as their parents?

I totally give this series an “A.”  It’s a little corny at some points (which is why it’s not an “A+”), but it totally hooks you in.  And kids don’t even realize they’re learning about history and geography.  It’s crazy.  And the characters are wonderful.  The Librarianista wonders: if you’ve been reading this series, who are your favorite characters?  Mine are the Holts

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

The Book Thief

The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak

I don’t know what you’ve heard about this book.  Before I picked it up, I had heard that 1) it was about World War II, and 2) it was narrated by Death.  This is true on both counts.  What I hadn’t heard was how beautiful the book was.  That word doesn’t even do it justice.  I shall try (and most likely fail) to explain.

Death is recounting a story that he watched part of, and then read most of in a young German girl’s memoir.  This girl is Liesel Meminger.  Just before she turns 10 in 1939, she is placed into foster care for reasons she doesn’t understand.  She stole her first book at her six year-old brother’s funeral.  She must build a new life in a new family, a new community, and in a new Germany.  Her new Mama swears and does laundry.  Her new Papa is gentle and plays the accordion.  He teaches Liesel how to read.  The neighbor boy becomes her best friend and falls in love with her from the moment she first beats him in soccer.  Her Papa keeps a promise, and Liesel’s family hides a Jew in their basement.  Words and books captivate Liesel.  Liesel’s story captivates Death.  World War II happens.

There is so much to say about this book.  But in my head, it only comes down to one word: beautiful.  And even that doesn’t seem to do it justice.  It may seem sick that I would think a book that covers this topic is something lovely, but give it a try before you judge me.  First of all, the language is heart-wrenchingly beautiful.  I’ve never been so glad to cry such sad tears.  The colors…  And the characters!  Even Death becomes a character.  And he is not to be feared… it’s not that you feel bad for him, but it makes you wonder.  He asks lots of good questions.  This book is sad.  How can it not be?  There are small glimmers of hope in humanity, but let’s face it–this story takes place during one of the blackest moments in human history.  But this is the kind of book that makes you want to change yourself (or at least more aware of yourself) so that, God willing, should you ever be put up against a tyrant, you wouldn’t just do as you’re told.

There is only one minor, technical thing I would have asked Mr. Zusak to do differently; but that will be between he and I, if we ever converse and if he were to give a lick about my opinion

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com