Hush

Book: Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: Icelandic saga of kidnapped Irish princess, retold

Melkorka is the 16-year-old daughter of a medieval Irish king around 900 A.D. When she and her younger sister, Brigid, are sent away for safety before an attack by Vikings, they are captured by foreign slave traders and taken on a long sea voyage. Melkorka has always been free with voicing her questions and opinions, but now staying silent is what's keeping her safe, since the leader believes she has powers and doesn't want to incur her wrath. They go from Ireland through the North Sea to what is now Sweden, where her captor intends to sell them all as fine young virgins.

Well-written retelling with good major and minor characters. Napoli integrates lots of info about life in medieval northern Europe, and Ireland in particular. There's a simple map included for the visual among us, like me. There's also basic pronunciation guide for medieval characters like ð and þ, but a glossary with more complete pronunciations would be helpful.
Like in the Icelandic saga it's based on, this retelling leaves several important elements unresolved, which was unsatisfying to me but true to the story, and it also recreates Melkorka's situation and frame of mind more authentically for the reader, since she never found out either. Good read for fans of Napoli and realistic medieval fiction.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!

Book: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Audience: Grades 4 to 6
In a Nutshell: vignettes on medieval life for one or two readers

And the Newbery goes to... a collection of 17 short portraits of young people living in a medieval English village. Mostly written in different poetic forms, and all intended to be read aloud as monologues or two-person vignettes. The word portraits are simply illustrated in the style of a medieval illumination or tapestry, and interspersed with simple introductions to related historical topics such as Pilgrimage, the Crusades, and Falconry. A full stratum of society is represented, from the lord's daughter to the miller's son to the village half-wit. The characters and their stories often overlap or interact with the the one right before or after, but there is not an overarching story- more like a poetic cycle that gives an overall picture when taken together.

The book does an excellent job of combining historical facts and effective, three-dimensional characters fleshed out in very few words. As this year's Newbery winner it seemed to come out of left field for many fans of kid lit (as they often do), but I see what the Newbery Committee was thinking. It stands out in terms of quality of writing, facts, illustrations, and physical layout. As oral monologues I think some are more accessible than others for a grade school reader, but that's not a requirement for handing out Newberys. Enough of the characters' poems are accessible that many young readers will find at least a few they like. And if the shiny medal on the cover, which makes it a shoe-in for school library shelves around the country, starts a revival of readers theater in history and English classrooms around the country, then good for the author.

Unwind

Book: Unwind
Author: Neal Shusterman
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: unwanted teens used for spare parts

In a future U.S., abortion became such a divisive issue that it sparked the Second Civil War. Both sides eventually agreed to a treaty which created a sort of delayed abortion in which unwanted teens are essentially stripped for parts, or "unwound." The story centers on three teens. Connor is 16 and has trouble controlling his temper. Due to the "troubled youth" he has become, his parents have chosen to unwind him. Risa is a ward of the state. She's a talented pianist, but not talented enough; the StaHo (State Home) needs to correct a 5% overcrowding problem, so she's being unwound. Thirteen-year-old Lev has always known he would be unwound. He's the tenth child in a strictly religious family, and he has been set aside since birth as a Tithe to God.

Circumstances throw these three teens together on the run as they hide from Juvy-Cops, care for a baby who's been storked (legally abandoned on a doorstep), find a secret refuge of Unwinds, and fight threats both from within and without as they try to hold themselves together. Literally.

Fascinating premise that challenges stances on both sides of the abortion issue; no one view comes across as wholly good or bad. This is a book that I think will stick with me for a while, much like Pete Hautman's Rash. It also brings up interesting questions about soul and consciousness, and under what conditions our human bodies could hold on to either.

Aside from the overall concept, this is a great action and survival story with lots of plot twists and characters that keep you guessing as to whether they're friend or foe- and they often change. One scene near the end, without being at all gorey, is one of the most disturbing things I've read in a long time.

Defect

Book: Defect
Author: Will Weaver
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: the boy who could fly- or at least glide

David is tall, skinny, has bug eyes and a strange face, and wears hearing aids. Predictably, he's not had an easy life, bouncing from one foster home to the next after his mother turned him over to the system. But there's more, things that not his current foster family the Crutchfields, or his case workers, or anyone at school knows. The hearing aids are actually to block out sound, because his hearing is off the charts. But his biggest secret would have to be his batlike, functional wings. He often goes to Barn Bluff outside of Red Wing and glides down on warm nighttime drafts.

When he is transferred to an alternative school, he actually makes a few friends, and even gets a girlfriend, a girl who calls herself Cheetah and who's prone to grand mal seizures.
Things are going pretty well until an accident and a trip to the hospital exposes his secret, which leads to a stay at the Mayo Clinic. He faces a choice: stay who he is, or have corrective surgery on his face and body and become handsome, earth-bound New Guy. He also befriends a young terminal cancer patient named Brandon and finds himself in a position to help with the boy's very unusual Make-a-Wish wish.

Good "outsider finds his place and comes to terms with self" story.
His relationship with his foster parents is particularly nice- they're truly kind people without being cardboard saints. I really liked this one.

The Green Glass Sea

Book: The Green Glass Sea
Author: Ellen Klages
Audience: Grades 4 to 7
In a Nutshell: Our parents invented the atomic bomb- how about yours?

In 1943, Dewey Kerrigan takes the train alone from Chicago to New Mexico to join her scientist father at the secret location where the world's greatest scientists are working on "the gadget." She is a smart girl who loves to tinker with mechanics, and is more comfortable around adults than kids her own age. And at Los Alamos, most of the adults are world-famous scientists, which suits her fine.

Suze Gordon tries desperately to fit in on "The Hill", but the popular girls call her "the truck" behind her back. She protests when "Screwy Dewey" comes to stay with her family when her father goes to Washington for several weeks, but the two girls gradually come to an understanding, then find friendship.

Against the backdrop of Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project, the girls live their lives, unaware of the enormity of what their parents are creating; and really, the adults don’t understand it themselves.

Interesting look at a pivotal scientific acheivement and the community that grew up around its creation. I found it a bit slow at times, but nicely written. Dewey and Suze are nicely fleshed out, although only a few of the other characters feel real; which is ironic, since several of them actually were real historical people. I expected more from a few of Dewey's adult friendships that were set up but never explored.
Dewey's voice occasionally shifts from present to past tense, which didn't really work for me; I found it distracting. But aside from the picky stuff, it's a great picture of life not just during WWII, but in a historic ad hoc community.

Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians

Book: Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Audience: Grades 4 to 6
In a Nutshell: super-powered klutz finds long-lost family and destiny

Listen, I only have a few minutes, so pay attention. If my fellow librarians find out that I’m talking to you, they'll tie me to an altar made of outdated encyclopedias and make me their latest sacrifice. It’s no less than a traitor like me deserves, but the truth must be told.

The truth is, you and everyone you know are living a lie. You think there are only 7 continents? You think Tyrannosaurus Rex was a huge, ferocious beast? I bet you even think dinosaurs are extinct now. Lies! All lies spread by Librarians and our henchmen in order to control information, and therefore the world. You've probably never even heard of Alcatraz Smedry, thanks to our cover-up. You Hushlanders have no idea how important the Smedry family is, or how great their powers are. Even Alcatraz himself, the great hero of the Free Kingdoms, didn't know until his thirteenth birthday, when he received a small bag of sand in the mail, with a note from his parents. His parents disappeared when he was a baby, and he was raised by a long string of foster families, so you can imagine his confusion. But things get even more confusing when the sand is stolen, his grandfather shows up, and Alcatraz finally learns about his family. For one thing, he and his grandfather are Oculators; they can use specially made eyeglasses to do all sorts of cool things, from tracking footprints to firing laser beams. But there's more: each Smedry is born with a special Talent. These Talents are admired and envied across the Free Kingdoms- heck, we Librarians have been trying to get them for centuries. And Alcatraz has a rare gift indeed, the kind that legends are made of. Almost everything he touches breaks, especially if it's mechanical. His grandpa has the Talent of arriving late to everything; his cousin Sing Sing has a Talent for falling down.

What, you don't think those are useful Talents? Then you have obviously been brainwashed by Librarians. All the Smedry Talents will come in very useful when they undertake their dangerous, and foolish, mission: infiltrating the downtown Library to recover the sand and defeat the Dark Oculator.

Oh no! I see a hair bun and some horn-rimmed glasses headed this way. My time is up. Read Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians, supposedly written by Brandon Sanderson, but really by our hero, Alcatraz. But please, read it soon- before the Librarians pull it off the shelves for good.

M Is for Magic

Book: M Is for Magic
Author: Neil Gaiman
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: Jack Horner, trolls, jeweled skull tennis balls, the Holy Grail, and more make appearances in these short stories

A collection of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi short stories. I listened to the audio, which is read by author Neil Gaiman quite nicely. The stories range from a hard-bitten detective story about nursery rhyme characters (Jasper Fforde, anyone?) to a short but creepy tale about an eeevil Jack-in-the-Box, to the story of a woman who buys the Holy Grail at OxFam for 30p. I also quite liked "Troll Bridge," in which a boy manages to put off a troll from eating him several times throughout his life, but in the end it all catches up to him.

Gaiman introduces the collection by laying out that you may like some stories and not others, and that's the beauty of short stories, that you have lots of options right there in one, and he's right. I liked some more than others, but the variety was great. An excellent choice for fans of Gaiman, or if you're looking for a wide variety of speculative fiction all in one book (or box o' CDs).

Bonus fun fact: The title is an homage to Ray Bradbury's R Is for Rocket and S Is for Spaceship collections.

Taken

Book: Taken
Author: Edward Bloor
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: what's next, Kidnappers R Us?

In the year 2035, the economic divide between the Haves and the Have Nots has become even more pronounced, and kidnapping has become a growth industry for the underclass. It's becoming a well-established, if still illegal, way to make quick money, and if parents follow instructions closely, children are usually returned intact. Mostly.

Charity lives with her father and almost-ex-stepmother in The Highlands, an exclusive gated community in Florida. Like the rest of the kids there, she goes to "satschool" remotely and almost never leaves The Highlands, except under heavy guard. When she becomes ill, kidnappers disguised as an ambulance come, and she is taken.

From her gurney in the ambulance, she gradually gets to know the young man who's guarding her, and the two of them argue and challenge each other about the rights and wrongs of the system, kidnapping, racism, etc. Eventually Charity is shocked by the identity of her kidnappers and must make a choice between returning to her old life or living a new way.

Great concept, good fodder for book club debate, but I wasn't as impressed with the writing itself- ideas felt too clearly laid out sometimes, like the characters were sharing position papers rather than having a conversation. Still, lots of action, plot twists and interesting ideas make it a good choice.

One or more of the different major plot twists may strike some readers as stretching credulity, or maybe it won't bother you at all. I usually just go with the flow when I'm reading, but even I thought the surprise twists were getting to be a bit much. Still, overall I liked it.