Archives – August, 2010
MY LIFE WITH THE LINCOLNS
Author: Gayle Brandeis
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Pages: 246
ISBN: 9780805090130
Publication date: 16 March 2010
Review book source: ARC from the publisher
Mina Edelman is twelve years old and she’s convinced that her family is the Lincoln family reincarnated. Among the other coincidences she finds to back this idea up, her father’s initials are ABE and he even dresses like Lincoln to promote his furniture store, Honest ABE’s. But the Lincolns all met with such terrible ends, so Mina worried a lot about how she’ll protect everyone: she studies medical texts, is always on the lookout for danger (especially when she’s around her father), and always has a contingency plan.
But it’s not just the name and their Illinois home that makes Mina think her father is Abraham Lincoln; it’s the summer of 1966 and her dad has discovered Martin Luther King Jr. and the Chicago Freedom Movement. He takes Mina along to marches and demonstrations and lectures, making Mina even more worried for his safety. His commitment to the movement grows–even if it does miss the mark sometimes, like when he fires their black housekeeper to “liberate” her despite her protests that she needs the job to pay her bills–and he vows to bring the movement to where he lives in Downers Grove. But his work with the movement and his growing relationship with fellow protester Carla is driving a wedge between Mina’s parents. Can she keep her family safe, sane, and together?
I had a little trouble staying interested in this book–it seemed like it was taking a long time for things to actually start happening–but I liked Mina’s humorous reporting on the world around her (among other things, she writes a newsletter for her father’s store with Lincoln facts and furniture sales pitches), and I think the blend of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, her parents’ strained relationship, a short section about a mass murderer, and some sibling drama is a good one. Puberty concerns are also interspersed with the family drama, the civil rights work, and her tenuous friendship with her neighbor.
Mina’s discovery of social justice and the way her awareness of discrimination in the world develops a lot throughout the book, and the different reactions to the social justice movement of the people around her would make this a good book for class discussion for middle grade readers. There are some references to body parts (using both medical terminology and slang terms) and a few racial slurs, though.
I don’t really remember reading a lot of books set during the Vietnam War when I was growing up, but in the last year or two I’ve read or run across a number of stories set in or about the 1960s, including MY LIFE WITH THE LINCOLNS, CRISS CROSS, THE WEDNESDAY WARS, THIS MEANS WAR!, and (kind of) STRANDED IN HARMONY. I suppose it’s because we’re gaining more historic distance from this time and can better reflect on it, but also (mostly?) because YA writers grew up during this time and are writing from experience.
More reviews at
August 11, 2010
The YA Fantasy Showdown, which will pit characters from young adult books against one another (an equal mix of male and female characters with at most one from each series) in a bracket-style tournament that will see only one left standing, begins today! But this isn’t just match-and-vote:
There will be stats and a mock battle for each set of characters, but in the end, it’s the readers who vote and decide who will move on. A list of advantages and disadvantages of each character will be given for an easy reference for those who are not familiar with any particular character. But even cooler is this – we’ve asked the authors to participate as well. They have a chance to write out their own battle and advocate their character. I honestly don’t know how many authors will participate, but the invitations have all been sent out, and there have even been a few nibbles.
Heather Zundel of The Secret Adventures of Writer Girl is coordinating the project to help stave off her desperation for the release of MOCKINGJAY, and she’s gotten some authors in on the project. One of today’s matchups is Edward Cullen vs. Katsa and already I’m pleased:
“You know what I am,” Edward said. “Say it.”
“Don’t know. Don’t care,” Katsa said, thrusting her wrist up into his solar plexus.
The other fights in Round 1:
Go check out the characters’ stats and speculation on how the fights might play out and then vote!
August 10, 2010
I somehow fell behind on Internet stuff and have been working over the last couple weeks to catch up. I still have email to take care of and my Instapaper queue is a complete disaster, but I’ve finally caught up on all of my Google Reader feeds. Here are some things from the last month or two I found especially interesting.
“Life & Death in YA Lit” at Jacket Whys uses Wordle word clouds to pull out common terms in YA book titles and compare them to the common words in summaries of and subject headings those books. Covers featured “dead,” “dark,” “love,” and “life,” but the summaries and subject headings mostly focused on high school with dashes of friendships, certain ages, interpersonal relations, love, family, and the supernatural.
Alicia the LibrariYAn provides four suggestions for people who want to be librarians to teens and tweens.
I wasn’t able to make it to ALA Annual this year, but the blog coverage of the conference was pretty thorough. I was especially bummed to not be able to attend the Printz Award ceremony since Libba Bray won with GOING BOVINE, which she talked about during the Genre Galaxy preconference at last year’s annual. But Stephanie Kuenn covered the Printz speeches for the YALSA blog, so I was at least able to watch Libba’s speech and oh man was it awesome:
Monica of Educating Alice talked about summer reading as leisure reading while also making the case for quality literature during the school year. It was great to see an acknowledgement that all reading is reading, but that experts can still guide kids to well-written books–and teach them how to tell good literature from not-so-good.
I also really loved Sarah’s GreenBeanTeenQueen post about what characters in YA books read. She was disappointed that in so many books, characters who mention how much they like reading or how important it is always seem to be reading “the classics” and not great YA books. And while she admits that there’s nothing wrong with teens reading grownup books, I totally agree that having literate characters not reading YA novels misses a great internal advertising opportunity. Great YA lit should be recognized as great and not always put in second place after what grownups read.
I think there’s still a lot of room for analysis of young adult literature, but there are a couple of bloggers out there who are doing critical readings and writing about youth lit. Debbie Reese tirelessly writes about American Indians in children’s literature (which includes YA lit) and Trisha of the YA YA YAs recently reflected on Asian American narratives she encountered growing up and why they left her dissatisfied. Lee Wind also reviews tons of teen books with queer content at I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell do I read? and sometimes writes longer posts about trends or issues he sees in YA lit. And I am so stoked that Angie Manfredi (who presented part of the session I attended at PLA on queering the library) is now writing Fat Girl, Reading, which approaches youth lit from a fat acceptance and feminist perspective. I’m really looking forward to what Angie has to talk about.
August 7, 2010
IMMORTAL BELOVED
Author: Cate Tiernan
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 407
ISBN: 9780316035927
Publication date: 7 September 2010
Review book source: ARC from the publisher
Nastasya has spent the last century in a drunken haze, partying with her friends and living dangerously, trying to drink away her pain and her memories–until one night when things go too far. Abruptly confronted by the depravity of her hedonistic lifestyle and the growing darkness within her heart, she travels to River’s Edge, a sort of rehab facility for immortals, in rural Massachusetts.
Nastasya is initially unsure of whether or not she can be rehabilitated at all and feels prickly and standoffish in a new environment where life is so different. Instead of designer clothes, all-night parties, and constant drinking, the people at River’s Edge wear sensible work clothing, operate an organic farm, and take classes on magick and the world around them to help control their power and their dark impulses.
Adding to Nastasya’s unease is the presence of Reyn, a super-hot immortal she privately names “the Viking god.” He is cold, standoffish, even at times hostile to her, but she is drawn to him and he seems strangely familiar despite his claims that they have never met.
Nastasya doesn’t really feel like she fits in, doesn’t feel like she even knows who she is or what she wants in life, doesn’t think she can handle the simple living and magickal training at River’s Edge, but she does know one thing: she can’t stand the idea of returning to her old life. So she decides to give River’s Edge a one-week trial to see if she can find–and fix–herself.
I really liked the character development in this book. Nastasya starts out as belligerent, impatient, and ignorant, but as the story unfolds, she learns a lot about herself and develops in her ability to grapple with difficult things. We learn about her past–which she’s been suppressing for centuries–through flashbacks and visions, and discover her identity and the culture of immortals as she does. She really changes from the beginning of the story to the end. I also enjoyed how a secondary character becomes darker and more unhinged throughout the story. Reyn is a little boring; all she knows about him is that he’s mysterious and hot, and she can’t really even decide why she finds him so hot. They hardly ever talk and when they do, it’s mostly by sniping at each other. I think their dynamic is pretty standard for YA paranormal romances, but it just doesn’t really do much for me.
I also found the pacing of their relationship to be strange. In their initial meeting he’s very hostile to her and then is completely indifferent and it’s only at the very end that they’re wrapped up in this climactic love/hate whirlwind. I would have liked it if their relationship had grown more gradually, especially after she discovers something that makes her loathe him but before she gives herself over to loving him.
I’m not a huge fan of the cover; it didn’t do a lot to draw me in. I also don’t think the title is very compelling or even representative of the story, since her own rehabilitation and learning about her place in immortal history is much more the focus than her relationship with Reyn. We’ll see what happens in future books: if their relationship is central to the rest of the story, I can see this title working to establish that importance.
This book is the first in a series, and I was so glad there wasn’t a huge cliffhanger at the end. The ending did seem a little rushed, but I think Tiernan strikes a good balance between wrapping up one storyline and leaving unresolved elements of a bigger narrative for the next book.
Despite a few little things I didn’t find completely satisfying, I enjoyed this book a lot. It sucked me in a lot more than I was expecting it to! The story unfolds well, has some surprising twists, and contains lots of different elements–magick, romance, a little bit of a murder mystery vibe near the end, and a dash of historical fiction.The combination of the regular human world, standard neo-pagan magick (using runes and circles, metals and crystals, salt and water), and Tiernan’s imagining of an immortal history and power structure work well together. I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series and suggesting it to teens looking for a book with some romance, a healthy dose of magick, and a character with secrets we get to discover.
More reviews:
Would you like to read and review IMMORTAL BELOVED? Send me your address and I’ll send you the ARC.
August 5, 2010
It’s August and it’s just over three weeks until Suzanne Collins’s MOCKINGJAY, the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy, is released.
I was originally planning to find a bookstore that would be doing a midnight release and camping out to get a copy, but then I got word that Suzanne Collins would be visiting a bookstore not too far from me to do a reading and stamping (rather than a signing, due to a previous injury) a few days after the book comes out, so as much as it’s going to kill me to wait all day Tuesday, all day Wednesday, all day Thursday, and all morning Friday that week (I might have to just stay off the Internet entirely!), I’m going to wait. It’ll be worth it!
Dystopian stories are my favorite, so I’m predisposed to like the Hunger Games trilogy anyway, but I think Collins does a great job of building a whole and complete fantasy world that’s internally consistent in its history, politics, and mythology. I also love the way she gives you just enough of that history to hint at a bigger picture we don’t know yet. And it’s not just in the Hunger Games books that she does this: the Underland Chronicles, which follow the adventures of Gregor the Overlander and are for younger readers, have that same kind of detailed world-building that makes for a successful sci-fi or fantasy book. Anyway, while I’m really on Team Katniss more than I am Team Peeta or Team Gale, I’m really excited to see more of the world Collins has created in MOCKINGJAY and to finally get some answers about District 13!
In the meantime, School Library Journal has an interview with Collins and Michelle of Galleysmith kicks off the 13 District MOCKINGJAY Blog Tour with her post representing District 1. She’s giving away a boxed set of the trilogy, so make sure to enter the contest! Doug of ScifiGuy.ca represents District 2 and will be doing his post this Wednesday.
August 2, 2010
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