A Season of Gifts

Today’s post is from Carole at Haggard Library:

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

The Barnhart family has just moved to a small Illinois town where their father will be the Methodist minister, with their mother’s help.

Bob, twelve, Phyllis, fifteen, and little Ruth Ann are pretty sure they will not be welcomed by the town kids. Bob encounters some bullies early on who are both mean and stupid. Their house is rundown and the church’s congregation is almost nonexistent.

To top it all off, their huge next-door neighbor, Mrs. Dowdel, seems old-fashioned and weird. She is industrious, however. She weeds her garden furiously, shoots the heads off rats, brews up apple butter in a big kettle over a campfire in her yard,  and makes short work of anyone who tries to take advantage of her.

Mrs. Dowdel was the star of the author’s earlier hilarious young-adult novels, A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder. You won’t want to miss her outrageous activities as she wins over each member of the Barnhart family.

BookPage’s Best of 2009

This post is from Annie at Parr Library.

BookPage, the nifty book magazine you can pick up FOR FREE at any Plano library, has announced its 2009 Best Books list.  Its list is divided into parts: Teen fiction, middle-graders’ books; picture books; audiobooks; cookbooks; fiction; and nonfiction.  Click here to see all the lists.    

You can also sign up to receive BookPageXtra, which is BookPages’ enewsletter.  In addition to advance book reviews and author news, each person who receives the newsletter and responds when the monthly drawing is announced is eligible to win free books!  I’ve won it before—you get about 5 or 6 current books.  Nice!   To sign up, click here.    

And finally, BookPage also has a blog called The Book Case.  It’s an newsy blog, with information about books and authors, and all the most popular BookPage information, all in one place. 

Pretty good deal.  And did I mention that IT’S FREE at all Plano libraries?

The Story of Forgetting

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library.

The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block

I read this book because it was written by someone who grew up in Plano, although he now lives in Brooklyn.  It’s about a hunchback who lives near Dallas.  Turns out to be a gem of a book, about a family ridden with a genetic form of Alzheimers.  The author himself comes from such a family. 

There are two narrators:  The hunchback Abel, as an old man, tells his story of how he fell in love with the wife of his twin Paul (not a hunchback) and consummated his passion while his brother served in Korea.  When Paul came home, Mae broke things off, but she was pregnant.  Then Mae and Abel both witnessed Paul’s gradual surrender to early-onset Alzheimers. 

The second narrator is Seth, a painfully self-conscious 15-year-old living in Austin, disaffected from his father and witnessing his mother’s surrender to early onset Alzheimers.  He starts researching both Alzheimer’s and his mother’s family and genetic history, about which he and his dad know nothing.  All he has to go on are stories of Isidora, a fantasy parallel universe, that his mom used to tell him, and the particular strain of Alzheimer’s afflicting his mother.  But this turns out to be enough for Seth to discover his roots. 

It’s a well written book, full of medical science, fantasy, and a love story.  A great book for teens as well.

The Hunger Games Revisited

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, a novel for 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders that made the 2009 Texas Lone Star Reading List.  The Lone Star list, by the way, is a great place to find interesting books.  The books are chosen by public and school librarians in the Young Adult Round Table of the Texas Library Association, not in support of the school curriculum, but just because they are great reads.  The Hunger Games was reviewed in our blog way back in November of 2008 (you can read the review here) and I totally agree with the reviewer Cecily that this is a riveting book for teens and adults.  It  reads like a deadly combination of Survivor and American Idol.  The second book in the series is Catching Fire.  It currently has 129 holds on it, but I’m adding my name anyway—these books are such page turners that it only takes a few days to finish one.  I hear the second book is just as good as the first.

Going Bovine

Today’s post is from Cecily at Haggard Library:

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

I would never have thought that a book about a high school boy dying of mad cow disease could be laugh-out- loud funny.  But add a crazy spring break road trip to Daytona Beach, Florida, a midget named Gonzo, and a talking yard gnome who is really the Norse god Balder, and you’ve got a trippy story that is one of the most unusual and bizarrely entertaining books I’ve read this year.

Cameron is 16 and something of a let-down to his parents – he’s not a stellar student, he’s not popular, and he’s not athletic.  But in the last few weeks of his life, as his mad cow disease breaks down his nervous system, Cameron manages to meet a dead jazz musician, bring down a religious cult, bring a yard gnome to life, hook up with the girl of his dreams from high school, and save the world.  And he does all this under the guidance of a pink-haired punk rock angel named Dulcie.  Or does he?  The question hanging over your head the entire book is how much is real, and how much is a product of Cameron’s increasingly spongy brain?  And in the end, what does it mean to die?  What does it mean to live?

For readers looking for a slightly absurd and delusional book about a serious subject, this one is worth the 500 pages.

Born to Rock

Today’s post is from Jennifer at Davis Library:

Born to Rock  by Gordon Korman

Born to Rock is one of the funniest teen books I’ve read in a long time.  If you’re looking for a book that will make you laugh out loud, this is it!

High School senior Leo Caraway is a straight-A student, the president of his school’s Young Republicans club, and the winner of a full-ride scholarship to Harvard. His “perfect” life is shaken up when two things happen:

1.  He loses his scholarship to Harvard after being accused of cheating.
2.  He learns that his biological father is King Maggot, the repulsive and foul-mouthed lead singer of the punk band Purge.   

Check out the book to find out what happens to Leo as he joins Purge’s raucous summer tour as a roadie in hopes of convincing his dad to pay his Harvard tuition. Gordon Korman has written many other books for kids and teens.  My favorites are Schooled and Son of the Mob.

Candor

Today’s post is from Cecily at Haggard Library:

Candor by Pam Bachorz

Oscar Banks is superior person.  Oscar Banks is a model citizen.  He always obeys his parents, shows respectful space in every place, and knows that the great are never late.  Or at least that’s what the messages tell him.  Oscar lives in Candor, Florida – a pristine community where subliminal messages make sure that all the teenagers wear clean polo shirts and can’t stand the sight of graffiti. 

But Oscar has learned to resist the brainwashing by creating his own subliminal programming, and he knows just how to maintain his “perfect” facade so no one will suspect.  Even better, he provides his anti-brainwashing skills to the richest of the new kids and helps them escape before their minds are erased.  He has the best of both worlds.  That is, until Nia moves in across the street.  She is beautiful and rebellious and loveable, and Oscar can’t stand to watch the brainwashing erase her like all the other teens that move to Candor.  How far will Oscar go and what will he risk to keep Nia’s mind intact?

Candor is a suspenseful and scary look at the possibilities of brainwashing and having parents who are a little too in control.  The end of the story is a little abrupt and rather sad, but it is a great, edge-of-your-seat story of sacrifice for the one you love, and the expression of free will on a whole new level.

A Night in the Lonesome October

Today’s post is from Erik at Schimelpfenig Library:

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny

Since Halloween is nigh upon us I thought I would write about my personal favorite Halloween story.  A Night in the Lonesome October may not be everyone’s cup of tea, which kind of describes most of author Roger Zelazny’s work, but I really like this particular effort. 

Briefly, the story is told from the point of view of Snuff, canine familiar to Jack.  Snuff, Jack and several other recognizable literary and historical figures all work to either open or keep closed a gate that would allow the “Great Old Ones” access to our world.  Even Sherlock Holmes comes by to lend a hand which is always a high point for me in any book.

The story is great and the characters are fun and well-developed, it’s a little creepy but not gory in the extreme, it’s wonderfully illustrated by Gahan Wilson; it’s a perfect Halloween story!  So you might be asking yourself why this wouldn’t be my cup of tea it seems to have it all!  Well, it’s Zelazny; and Zelazny wouldn’t be Zelazny if he didn’t get a little off track at some point.  Still, this is easily one of his more accessible novels and there are those who firmly believe Zelazny totally hung the science-fiction/fantasy moon so he is definitely worth a shot. A Night in the Lonesome October isn’t perfect but it is a great read, sets a wonderful holiday mood and serves as a good “gateway” book into one of the true masters of Science-fiction/ fantasy.

2009 Teens Top 10

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library.

Looking for the best of the best in teen fiction?  Eleven thousand teens recently voted for their favorite 2009 book in an online poll sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association.  Check out the results below:

1. Paper Towns by John Green
2. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer  
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
5. Identical by Ellen Hopkins
6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
7. Wake by Lisa McMann  
8. Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast
9. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
10. Graceling by Kristin Cashore

And the good thing is that most of these titles have no hold list!

Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator

Today’s post is from Erik at Schimelpfenig Library:

Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator by Jennifer Allison

There seem to be several series lately that feature plucky young girls who try their luck at solving mysteries; the Gilda Joyce series has become one of my favorites and I look forward to new ones when they come out.  Psychic Investigator is the first and lays the groundwork for Gilda’s story.  After her father’s death two years aearlier, thirteen year old Gilda is convinced she has gained psychic abilities and decided “psychic investigator” is the career for her.  So she does what any girl would do; she invites herself to her spooky Uncle’s house for a summer visit to track down the ghost of her Aunt who committed suicide. 

This story is good and the subsequent stories seem to just get better.  Gilda is full of energy and resourcefullness as well as bearing a deep sense of grief over the loss of her father; whose typewriter she uses to compose letters to him and ask for advice.  This may sound maudlin but thats far from the case.  The stories are light, funny, whimsical and sometimes a little over the top but Gilda is such an engaging character it seems just fine.

These books are perfect for fans of Harriet the Spy or just anyone looking for a good middle-school book.  AND, if you want something a little meatier when you are done I would suggest Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams, it’s not quite as light but a very good mystery and an equally enjoyable heroine.  There you go internet people, two good books (and both of them series at that!) in one post!  SHA-BAM!!