Fat Cat (YA)

Brande, Robin. 2009. (October 2009) Fat Cat. Random House. 336 pages.

"You're all good little machines," Mr Fizer told us. He sat there this afternoon in his tweed jacket and his white shirt and plaid bow tie and glared at us over the top of his half-glasses.

Cat hearts science. And she's thrilled to be in Mr. Fizer's class--Fizer's Special Topics In Research science class. A class that is legendary, "not the least because every few years someone has to run out of there on the first day and vomit because of the stress." On the first day of class, each student randomly selects a picture/photo from Mr. Fizer's hands. Your research topic for the year? A complete gamble. No matter your interest, you'll be forced to be "inspired" by the picture you select. No wonder there is stress! What does fate have in store for Cat?

It was an artist's rendering of how these early humans might have lived. There were three men and a woman out in a meadow of some sort. They were all lean and muscular and tan--and did I mention naked? They were gathered around a dead deer, guarding it from a pack of saber-toothed hyenas who were trying to move in and snatch it. One of the men was shouting. The woman had the only weapon--a rock--and she stood there poised to pitch it at the hyenas. It was a great action scene if you're into that sort of thing--the whole anthro-paleo field of studies where you care more about the dead then the living.

Can prehistoric men and women inspire Cat to greatness? Read and see for yourself in Fat Cat. A transformative story about living life to the fullest.

What did I love about this one? Practically everything. I'm not a science person. Not even a little bit. But I loved this novel. Loved that the heroine's passion for science was so strong and intellectual yet always relevant to real life, to the real world. I liked that the novel made me think. Really think. You see, it in a way goes to the science of nutrition, the science of healthy living. And I think every reader can benefit from that exposure. No, reading Fat Cat didn't make me want to become a vegan, I still love my meat. But it did make me think about what changes I would be willing to make. Encouraged me to stick with those changes I've already made. I also loved that science wasn't Cat's only interest. She was passionate about many things--including cooking and swimming. People were also important to her. Her friends. Her family. Especially her little brother. Loved the development of that relationship. Cat was a complex, very human, character that I just loved.

But this isn't just a novel about a diet or lifestyle change. How a fat girl can go from not to hot...It's so much more than that. It's a reflective and smart coming of age novel. It's a romance too. I love Matt. I do. While our heroine, Cat, was loving-to-hate and hating-to-love him, I was loving to love him and cheering this reluctant couple on. It reminded me of some of my favorite reluctant romances--like Anne and Gilbert, for example. This is one giddy-making romance...

They say your muscles have memory. Once you've trained your arms to swing a tennis racket or your legs to ride a bike, you can quit for a while--for years, even--and all it takes is picking up a racket or jumping on a bike again and your muscles remember what to do. They snap right back to performing the way you taught them.
The heart is a muscle, too. And I've been training mine since I was a kid to fall in love with one particular person.... (313)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Love We Share Without Knowing

Barzak, Christopher. 2008. The Love We Share Without Knowing.

Everything you think you know about the world isn't true. Nothing is real, it's all made up. We live in a world of illusion. I'm telling you this up front because I don't want you thinking this story is going to have a happy ending. It won't make any sense out of sadness. It won't redeem humanity in even a small sort of way.

This isn't your traditional novel. If you know that going in, I think you will appreciate it more. Think of it more as a collection of loosely woven short stories. Some stories are more 'connected' than others. The stories share a common thread or two--mainly that of theme. To sum it up in one word: Humanity. What it means to be human, to experience the ups and downs, highs and lows of being human. Love. Loss. Pain. Anger. Bitterness. Frustration. Disappointment. Heartache. Homesickness. Loneliness. Some stories are darker than others. Some seem to be without hope or redemption. Others are more uplifting. What they all have in common, however, is the Barzak touch. He, quite simply, has a way with words. Even if you don't like where the story is going, he keeps you so in love with the words on the page, that you just have to keep reading.

Love isn't what we think. It's a living, changing creature that takes as many shapes as the fox women in the old tales my mother used to tell me. Love comes in and sometimes she's a woman who woos you with soft words and promises. Love comes in and sometimes he's a man with a strong smile and a grip on your shoulder. Love comes in and sometimes it's something beyond the usual circumstances of two people becoming one. It can slip through our hands before we even realize what it is we're holding. (97)

"But sweetheart," said her mother, "the things you don't speak of are the loudest things you say." (146)

We wear our masks in between dreams. It's one of the rules of living here. You can't not wear a mask in those spaces of time. But if you want, you can change the one you've been given. All you have to do is be strong and make it so. (188)

Have you seen Because of Winn Dixie? Do you remember the scenes where the librarian is sharing hard candy with Opal? And Opal is then sharing this candy with others? How every single person has a different way of describing how the candy tastes? That's what this novel was like. That's what this novel was trying to do, in my humble opinion, capture the 101 different flavors of life itself.

All of the stories are set in Japan.

My favorite chapter? Perhaps "If You Can Read This You're Too Close." Listen to how it starts off, "This is the truth. A blind man saw me on the train." Within this story there is a beautiful exchange from which the title of the book comes. But I'm not going to share it here! If you think this one is for you, I encourage you to pick it up and read it for yourself!

I won't lie and say I think this novel is for everyone. The book deals in quite a few chapters with the subject of suicide and the seeming 'hopelessness' of life. (I personally did NOT like the chapter with the suicide club. I do not buy into suicide as a good idea for solving life's hiccups.) It is an adult book, and some of the stories may not be appropriate for younger readers. (Though I think most teens could handle it just fine.)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
If you're reading this post on another site, or another feed, the content has been stolen.

Cassandra's Sister

Bennett, Veronica. 2007. Cassandra's Sister.

Cassandra's Sister is a novel inspired by the life of Jane Austen--a fictional interpretation of her life--her teen years, her first supposed taste of love, the writing of three of her novels: Sense & Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. (They apparently weren't published in the order they were written.) The novel focuses on several things: her family life--her relationships with her sister, Cassandra, and her brothers and their wives, her writing life, and her 'love' life such as it was. It touches upon the limitations of the time--how women didn't have all that many options when it came to life--dependent upon their parents and/or other relatives OR dependent upon a husband. (In that way it reminded me of Katherine Sturtevant's delightful books At the Sign of the Star and A True and Faithful Narrative.) Should a woman marry for security? Should she marry a man because he can provide for her? Or should she remain single, remain an 'old maid' because the right one never came along? Is love a requirement for marriage? Is it wrong to want love? To expect love? To not marry for convenience or security or whatever? It's historical fiction with a tiny bit of romance thrown in--miniscule really--but it's richness in certain details might make it a good choice for young Austen fans.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Shift

Bradbury, Jennifer. 2008. Shift.

It's yellow. There's a bicycle. The cover alone could never persuade me to pick this one up. Yet, I'm glad I did. Really glad. I enjoyed this one a great deal. I like the way this one is told. I like the story. I like the characters. I like satisfying nature of it all. She made me care. The story isn't traditionally told--it's revealed in bits and pieces. We'd have one chapter set in the present, the next chapter set in the past, etc. (This framework is a trend I'm seeing quite a bit of in my Cybils reading.) It's a good coming-of-age story, a realization that change is the only constant in life. The friend you thought you knew, the friend you grew up side by side with isn't necessarily going to keep on the same path that you are. Life changes. Friends change. Families change. You change. You grow. You can grow closer to someone, or you can grow apart. There's no real predicting which will happen. But change can be a good thing--a very good thing in some cases. And it's necessary to living life. Our narrator, Chris, took a bike ride across the country with his best friend, Win, but only one of them returned back home. The other has gone missing. It's the how and why and where of it all that keeps the pages turning...This is the story of both boys--recent high school grads at the beginning of their new lives.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Boy Who Dared

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2008. The Boy Who Dared.

Historical fiction. Based on a true story. Set during World War II. Set in Nazi Germany. This one had all the outer fixings of a novel I'd just love. (Though to be honest, I'm more drawn to memoirs than fiction novels about this time period.) And I did like it. I didn't love it. But it was good. It's a story of courage, of boldness, of standing up and being strong. Could you, would you, do the same? Our hero, our narrator, is Helmuth Hubener. A boy growing into a man during Hitler's reign in Germany. He's not Jewish. He's Mormon. (Or if you prefer LDS). Yet he's so strongly convinced that he must do what is right, what is just no matter the cost to himself. No matter that technically speaking doing what is morally 'right' is legally wrong since Hitler came to power. Powerful story really when you think about it. It was the way it was told that perhaps made this one a 'like' not a 'love.' Still, it's a story worth reading.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Ringside, 1925

Bryant, Jen. 2008. Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial.

I'll keep this one short. And I mean it. Something about this one just didn't work for me. Maybe it was the fact that it was in verse. (Verse novels sometimes exist when they should just be prose. And nobody--but the author perhaps--know why they're in verse in the first place.) Maybe it had too many narrators to suit me. (I liked one or two of the narrators, but there were just too many in this case. All the shifting P.O.V's annoyed me. Maybe if it had been told in two--or just one for that matter--I would have liked it better.) The title says it all: Views From the Scopes Trial. It's historical fiction. It's based on fact. It's got multiple voices represented. If you're interested in the Scopes Trial and/or you're interested in American history in general, then you might want to seek it out. It may work for other readers. It may even work well for others. But not for me. Reading is subjective after all. So still give this one a chance if you come across it. You could end up liking it much more than I did.

Read Sarah Miller's review for a really positive spin on the novel that will completely balance mine out.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Debbie Harry Sings In French

Brothers, Meagan. 2008. Debbie Harry Sings In French.

Debbie Harry Sings In French is an ambitious novel, the author's first novel in fact. Johnny is a young guy with a troubled past--after his father's death, he became a "goth" which had him drinking and (accidentally) dabbling in drugs, all of which freaked out his mother, which then led to him being sent to his uncle's to stay. (Uncle Sam & his son, Bug)

I thought the beginning--not the very beginning mind you--was awkward. Fifty pages spent just getting him to his uncle's house. Fifty pages to get to the actual starting point for the novel.

His uncle lives in South Carolina. Johnny has some difficulty adjusting to his new school. Here he is bullied and teased. A lot. Everyone is calling him names, labeling him gay, (though that's not the word(s) they use. All the time he has people calling him a fag or faggot. And they call his girl, Maria, a fag hag. Maria is the one reason he can't regret moving here. He needs her. He wants her.

Johnny is unique in a way. He's a teen boy obsessed with Blondie, with Debbie Harry in particular. And when he lets it slip that he sometimes wishes he was Debbie Harry, then his girl is ALL about making that wish come true. Marie is a strange character. One that felt unreal to me. Perhaps there are girls out there--girlfriends out there--who are secretly dying to dress up their boyfriends. Get them in dresses. And bras. Get them in heels. Teach them how to walk in heels. Put makeup on them, etc. Encourage and plead with them to enter drag queen competitions. And maybe just maybe this is within the umbrella of authenticity. But it doesn't strike me as natural. I just couldn't understand Maria's angle.

I felt Johnny was a bit passive. This urge to dress in women's clothes doesn't seem to be coming from Johnny--at least not at first. (By the last few pages of the novel, this isn't the case.) It was Maria. It was Maria who saw a dress in the shop. Maria who bought it for him. Maria that told him to try it on. Maria who encouraged him to try women's shoes. To walk in heels. To do it all. And sure once Johnny's got the get up on--the costume on--then he seems to enjoy it. He enters the drag queen contest not because it gives him a thrill. Not because he's attracted to other guys. Not because he feels he is a woman. But because he wants to win the prize money. He wants to win the money to give it to her so she can go see her mom for Christmas. Sure, when asked if he enjoyed wearing these clothes, this costume, he said yes. He tells us that he likes the experience of wearing women's clothes. But almost all of what we're shown is that he's all about Maria. And all the occasions he's worn women's clothes (once in public, a few times to rehearse)...it was always a dressing up to become one woman in particular Debbie Harry. And the "fun" of it...I'm not sure if it comes down to the fact that it is an opportunity to wear women's clothing...OR if it comes from the thrill of stepping up on stage and being admired, getting attention, being someone--anyone--else.

When Johnny's pressed into conversations about what he is--and what he isn't, he always answers that he's not gay. He's attracted to women. He loves one woman, in particular, Maria. Everyone seems to want to label him as something--gay or queer, gay-but-in-denial, transvestite, etc. He's not easily offended by these questions--especially if they're asked politely and don't come right before a hate crime--but he is more of a saint than I would imagine most people are. But it isn't easy to label Johnny. Johnny's just Johnny. No labels needed or wanted. The book begs the question, why do people have to label anyone. Why can't people just be people, just be fellow human beings, just be unique unto themselves.

Other reviews: Abby the Librarian, Oops...Wrong Cookie, Reading Rants, Worth the Trip. From the Corner of Megan's Mind, The Story Siren, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Kendra

Booth, Coe. 2008. Kendra.

There's nothing really different about today.

I loved Coe Booth's first book, Tyrell. I didn't love Kendra as much. But that's not to say I didn't like it. Kendra is fourteen, and in the eyes of her grandmother "Nana" doomed to repeat her mother's mistakes. Kendra's mom had her when she was fourteen. It has been Nana raising her all these years. And as much as Nana loves Kendra, she doesn't want to have to raise another child. Perhaps Nana doesn't know how to best communicate with her granddaughter. Threats and accusations and lectures aren't that effective it turns out. But despite a few mistakes in judgment, Kendra is essentially a good kid.

One of Kendra's best friends is Adonna. They're nearly the same age. They attend the same school. Have some of the same friends. And share a good many interests. Oh, and by the way, they're aunt-and-niece. Adonna's older brother, Kenny, is Kendra's father. The two families are neighbors still. Though Nana doesn't much approve of Kenny or Adonna.

Adonna has a BIG crush on Nashawn. She's adored-him-from-afar for several months at least (if not longer). But it is Kendra that Nashawn begins talking to. Their lockers are side by side. And soon it seems Nashawn is going a bit out of his way to see her...and talk to her...but should Kendra be welcoming Nashawn's attention? That's the question. Should she--knowing of Adonna's feelings--act on her own developing feelings?

Kendra's relationship with Nashawn is not at all innocent. It's messy through and through. Even Kendra herself is confused about WHY it has to be moving so fast...and in directions she's not comfortable with. In a way that makes her feel used, dirty, cheap.

I feel these graphic scenes may turn off some readers--but I'm not the moral police. I never quite know how to address these issues in my reviews. On the one hand, if I point out sensitive subject matters like sex, drinking, drugs, etc. then it might appear that I'm disapproving of it and all judgmental. On the other hand, if I say nothing, then a few readers might be in for a few shocks. Or not. It's all subjective. What is fine for one reader, may be disturbing for another. Or what is fine for fifteen or sixteen may be too much for eleven or twelve. I just think it's better to have a little warning. That way you have a feel for what to expect.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Ellie McDoodle: New Kid In School

Barshaw, Ruth McNally. 2008. Ellie McDoodle: New Kid In School.

I enjoyed this one. I think I enjoyed it even more than the first Ellie McDoodle adventure. In the second book, our little heroine, Ellie, is getting ready to move. And she is not happy one little bit. New home. New neighborhood. New school. Here's how the book begins,

The End.
Seriously. This is the end. I'm doing this new journal to keep track of my family's move to a new house (new city, new schools, new everything.) There won't be much to keep track of, though, because this is the END of everything good.

But of course this is just the beginning. The transition may not be completely smooth--nor painless for that matter--but Ellie does eventually come around to the move.

Ellie is as lovable as ever. And I definitely recommend this to fans of the first. But I hope as well that this one brings new readers. Ellie McDoodle relies heavily on drawings or sketches. Ellie is an artist you see. And these sketches make the novel fun--they're a charming asset to the whole. It's a quick read with a lot of heart.

One of my favorite parts? Soon after the move--I think the very day of the move unless time has clouded things up--Ellie goes off on her own exploring the neighborhood. She's not liking anything she sees...until she spots the library. "Finally! Signs of life. It's a library. This place is humongous! The kids' books are upstairs. So far, so good...I find the books I like and get cozy. It's not too quiet, not too noisy. Lots to look at. And MILLIONS of books. Icould live here." (19-20). She even makes her first friend, the librarian Miss Claire.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

What I Saw and How I Lied

Blundell, Judy. 2008. What I Saw and How I Lied.

What I Saw and How I Lied is one of five books nominated for the National Book Award. It has a great opener, "The match snapped, then sizzled, and I woke up fast." We begin with the ending. That is, most of the novel is a flashback. But we've got three pages too hook us and make us as readers care. (In a very odd way--it reminds me of Rebecca. Don't ask me why. I'm not sure I could pinpoint the reasons clearly and concisely.)

Here's the first page:

The match snapped, then sizzled, and I woke up fast. I heard my mother inhale as she took a long pull on a cigarette. Her lips stuck on the filter, so I knew she was still wearing lipstick. She'd been up all night.
She lay on the bed next to me. I felt her fingers on my hair and I kept sleep-breathing. I risked a look under my eyelashes.
She was in her pink nightgown, ankles crossed, head flung back against the pillows. Arm in the air, elbow bent, cigarette glowing in her fingers. Tanned legs glistening in the darkness. Blond hair tumbling past her shoulders.
I breathed in smoke and My Sin perfume. It was her smell. It filled the air.
I didn't move, but I could tell she knew I was awake. I kept on pretending to be asleep. She pretended not to know. (1)

I thought the opening was great for setting the tone and providing the atmosphere for the novel. Our heroine, Evie, is introduced along with her mother.

When Alice fell down the rabbit hole, she fell slow. She had time to notice things on her way down--Oh, there's a teacup! There's a table! So things seemed almost normal to her while she was falling. Then she bumped down and rolled into Wonderland, and all hell broke loose.
I'd noticed things on the way down, too. I'd seen it all--the way he took off his hat, the way he lit her cigarette, the way she walked away, her scarf trailing in her hand. Flower petals and a pineapple vase. Now I had to look at it again. This time without me in in it, wanting things to go my way. So I've got to start from the very beginning. The day before we left for Florida. Just an ordinary day. (3)

With a title like "What I Saw and How I Died" readers are bound to be a bit suspicious. We know something is coming--possibly something big--we just don't quite know what or when or how and why. Evie is a good narrator--good at keeping your interest. I would imagine this is fairly hard to put down. It's an atmospheric coming of age story set in Florida in the late 1940s.

Another review, Bookends

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Cicada Summer

Beaty, Andrea. 2008. Cicada Summer.

There were many things I loved about this one. It was a sad and bittersweet novel, yes, but it was such in a very good and I'm-so-glad-I-read-this way.

First paragraph: Some people think the cicadas bring trouble when they come to town. I don't think that's true. I think trouble finds its way without any help at all.

Narrated by a young girl, Lily, Cicada Summer is a bittersweet novel about a broken family living in a small town. Lily doesn't say much. In fact, she doesn't speak at all. Not since that horrible day when her brother Pete died. Some folks think that Lily is brain damaged. That she's unable to speak. But Lily knows differently. There is nothing physically wrong with her or her mind. She's just a young girl broken by a tragic accident. She lives alone with her father. And Lily is good at being invisible.

"It's not my skin that makes me invisible. It's my silence. My silence and the trick I do with my eyes where I never look anybody in the face. You can tell everything about a person by looking in their eyes. I don't want anybody to know anything about me, so I look away." (6)

Besides being quiet and observant, Lily is a reader. She LOVES to read and takes great comfort in books and the library. (I feel like we're kindred spirits already.)

Read this snippet from chapter two and see if it doesn't draw you into the book:

I'm reading in the shade under the cottonwood tree when Nancy Drew finds a big clue that's going to help her solve the mystery. It's a secret message stitched right into the design of a quilt. It's as big as day staring Nancy right in the face, and she doesn't even see it. I guess that's the best kind of clue--the kind you can't see right in front of your eyes. I wonder if you have to be ready to see clues like that before they appear. Or maybe they have to be ready for you to find them. (19)

Cicada Summer is part-mystery, part coming-of-age, and all heart. I loved this one.

Other reviews: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Semicolon, Jen Robinson, Shelf Elf, Welcome to My Tweendom, Flamingnet, Patchwork of Books,

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

If You're Reading This, It's Too Late

Bosch, Pseudonymous. 2008. If You're Reading This, It's Too Late.

If You're Reading This, It's Too Late is the sequel to The Name of This Book Is Secret. I enjoyed the first book tremendously. I loved it. L-O-V-E loved it. This one....well, it didn't quite live up to my expectations...but I think it's an enjoyable enough read. I think it might be just my mood. (Or maybe sometimes second books have a hard time living up to the first book.)

Like The Name of This Book Is Secret, this one is written in a very informal, casual way. Novel-as-conversation. The narrator-author is speaking directly to the reader. And this works in many ways. It's meant to be humorous and adventurous all in one.

Here's the author's note:

Please read the contract on the following page very carefully. If you refuse to sign, I'm afraid you must close this book immediately.

Turn the page, and this is what you'll see:

I, the Reader of this Book, certify that I am reading this book for entertainment only. Or to avoid cleaning my bedroom or doing my homework. I will not try to uncover the true identities or locations of the people described in this book. Nor will I try to contact any secret society mentioned in this book. Although the story may concern an ancient and powerful secret, I hereby deny any knowledge of this so-called secret. If I am ever asked about it, I will run from the room. Unless I am on an airplane, in which case I will close my eyes and ignore the person speaking to me. And if all else fails, I'll scream. I will not repeat a word of this book under any circumstances. Unless I just can't help it.
If that doesn't make you curious, surely the prologue will.

One thing that I enjoyed about this one is that the chapters count down. We begin with chapter 33 and end with chapter 1. I thought that was unusual but fun.

The narrator is just as fun as ever. And the story is full of adventure, mystery, and humor. Our hero-and-heroine (Cass and Max-Ernest) are back for more secrets, more chases, and more close-calls. And they're ready to join the Terces society, and prepared to go on missions for the greater-good to put a stop to the evil society of the Midnight Sun.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Penderwicks On Gardam Street

Birdsall, Jeanne. 2008. The Penderwicks on Gardam Street.

Sometimes it's best to read a book without having any preconceived ideas. All I've heard over and over again since this book has been released is how it is even better, even greater than the original. How people loved it just that much more. (I was expecting it to be a WoW book; one that just was so incredibly amazingly good that I wouldn't know what to do with myself.) So I think my expectations were just a tiny bit too high. That being said, I still loved it.

This second book, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, picks up soon after the original concludes. The Penderwick family consists of: Mr. Penderwick (dad), Rosalind, Skye, Jane, Batty and Hound. The family has returned home. School has begun. Life is going on as usual...mostly. [They do have a new neighbor on their street. A single woman (widow) with a small child of her own.] Each child has their own drama going on; each has their own story line. One that weaves them all together (in a way) is the fact that their dad has started dating again. Each of the girls is a bit worried about that. Worried that he'll find someone he'll like. Worried that he'll find someone to marry. So they're not content to mind their own business. Lots of MOP meetings going on. Lots of schemes--some successful, some foiled.

I enjoyed this one. I did. I liked how the dad was able to fool everyone into thinking he was dating a "Marianne Dashwood." I liked the story of Jane and Skye. How they exchanged homework assignments with some rather unforeseen results. I loved Jane in general.

I enjoyed this book because I loved the characters. I loved the narrative. I loved how Birdsall wrote the story. The narrative voices. The language. The style. But I didn't love this one because of the plot. The plot was just incidental. I didn't like this plot more than the other. Didn't find it greater than the original. This novel is great because the characters are great. And that's the same way I felt about the first book. Neither book's plots stood out as amazing to me. But the characters did. So I loved both books.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Penderwicks

Birdsall, Jeanne. 2005. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy.

For a long time after that summer, the four Penderwick sisters still talked of Arundel. Fate drove us there, Jane would say. No, it was the greedy landlord who sold our vacation house on Cape Cod, someone else would say, probably Skye.

I liked this one. A lot. It was a nice and enjoyable novel. One that a whole family could enjoy. One that was meant to be read aloud and shared. It's not a loud story. Not crammed with action and explosions and bathroom jokes. But it's a good and pleasant one. It's a story of the Penderwick family--Mr. Penderwick, Rosalind (12), Skye (11), Jane (10), and Batty (4), and their dog, Hound. Mrs. Penderwick died when Batty was just a baby. (From cancer I believe.)

The book is about one of their summers. The summer that they visit Arundel, a cottage. It is owned by a rather grumpy and snooty woman Mrs. Tifton. But Mrs. Tifton has a son, Jeffrey, and a gardener, Cagney, and there is where the fun begins. New friends to make. Problems to create and solve. Life to be experienced.

Recommended for those who like a bit of old-fashioned charm in their lives.

About the book:

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy is on many State Award Master Lists, including those for Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. Other awards and honors include:

• National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature
• New York Times Bestseller
• Book Sense National Bestseller
• Booklist Editors’ Choice
• Kirkus Reviews Editors’ Choice
• Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book
• School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
• Child Magazine Best Kids’ Book of the Year
• Children’s Book Sense Top Ten Pick
• 2007 Kalbacher Klapperschlange (Germany)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Jane Eyre

Bronte, Charlotte. 1847. Jane Eyre.

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

I was a bit of a skeptic. I didn't think it was really and truly possible for me to love Jane Eyre. Didn't I try to read it as a teen and give up on it halfway through? Didn't I try to watch some rather bad movies of it in college? Surely, I'd given it my all and Jane Eyre just wasn't my thing, right? Wrong! (Now that I think about it, I think the main prejudice I had against it was that I hated Wuthering Heights (which was required unlike Jane Eyre) and it was by a Bronte.)

I wanted the adult-me to give Jane Eyre a try this year. I put it on several challenge lists. (Nineteenth Century Women Writers, Herding Cats, 1% Challenge, Classics Challenge, Daring Girls Challenge, Bronte Sisters Mini-Challenge, R.I.P. III Challenge, Fall into Reading 08, etc.) I unburied it from the depths of my classics which hadn't seen the light in a good number of years. But I kept putting it off and putting it off. With somewhat good reason. Carl's R.I.P. III challenge. I didn't want to read it too soon.

Before I started this one, I made the decision to check out the latest Jane Eyre movie (2006) from the library. I watched it. I loved it. I didn't just love it. I loved, loved, loved it. And then I picked up the book. And guess what, I loved it too! The movie was great because it was well done and entertaining. Little did I know--at the time--that the dialogue, the script, was lifted largely from the book itself. But when I began reading it I saw just how true-to-the-book the script was in many many ways. (I'm not saying that it was the most perfectly true-to-the-book movie ever made. But it is far closer than most attempts I've seen. Much closer than say most of the Austen movies I've seen done recently.)

Jane Eyre is the story of Jane Eyre, obviously. We first meet her as a ten year old living quite unhappily with the Reed family. Her uncle made his wife, Jane's Aunt Reed, (boo, hiss) promise to look after the child, the orphan on his death bed. She might have said and said and said those words, she said them but she lied them. Jane is treated differently from her cousins--Eliza, Georgiana, and John. They're all dreadfully spoiled and horrible. And she's, well, they call her the spawn of the devil, they're forever going on about how she's going to go to hell because she's an evil, spiteful girl. She's soon sent away to school, to Lowood. She has plenty of rough times there, but she does see kindness for really the first time. She meets a teacher who is sympathetic. And she gains and loses a best friend, a Helen Burns. (She dies.)

We then fast forward quite a bit of time. We next meet Jane when she is eighteen. She is now a teacher at Lowood herself, but she wants more from life. She advertises to be a governess, and she's hired by a Mrs. Fairfax. She's on her way to Thornfield, to care for a young French girl, Adele. She has no idea that Thornfield (and its inhabitants) will change her life forever. For one thing, she doesn't know of Mr. Rochester's existence. And even if she did, she couldn't possibly dream that her employer would take an interest in her, an honorable interest in her at that.

Plain Jane Eyre, the governess, the woman who feels most at home working behind the scenes is in for a pleasant surprise or two upon meeting Mr. Edward Rochester. He's an ugly sort of person himself--on the outside--and he's not that easy a person to read. He's got secrets. Lots and lots of secrets.

This one is just right for Carl's R.I.P. III challenge, while I'm sure most of you know the mysteries and secrets lodging within the book, I won't spoil the book here.

Definitely recommended.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

My New Best Friend

Bowe, Julie. 2008. My New Best Friend.

As much as I enjoyed the first one, I do believe I loved this one just that much more. I loved it. It just felt right, felt natural, felt good. These books really capture what it feels like to be in fourth grade. Clubs. Fourth grade can be (and often is) all about the clubs. Including and excluding. Creating a hierarchy. Ida May is our narrator once again. And this time she is starting out the book with a best friend. A certain girl we first met in My Last Best Friend, a girl prone to lying at times: Stacey Merriweather. Jenna Drews is the "enemy" of sorts to our heroine. Though not so much as in the first book.

Here's the jacket description: "Ida May and her new best friend, Stacey Merriweather, are two peas in a pod. And when they discover a magical mermaid night-light that seems to grant wishes, they start a secret club--just the two of them. But before long, Ida suspects that Stacey is using the mermaid to tell some big lies...and to cause some big trouble at home. How will Ida set the record straight while still keeping her new best friend."

First paragraph:

"I'm Ida May and I have a lot to be thankful for.

• I have not dropped my lunch tray once since the start of fourth grade.
• I have only tripped twice in public.
• Dodgeball season is almost over.
• So is our science unit on dissecting worms.

I'm thankful for my teacher, Mr. Crow, even though he makes us slice open worms and pin back their skin. Because he doesn't make us touch their insides if we don't want to. And he always comes us with new ways to keep us from getting too bored with school. For example, he makes us learn how to spell big words like influenza, which is what you get if you breathe in too many bad germs, and catastrophe, which is what you get if things don't go the way you planned. Also, he reads to us every day. Not baby books, either. Lately, he's been reading us Greek stories about gods and goddesses and the creatures that work for them. Actually, they're Greek myths. Myth is a Greek word for made-up story. Like the one about the god Apollo driving a chariot across the sky when really it's just the sun. And other myths about pretty nymphs and singing muses who aren't as powerful as goddesses but, still, they can get you to do things that you don't exactly want to do. Mr. Crow says a myth is true if you believe it's true." (1-2)

I loved this one. I loved the mermaid night-light. Loved the secret club. Loved the story. It was funny in all the right places, yet it wasn't just a few pieced together laughs either. It had heart.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

My Last Best Friend

Bowe, Julie. 2007. My Last Best Friend.

I enjoyed My Last Best Friend right from the start:

"I'm Ida May, and there's one thing I know. Fourth grade isn't fourth at all. Fourth means you've done something at least three times before. But fourth grade is nothing like third grade. Or second grade. Or first grade.
In fourth grade there is no more printing There is only cursive. I hate cursive.
In fourth grade you are not allowed to add and subtract. You are only allowed to multiply and divide.
In fourth grade you're a baby if you still want to play with Barbies. Or if the Tooth Fairy still comes to your house. Or if you want your mother to walk you to the bus stop. Third grade is the last grade you can get by with any of that. Trust me." (1)

Our narrator, Ida May, is great. I found her voice to be believable. And I cared for her almost immediately. Ida May's "problems" are authentic ones. Her best friend has moved away. She's starting a new school year, and she doesn't have--make that doesn't want--another best friend. She's a bit intimidated by some of the other kids in her class. Especially by the mean, bully Jenna Drews. And she just wishes it would all go away. Her parents just don't understand. (As an adult, I can see that they just want their child to be "happy." And sometimes to get to that happy place later--further on in the future--you've got to be pushed into doing some things you just don't like in the here and now.) But Ida May feels her parents are always pushing and prodding and picking on her when it comes to the "friends" issue. (They want her to have friends and to be popular and part of the crowd instead of isolated on her own.)

What she finds is a friend through a pen pal. Stacey Merriweather is the new girl. On the surface, she's best pals with the "evil" Jenna Drews. But Ida May feels that maybe just maybe Stacey isn't what she seems. That beneath the surface, there's someone there that would be her friend. Ida knows Stacey is a liar. That she's not telling the truth. That she's keeping secrets. And before Ida risks revealing herself, she wants a few reassurances, promises. Thus a correspondence begins between Anastasia (Stacey) and Cordelia (Ida). She's able to be herself, her true self, on paper and really begins to open up again to the possibility of friendship and happiness.

Life. School. Friendship. Bullies. Family.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Audrey, Wait

Benway, Robin. 2008. Audrey, Wait.

"The day I broke up with my boyfriend Evan was the day he wrote the song. You know, the song. I'm sure you've heard it. Maybe you danced to it at prom or sang it in your car on a Friday night when you were driving and feeling like you must be inhuman to be this happy, the windows down and nothing but air around you. Your mom has probably hummed it while cleaning the dryer's lint trap, and your grandpa has most likely whistled a couple bars. If he's the whistling type.
According to the poll on the front page of USA Today, sixty-three percent of Americans blame me for the breakup, so let me clear the air right now: they're right. Sixty-three percent of Americans are no fools when it comes to knowing about my love life, which is really creepy and isn't helping me sleep well. But it's true: I broke up with Evan, and eight hours later, he had a song in his head, and a guitar in his hand and it snowballed from there." (1)*

This one had me at hello. Talk about a good hook. This beginning is as catchy as the fictional "Audrey, Wait" song is reported to be. Our heroine, Audrey Cuttler was a typical teen girl. A junior in high school. An employee of the Scooper Dooper icecream shoppe in the mall. The third wheel to her best friends Victoria and Jonah, the "perfect" couple. That was before.

Since her ex-boyfriend wrote a song about her, about their break up, Audrey's life hasn't been the same. Not all the changes are bad, but most--if not all--take some getting used to. Instant fame--especially unwanted instant fame--isn't what Audrey ever wanted. She doesn't want to be the new "IT" girl. Now Audrey's life is turned upside down and inside out. Nothing makes sense--not school, not work, not her family at home, and especially not her social life.

This book is fun. Really fun. And it's a quick read.

Other reviews: Interactive Reader, Teen Book Review, Rocket Girls, Hope's Bookshelf, The YA YA YAs, A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy, Kinsmen of the Shelf, Reviewer X, KarinLibrarian, Like OMG Teens Read, The Book Reader, Book Candy, Jen Robinson, Liv's Book Reviews, The Inkblotter, The Compulsive Reader, Meg Cabot, Patchwork of Books.


http://www.audreywait.com/

*Quote taken from ARC, so it may not match the final published edition of the novel.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Steinbeck's Ghost

Buzbee, Lewis. 2008. Steinbeck's Ghost. (September 2008 release).

"Finally. He finally found the word he had been looking for.
Camazotz.
The moment Travis Williams stepped out of his house into the warm September afternoon, the word came to him. For months, ever since he and his parents had moved into the new house, he'd been trying to figure out what was so creepy about this place. Now he knew.
He stepped off the porch into the bright sunshine and whispered the word.
Camazotz.
A Wrinkle in Time was one of Travis's favorite books. He'd first borrowed it from the library a couple of years ago, when he was eleven, and had probably borrowed it three times since, read it he didn't know how many times. Whenever he thought of the book, he pictured the planet Camazotz.
On Camazotz, everything was perfect. Every house was exactly like every other house, every lawn like all the rest. Every garden grew the same kind of flower, and the exact same number of those flowers. Everyone in Camazotz dressed like everyone else, and they all did the same things and at the same times. One child played ball in front of each house, and each ball bounced to the same beat.
Camazotz was supposed to be a perfect planet. And in a way, Travis thought, it was perfect. Perfectly creepy.
Bella Linda Terrace was supposed to be perfect, too." (1-2)

For anyone who loves to read books about people who love books, Steinbeck's Ghost is the novel for you. Travis Williams loves to read, and he loves his library. When he hears the news that his library, the John Steinbeck library, is closing, he's shocked and disappointed and angry. Luckily, this news effects many people the exact same way. And fortunately, these people--from the elderly to the teens--is willing to put their time, money, and energy into saving it. Set in California, set in Salinas, our narrator, Travis, is fascinated with John Steinbeck. Loves his work. Got a few favorites among his novels, but has a familiarity with the world Steinbeck created. When this fictional world starts coming to life right before his eyes, Travis is both amazed and hesitant. Is he going crazy? Did he saw what he thought he saw? Can other people see these things as well? Travis isn't going crazy--at least we're led to believe that he's not going crazy--and soon Travis and a few select friends are following the trail, following the voices, the messages, that are leading them to discover the story that Steinbeck never wrote. Books. Libraries. Community activism. Friendship. Family. This one has a little bit of everything.

"Every book he recognized opened up the world of that book to him. These weren't stacks of paper bound together with glue or string--they weren't items or products. Every book was an entire universe." (26)

"Reading a library book wasn't something you did on your own. It was something you shared with everyone who had ever read that book. You read the book in private, yes, but other hands had been on it, had softened its pages and loosened its spine. With hardcovers, the clear shiny Bro-Dart, put on to protect the dust jacket, quickly got scuffed and crinkly, and sometimes you'd find a thumbprint pressed into the plastic.
The book, when you were done with it, went back to the library, and from there to other hands. When you read a library book, you were connected to all these strangers." (56)

"When you read, the world really did change. He understood this now. You saw parts of the world you never knew existed. Books were in the world; the world was in books." (89)

Yes, the book has its strange moments. Moments when he's being "haunted" (or prompted) by Steinbeck's fictional characters. But the book is just as much about Travis discovering himself as it is about him discovering the world of books and also discovering the world around him. There is a certain authenticity captured in the pages of this book.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Nonfiction Monday: The Year We Disappeared

Busby, Cylin and John. 2008. The Year We Disappeared.

Compelling but intense. The Year We Disappeared is not a novel. It's nonfiction. It's the story of what happened to the Busby family in 1979 after the father, a local cop, John Busby, was shot. Told through alternating accounts of the father and the daughter, Cylin, the story is both compelling and intense. I found it was a book that I wanted to read, needed to finish, but at the same time, it wasn't a book that I felt comfortable reading in one sitting. I needed breaks with this one. The intensity of the pain and the emotion got to be too much at times. Very realistic, of course. The book is very honest and straight forward. It doesn't need to sensationalize anything for dramatic effect. The bare facts alone are enough to make this a haunting read.

Here is how the prologue begins:

When my dad dies, his body will go to the Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, though I suspect they are mostly interested in his head.

Intrigued yet? It continues,

Before the surgeons there embarked on what was at the time experimental surgery to reconstruct his face, they asked Dad if he would sign a document bequeathing his body to the hospital. They explained that they would then be able to use his skull as a model to instruct medical students training in facial reconstruction. His was an interesting case--the lower half of the his jaw was removed when he was shot in the head with a shotgun. His tongue was torn in half, his teeth and gums blown away, leaving a bit of bone that was once his chin connected with dangling flesh at the front of his face.

I liked the prologue because it let you know from the start that this wasn't going to be a "pretty" and "sanitized" account of crime and its after-effects. The book is full of horror and shock and raw emotion--pain, confusion, anger, frustration, etc.

Other reviews: The Reading Zone, Jen Robinson, Charlotte,

Blogged with the Flock Browser