Dear Secret Santa

Dear Secret Santa from the Book Blogger Holiday Swap,

I LOVED your package!  I got it well before Christmas, opened it to find three wrapped book-shaped things as well as a "READ" sticker, postcard, and two adorable finger puppet monsters.  Well.  Puppets and postcards are among my favorite things in the whole world!  Along with reading of course! I was so thrilled and satisfied by these unwrapped gifts (the sticker is going on our bumper as soon as the snow melts off of it, and the puppets were put to immediate use) that I put the books under the tree.  When I opened them on Christmas day, imagine my delight as, one after the other, they were all perfect picks!  Persuasion I was just finishing from the library and thrilled to get my own copy.  Mostly Good Girls I've been wanting to get my hands on because The Leila Texts blog cracks me up.  But my library system doesn't yet have a copy!  So thank you!  And I have been meaning to read the Emily Windsnap books ever since I first saw their gorgeous covers at a bookstore. So. Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Christmas cheer to all!

Cybils round one concludes!

Ashley and I have finished our Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Round one panelist duties.  The shortlist is decided. The blurbs are written. We have acquitted ourselves well. (Can you tell by that last sentence that I jumped right in to reading Austen's Persuasion? For the first time, I might add. One does require a break from modern children's lit every once in a while.)

And though I am bursting with recommendations for you, we are taking something of an internet hiatus. No computer for two whole days (Christmas Eve and Christmas) -- except for webcam with family. For the two days following, only checking email and the bank. I think this will be quite a test of will for me. Wish me luck!

Alysa

Two of my favs

I haven't read nearly as many books as the other panelists this time around the Cybils block, but that's okay, since Alysa and I are a judging team. But the two that have stood out to me most so far are Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze and Betti on the High Wire. Very different books; very good books. Both are applicable and would be enjoyable to more than just 8-12-year-old kids.

I agree with the School Library Journal on Milo: "Alan Silberberg has managed something that I would have deemed near impossible. He’s penned a funny novel that deals with the very real issue of how a family copes when one of its family members passes on and he’s done it with a combo of art and prose. Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze combines interstitial comics with a fun text and a gripping story to come up with a book that manages to be all things for all readers. Humor fans will like it, but so too will those kids who need a little extra meat in their fiction."

Amen to that. Milo is a totally funny, dorky, clueless, hilarious middle-school boy. I loved reading this book through his perspective. His was a really fresh, really authentic voice. This one has stayed with me in a way that most of the other reads have not. Two thumbs up.

And Betti. Babo is a "leftover" orphan from a war-torn country who gets adopted by an American family and brought to live in the United States. She's never been in a car before, let alone an airplane. She's never left her village before, let alone her country. But leave she does, and is instantly welcomed into the loving arms of a family of three---for the first time in her living memory becoming a daughter and a sister, and for the first time having a roof over her head and plenty of food to eat. Though part of her likes her new life, she's determined she won't "adapt" to being adopted, and she lives from day to day plotting how she will go back to the family of other leftovers she left behind.

I loved experiencing our country and its peculiarities through Betti's fiery, entertaining perspective. This book, like Milo, was simultaneously heart-twisting and hilarious. Two thumbs up for Betti, too. I recommend both of these reads to any reader of any age.

On with the next!

Crunch

Crunch
by Leslie Connor

I picked this one up for the Cybils, and I'm so glad I did.

The premise of the book has provided me with thinking material for the last several weeks. It's about the Mariss family living through a fuel crunch.  The parents are away on their anniversary trip when, all of a sudden, their gas ration coupons are no good to get them home.  Fortunately the five kids at home, including our protagonist Dewey, have got things pretty well covered.  With no fuel available, however, the Mariss Bike Barn is suddenly a booming business.

I loved hearing about how the Mariss kids played the cards they were dealt.  And, of course, I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about what would happen to me in a similar situation.  The book also has a little mystery sub-plot that I liked as well.  I liked that it added tension to the book, but didn't overshadow the drama that is everyday life.  As one of the oldest of 7 kids, I can tell you there's a bit of drama in everyday life when mom and dad aren't home. And yet, Dewey manages to keep it positive, and himself positive.  It's admirable. It's real.

And that's probably the highest praise I can give this book.  It seems real.  When I stopped reading, I had to remind myself that I was back in my own life, and not one of the Mariss kids.  And I wish I was as well prepared for a "crunch" as they are.

Yes, yes, yes.

Just read this post over at Shannon Hale's blog.  I totally agree.  This is one of the reasons I don't give star ratings (or use a number system of some kind).  It's just not part of my reading process.

I do what I like here on my own blog.  I don't like being a literary critic, I like reading books and thinking about them and applying them to my own life.  I don't like reviewing books, I like recommending books.  If I read a book I don't want to recommend, I don't usually mention it here.

I especially liked this list of questions from Shannon's post:

Where did the story fail you? Where did it work for you? So, what does that say about you? What were you hoping for? What did you need from the story? If you're a writer, what does that tell you about what kind of a story you want to write? For me, this kind of responding is just about how I think about the book. Instead of thinking, "The author really dropped the ball on the ending," I try thinking, "What did I want out of the ending instead of what I got? Why did I want that?"

If you feel like chattering about questions like these about a book you've just read, and then you email that to me, I might even post your guest review. Just let me know. Email address is in the sidebar.

Pies and Prejudice

I find it funny that in middle-grade fiction this year, two totally separate authors published a book called Scones and Sensibility and a book called Pies and Prejudice. Both books are on our Cybils list. I just finished Pies and Prejudice, and I have to say that, like pie, the book was kind of a guilty pleasure for me. It doesn't make my shortlist of favorites, but I still really liked it, because it's my kind of book. A little unlikely romance, a few Jane Austen references (or a lot, in this book's case), and I'm hooked!

Pies and Prejudice is the fourth installment in the Mother Daughter Book Club series. Since I haven't read the other three, I know I don't have the proper background for judging it, but as a stand-alone novel, there were just too many characters! There are five girls, all of their mothers, and two older women in the book club, so that's twelve characters you have to try to keep straight, right off the bat. Then there are their fathers, siblings, schoolmates, teachers, and crushes. I felt like I spent half the book trying to figure out who everybody was. And then the story itself comes from four of the girls' points of view. So just when I was getting comfortable in one girl's head, the next chapter hopped into another's. But like I said. If I'd read the whole series, I'm sure I would've been introduced properly to all of these people. So maybe it's a moot point.

My final beef with what was otherwise a delightful, fluffy-easy kind of read, was that the story I found most interesting--the love/hate relationship between Cassidy and Tristan (the Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy of the story)--was totally glossed over! They apparently hated each other, and then we never got a chance to see Tristan act anything but the conceited snob, and then they're all pal-y at the end? I was so bummed about that. Anyway. Still a fun read. Though I guess my final final beef with the book is that it made me totally desperate to have a daughter. *sigh*

Recommended for mothers and daughters. :)

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

I've been hitting the Cybils nominees hard and fast, but I just had to pause to mention this one.

So, so, so, so funny.  I imagine that anyone from fourth grade on up would enjoy this one.  It's got that same way of capturing the disastrous hilarity of early middle school that Jeff Kinney captures so well in his books.  Fortunately, most of the characters are more likable than Greg Heffley. I can totally imagine that if this one were out back when I was teaching fourth grade, the kids would have talked and laughed about it as much as they did the Wimpy Kid books. Now that I've compared it to the Wimpy Kid books you're all wondering if it has random comic strip panels.  No, it does not.  But it does have the occasional very funny illustration.

This book is the case file that Tommy put together to see if Origami Yoda (Dwight's finger puppet) can really predict the future.  I think my favorite piece of evidence is the story of Yoda saving one of the boys from looking like he peed his pants.  He leaned against the wet bathroom counter, and disaster struck.

Ah, just thinking about reading this book makes me smile.  Go read it and have a good time! :D
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Here are a couple of affiliate links (if you purchase through these I will get a small commission): The Strange Case of Origami Yoda at Amazon; The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (Origami Yoda Series #1) at Barnes and Noble.