Yay for Tanita and Mare's War

The ALA awards have been announced, and Mare's War, written by Tanita Davis is an honor Coretta Scott King Award book. Congrats and confetti all around! And you should read her reaction to finding out HER book is being honored.

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(That was a lot of fun to do!)

This came on the heels of another prestigious nomination, for an NCAAP Image Award.
Majorly awesome, Tanita!

More confetti is called for!

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Grab-A-Line Monday

This is what Grab-A-Line Monday is.

Last week, not only did I get some excellent quotes, I also received a most appreciated validation from fellow writers. What would I do without my author-community?

Tricia grabbed some lines from THE LAST UNICORN by Peter S. Beagle:

Then the Lady Amalthea smiled at him for the first time since she had come to stay in King Haggard's castle. It was a small smile, like the new moon, a slender bend of brightness on the edge of the unseen, but Prince Lir leaned toward it to be warm. He would have cupped his hands around her smile and breathed it brighter, if he had dared.

And MG Higgins grabbed her lines from the YA novel WHAT I SAW AND HOW I LIED by Judy Blundell:

Why did the air here smell like a pocketful of promises? It was the flowers and the ocean and the sky all mixed in together.

This week I was taken by this passage, which describes in such vivid details the noise in a city I almost felt I was there. It is from the 2009 National Book Award winner LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN by Colum McCann

The thrum of the subway. The M22 bus pulled up against the sidewalk, braked, sighed down into a pot hole. A flying chocolate wrapper touched against a fire hydrant. Taxi doors slammed. Bits of trash sparred in the dankest reaches of the alleyways. Sneakers found their sweet spots. The leather of briefcases rubbed against trouserlegs. A few umbrella tips clunked against the pavement. Revolving doors pushed quarters of conversation out in to the street.

What caught you this week?

Fragments and sparks

Yesterday was a fragmented sort of day, with more than the usual unexpected events and interruptions. By mid morning, my mind had gotten into an alert-for-any-curveball state that was not conducive to anything that required longer than a few minutes worth of attention.

One result is that I skipped over or merely skimmed my usual blogs. Almost felt like I didn't have coffee in the morning. I didn't find out till later in the day, when my mind mellowed somewhat, that Davin had written a post at the Literary Lab, that mentioned an earlier post of mine on unusual character traits.

And can I just say how thrilled I am?

When I started this blog, I had only the vaguest notions about this thing called "web presence" and now, a little after a year later, I find that the best thing about having a blog (besides having a great excuse for procrastinating) is that I "meet" people with whom I can exchange ideas. I don't know about you, but the connection that happens when like-minded people throw around ideas and find sparks and common ground, is one of the best things in life. So thank you, the wonderful writers at the Literary Lab.

Book Review: Cybils YA Fantasy Winner, Hunger Games

I was going to write about how the Hunger Games is like Lord of the Flies meets reality TV; about how surreal it is that the author juxtaposes descriptions of opulent clothing and lavish feasts with kids preparing to fight one another to death; about how the book throbs with an underlying ache that comes with the recognition that many of the outrageous happenings in the book aren't that far off from reality, about the depth and power of human connections.

But I am going to settle for this:

All the accolades heaped upon the book? Well-deserved.

Go read it.

Book Review: Cybils Finalist Graceling

Had it not been for the Cybils awards, I would not have picked up Graceling, because fantasy is not my usual cup of tea.

I am glad to have read it. Say what you will about contests and art not being compatible, well-respected ones can bring books into the hands of people who would otherwise have missed them.

Graceling is a story set in a world that, despite the differences to ours, have recognizable elements: love, jealousy, danger, geeks and other outcasts, power struggle.

It is billed as an adventure and a love story. There are sword fights and chases and a treacherous journey over an impossible mountain. Katsa's hero is a prince of a fellow and their romance is hearts-a-flutter tender.

But I think, at the heart, this is a story about a strong young woman. A young woman who has to come to terms with who she really is and where she stands in relation to people around her, who has to understand her gifts differently than what she's been told, who has to make choices for the sake of people she cares about and respects.

At the beginning of the book, she is under the control of a king, as his instrument of punishment, even though her heart is elsewhere. She wishes to free herself from his control, only to find that she may be controlled by something else: her own anger. When she overcomes that, she is understandably cautious about being involved with a man, because she doesn't want to be under the control of yet another person, hero though he may be.

Katsa struggles with trust and pride throughout the book and the author spends time in Katsa's mind as she makes a number of important decisions, including how to deal with the love of her life when she doesn't want to marry anyone. Incidentally, the book is written in a kind of older, more formal style language. The only time I find a modern word intruding into this make believe language is with the use of the word "lover" as she contemplates the difference between being married partners and "lovers."

As a character, Katsa definitely grows during the course of the book and it is a pleasure to read of the transformation of a wild, stubbornly-independent girl who doesn't like herself much grow into one who accepts herself and the gifts of friendship and support from others.

Book Review: Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Winner, The London Eye Mystery

Set up an impossible premise, throw in a cast of interesting characters, then deliver: that's how you write a page-turner mystery that gets everybody reading.

Impossible premise: someone enters a London Eye pod but doesn't disembark. Poof! He disappears.

Interesting characters: Ted, a highly functioning autistic weather-enthusiast, his alternately rebellious and conscientious sister, Kat, and a tempest of a character, Aunt Gloria.

Deliver: Yes.

Impossible premises and quirky characters are easy to conjure up. But I am sure you've read, just as I have, books that set up their high stakes and end with resolutions that are lame and unsatisfactory, and you feel cheated.

The London Eye Mystery gives the reader as much a chance to solve the mystery as the protagonist. It combines the best of the old-style mysteries in which experienced readers know which details to remember and which characters to mark with a flag, and the newer, character-driven mysteries in which readers get into the emotions and not just the minds of the mystery-solver.

Writing about autism in a first person point-of-view takes guts, and compassion. Ted is rendered as a intelligent, sensitive kid who doesn't just worry about navigating his confusing world, but also cares about people and wants to do the right thing.

The author writes with the same understanding and compassion for the other characters. There are no cardboard-box meanies or saints. Even the estranged father of the boy who disappeared who has been portrayed badly earlier in the book comes across as a sympathetic person after we meet him.

If I had any concerns as all about the book, it would be the over-abundance of non-literal sayings that Ted's family engages in on a daily basis. They are necessary; readers need to see that Ted doesn't read between the lines easily. But a family with a kid like that would learn to temper their speech, or at least explain themselves afterward.

The other concern is that even though this is a middle-grade book, it's at the high end of the spectrum. Parents of younger readers (say, a precocious seven-year old) of MG books may want to read the book along with their children.

Book Review: Cybils Finalist, Every Soul a Star

Wendy Mass writes this book from three alternating points-of-view: those of Ally, Jack and Bree, whose lives intersect in unexpected ways brought on by the eclipse.

Of the three, Ally, the carefree girl who lives with her family in a remote campsite, is the most believable. Jack, the overweight, overshadowed younger brother who escapes reality by drawing aliens, has the most convincing transformation. Bree, the beauty who wants to be a model, is the most cliche-ridden of the main characters. Even the positive aspect of her personality, her tender-heartedness, seems to be there just to round off her character.

Throughout the book are references to stars and space and the universe that fans would love. The main event of the book, the eclipse is described so well that even an astronomy-ignoramus like me is able to imagine what it might be like to experience this event.

There are a number of questions I was hoping would be answered that weren't, such as why was Jack chosen by his science teacher? Why did he act as if he didn't want to be at the eclipse but then panicked when he almost missed it because he was so engrossed in his drawing? Why would two academics give up their positions to take over a campsite after the eclipse?

My favorite scene in this book is when these three young people are stuck in a shed with a couple of younger siblings and Hot Dude in the middle of a storm. Each of them would belong to a different subsection out in the real world, i.e. school: brainiacs, jocks, A-Clique cheerleaders, yet in this shed, they are interested in the ideas of one another and actually formed connections. The bringing together of the diverse group of kids and the showing that people crave the same things underneath their facades: these are the biggest strengths of the book.

Book Review: Cybils Finalist, Alvin Ho

Alvin is afraid of
girls
school
bullies
and so many other things.

And so afraid is he that
he cannot talk at school.
He has no problems talking at home, with his friends, even friends from school. But something happens at school: his thoughts refuse to come out of his mouth as words.

His family accepts it.
His friends accept it.
He accepts it.
But nobody understands it.
Including himself.

But Alvin used to be a super hero, and he has Da Dad for a dad and Da Mom for a mom, a cool gunggung, and siblings who are are pretty okay to him (even if they did leave him hanging like a roast duck in a tree for hours.)

So Alvin makes plan to overcome his problems. He packs emergency supplies, asks for advice on how to make friends, and even goes to a therapist.

But not being able to talk at school turns out to be just one of many things Alvin has to deal with, such as:
how to be a gentleman,
how to be nice to old friends, even when they are girls and talk too much,
how to express himself without using the fake Shakesperean cusswords favored by his Daddy.

For a book whose title is Alvin Ho: allergic to girls, school and other scary things and one that starts with a whole list of scary things, it is a remarkably sunny book. You can't help but cheer for him and have your cynicism parked somewhere else for a while.

Unlike most books, this one doesn't set out with a Major Conflict that the Character Has To Overcome by the end of the book. There are a number of conflicts sprinkled throughout in the book but by the end of the book he still doesn't talk at school and he still has his fears.

Yet the story is completely satisfying. It's so refreshing to read a book that doesn't sound familiar in that overly work-shopped, let's-follow-what-the-pros-say-about-characterplotsettingvoicepointofview vibe. Sure it contains the essence of all the good advice out there: voice, character, conflicts, and spins it into a new mold.

I love this book. And I happen to know quite a few otherwise happy boys who have fears that seem incomprehensible. The snippets of Alvin's life will be so reassuring to them, especially because the book doesn't neatly end with Alvin overcoming all his fears and solving all his problems. Yet it is clear that Alvin has grown. The sense of hope that permeates the book will surely rub off on my young friends.

Cybils Winners Announced

Happy Valentine's Day!

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The Cybils Winners are announced this morning. Go read all about it.

This week, I'll be posting reviews on Middle Grade Fiction finalists--Alvin Ho, Every Soul A Star, and the winner, London Eye Mystery--as well as young adult finalists Graceling and winner Hunger Games.

[Valentine's Day by idua_japan at Flikr, Creative Commons]

Caldecott and Newberry 2009

These much anticipated medal winners are announced today. Read about the winner and finalists of the Newberry here and the Caldecott here.