Rash

Book: Rash
Author: Pete Hautman
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: things get dangerous when you put safety first

I've put off blogging this book for a long time, and I think it's because I liked it so much. I wanted to be sure to cover everything that I thought was great, and do it justice, and that has resulted in doing nothing at all. So I'm diving in.

Bo Marston has anger management issues, and it runs in the family. His father has been in a work camp for years thanks to a road rage incident, and Bo's mother is afraid he's headed in the same direction. The year is 2076, and the U.S.S.A. has hit the extremes of certain recent trends in this satirical view of the future. Renamed the United Safer States of America several years previously, American society has decided it would "rather be safe than free." Angry or aggressive behavior results in very harsh punishment. Football and all other contact sports are illegal; even running high school track, Bo must wear more padding than a hockey goalie. Not that hockey is legal. Anything that has been deemed unhealthy is also banned, including smoking, drinking, and junk food; obesity itself is illegal.

Bo's anger lands him in jail on the frozen tundra, where he's forced to work in a pizza factory, play illegal football, and survive with the help of a homework assignment named Bork. This survival adventure story has come back to mind more times than almost any book I read that year, probably because signs abound around us that being safe is becoming more important than anything else, including having fun or being free. Or maybe people are just getting stupider. The Onion thinks so too. Whatever the reason, if you like "dangerous" things like sports, junk food, and real see-saws, and want a story with lots of action, humor, and something to think about, try Rash.

The End

Book: The End (Book the Thirteenth in A Series of Unfortunate Events)
Author: Lemony Snicket
Audience: Grades 4-8
In a Nutshell: the Baudelaires are shipwrecked on an island w/ pieces of the last 12 books; and The End is not the end.

Here it is at long-awaited last: Book 13.

I liked it. It answered some questions. Left some others to the imagination. But at last, we know who Beatrice is. Did anybody guess? I didn't. But then, I'm a bad guesser.

The All-New Tenchi Muyo!

Book: The All-New Tenchi-Muyo! Vol. 7
Author: Hitoshi Okuda
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: One 17-year-old boy, some hyperactive alien women, a space pirate, a carrot-eating spaceship and more

Tenchi and his wacky group of alien girls help a girl learn to walk again; her motivation is seeing Tsunami, their tree spirit, and writing a picture book about him.

manga sub-genre: harem comedy

Storky

Book: Storky: How I Lost My Nickname and Won the Girl
Author: D. L. Garfinkle
Audience: High School
In a Nutshell: freshman guy's diary of love, Scrabble, and a fat dentist

To be honest, I read this a long time ago, and the only notes I kept were the nutshell description above, and a list of important names. And in the many months between then and now, the actual details have faded. In an effort to get caught up with posting, I'm leaving it there, so here you go:

Mike Pomerantz (a.k.a. Storky), Gina, Nate, sis Amanda, Sydney, old Duke.

I will also say that I remember it being very solidly from a teen guy's perspective, so you can guess where his mind is most of the time. Reminds me a little of Gary Paulsen's Amazing Life of Birds, where the main character spends a lot of time seeing ELBOWS everywhere, but elbows is not really the portion of anatomy he's talking about. Storky has a little older content, but they're both funny guy diaries, so maybe that's why they are connected in my mind. Some family drama with a not-entirely-welcome new father figure, and a relationship with an old guy who plays Scrabble that becomes very important in his life. That's all I've got for now.

Fruits Basket

Book: Fruits Basket, Volume 1
Author: Natsuki Takaya
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: orphan girl finds new friends with crazy zodiac animal powers

Those Left Behind (Serenity graphic novel)

Book: Those Left Behind (a Serenity graphic novel)
Author: Joss Whedon
Artist: Will Conrad
Audience: Teen to Adult
In a Nutshell: what happened between Firefly (TV) tand Serenity (movie)

If you are a Browncoat, you should read this graphic novel. If you are a Browncoat, you probably already own this graphic novel. If you don't know what a Browncoat is, welcome to the fan world of Firefly, a marvelous but short-lived western sci-fi series by the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was truly one of the best sci-fi series to come around in the last 10 years, so of course Fox gave it the shaft. But it lived on in the hearts and DVD collections of rabid fans everywhere, and by some miracle Joss Whedon actually got a theatrical movie released to follow it up. The show and the movie are very, very shiny, to use Firefly lingo. I won't go into detail, but I'll throw the term "mercenary space cowboys" out there and let you rent/borrow/buy the DVD's and fall in love with Firefly yourself.

This graphic novel fills in a story that takes place between the end of the show and where the movie picks up. Without being a critical piece of the Firefly universe, the story does manage to be very interesting and relevant to the characters. But those of us who get all starry-eyed when Joss Whedon's name is mentioned have come to expect no less.

Eyes of the Storm (Bone, Book 3)

Book: Eyes of the Storm (Bone, Book 3)
Author: Jeff Smith
Audience: Grades 4-7
In a Nutshell: Bones and humans (and a dragon) against a returning evil

This excellent graphic novel series continues with Bone, Thorn, Grandma, Phoney, Smiley, and the rest of the people (and bones) in the Valley preparing to fight the big bad evil that's coming in the form of rat creatures and some creepy hooded figure who serves the ancient, powerful, hive-minded Locusts. Ooooo...

The Last Days

Book: The Last Days
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: supernatural rock summons giant evil worms

In this sequel to Peeps, when strangers Moz and Pearl save a precious Stratocaster guitar from a fall out a window, it's the birth of their rock band. Along with Zahler on bass, Alana Ray on drums (make that paint buckets), and somewhat functional peep Minerva on vocals, they make otherworldly music with Minerva's ancient, inhuman lyrics that draws peeps (vampires) like, well, like vampires to a blood bank. Eventually the higher purpose of their music becomes clear as they team up with Cal, Lace, and the rest of the Night Guard from Peeps, who finally show up about two-thirds of the way through the book, and stage a series of outdoor concerts that draw out both the worms and the peeps to fight them.

The majority of the book is heavily descriptive of the formation of the band and the music they learn to make together. It's interesting reading if you're into music, but I've gotta say I was glad to see Cal and Co. finally show up and get the plot moving. It all wrapped up pretty neatly and quickly, seeing as how the music part took up so much real estate, but vampire fans, fans of Peeps , and rock-band-minded readers will probably like it.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party

Book: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Volume 1: The Pox Party
Author: M.T. Anderson
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: a young boy is a slave, an experiment, then a rebel fighter in revoluntionary America

Like I've said before, I looove M.T. Anderson. And here he's written another very original, distinctive, disturbing book that sticks in your mind a long time after the last page turns, whether you want it there or not. And he won the National Book Award for it, so bravo! That said, this is not an easy read. It's written in impressively accurate 18th-century-style English, and it's long. Octavian and his mother, Casseopeia, are African slaves owned by a group of radical scientists and scholars called the Novanglian College of Lucidity. In the sober city of Boston, they live in opulence and are treated as exotic royalty, but Octavian must weigh his food and feces. When their fortunes shift and a harsh new benefactor takes control, the experiment of Octavian and his mother takes a dark turn: scientific proof of the inferiority of the African races. I won't give away the details, but some horrible things happen, and Octavian's personal account goes silent. The story picks up in secondary sources and through the letters of a revolutionary soldier as Octavian ends up with the man's unit. The history depicted is slightly alternative, but similar enough to the history books to make readers take a good hard look at what they think they know about the American Revolution.

The book is chock full of themes of human rights, freedom, friendship, and the fuzziness of right and wrong, good and bad in the American Revolution-- and by extension, the whole American experience? Or any world-changing conflict? Let's say yes. After all, that's the sort of thing they hand out National Book Awards for.

Part Two is coming (sometime) and even though I generally have little to no interest in revolutionary fiction, I can't wait.

The House Next Door

Book: The House Next Door
Author: Richie Tankersley Cusick
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: ghostly gothic love and tragedy

Emma has a funny feeling about the old abandoned house next door, but when her twin brother dares her to spend the night there alone, she can't back down. The dream she has is vivid and frightening: she's wearing old-fashioned clothes, and she is trying to run away with the man she loves. But the there's blood and a fire, something tragic is happening, and Emma wakes up in the present day. Except she's not quite alone: there's a constant presence she's sure isn't her imagination, and she woke up wearing a ring. It's the same ring that her true love gave her in the dream.

Fans of supernatural romance shouldn't miss this one. It's got tragic ghostly (and handsome) boys, haunted houses, danger, psychic connections...all the elements you've come to enjoy in this kind of book.

Romiette and Julio

Book: Romiette and Julio
Author: Sharon Draper
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: Romeo and Juliet with a modern interracial twist

Romiette is a black high school student in Cincinatti. Her best friend, Destiny, claims to have strong psychic abilities and swears that Romi will soon meet her soul mate- not that any of the boys at school really interest Romi. Then one evening in a chatroom, she logs on as afroqueen and meets spanishlover, and they really hit it off. Turns out they go to the same school.
Julio is a Latino boy who just moved to town from Texas. He hates everything about Ohio, except the amazing girl he just met. It's love at first sight for Romi and Julio. They would be floating on Cloud 9 if it weren't for the gangs at school, who don't approve of a Hispanic boy and black girl dating. Even their loving parents, who have their own racial baggage, don't accept the relationship right away. Conflict and near tragedy ensue, but love and understanding win out in the end.

I thought it was a likable, readable story, but a little uneven in quality. The dialogue is sometimes very authentic, and other times very forced. I mean, what teenager uses appositives in everyday speech? But most readers won't care about this. The romance, likable characters, the online element, and a good (if slightly overstated) message are all appealing.

Hush

Book: Hush
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Audience: Grades 4-9 or so
In a Nutshell: girl loses her friends, her home, and her name when her family enters the federal witness protection program

Her name used to be Toswiah. She loved her life in Denver, and her father loved his life as a cop. He was one of the only African-Americans on the force, but that didn't seem to matter. Then he witnessed two fellow cops killing a black boy. He testified against them, and life got hard for the whole family. Then it got dangerous. So in the middle of the night, they packed up a few small bags and moved to who-knows-where across the country. Now Toswiah's name is Evie, her sister is angry, her mother has become religious with the Jehovah's Witnesses, and her father just stares out the window all day. They may still be alive, but life as she knew it is over.


It's a lovely story, bittersweet and cautiously optimistic in the end. A pretty quick read, too.

Specials

Book: Specials (Book 3 of the Uglies trilogy)
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: bio-engineered superteens overcome their brainwashing and save the world

Oh, how I love Scott Westerfeld's books. And oh, how I love it when authors finish strong on a good trilogy. I can now rest easy at night knowing that I can recommend Uglies and Pretties without fear of readers getting shafted by Book 3. Not that I've been losing whole lot of sleep over this, but you get the idea.

When we last left Tally Youngblood, she had been caught by the Specials, led by her former best friend, Shay. Since then, she's had the "special" surgery herself, where they enhanced her strength, speed, senses, and more, basically turning her into a predatory super-human who comes across as scary to normal pretties for primal reasons they are only vaguely aware of.

Tally loves her new body, her new tight relationship with the other Specials, and loves the new feelings of power and superiority that come with it. Their latest assignment is to figure out where the rebel New Smoke camp has moved to, and report back. But they run into more resistance from the Smokies than they expected, and Tally and Shay are caught in a swirl of right and wrong and power and greed, and it's up to them to use their gifts to chose a side and fight for it. Hundreds of years of peace between the cities hangs in the balance. There's also David and Zane to consider. David, the Smoky whom both Tally and Shay have loved when they were young and foolish and now just resent; and Zane, Tally's boyfriend whose brain got fried in the last book trying to become permanently "bubbly" and lucid, free from the brain lesions that keep the population docile. Tally thought he was dead, but surprise! He's not.

I've really tried to keep this blurb short and simple, but after three books of build-up that's no easy task. There's so much action, adventure, survival, gore, intriguing social commentary, love and life and death and stuff blowing up. Just trust me: good books. Very good books. Read the very good books.

The White Ram: A Story of Abraham and Isaac

Book: The White Ram: A Story of Abraham and Isaac
Author & Illustrator: Mordecai Gerstein
Audience: Grades K-3
In a Nutshell: A traditional Jewish story of Abraham and Isaac- from the ram's point of view

In Scripture, we first meet the white ram when Abraham is about to follow God's command to sacrifice his son, Isaac. God stops Abraham and tells him there is a ram caught in the bushes that he should sacrifice instead. In this picture book, we see the other side of the story, where God creates the ram and tells it to wait, because there is a special purpose for it to fulfill. When the time comes, the ram must pass the Enemy in many disguises as the Enemy tries to convince, trick, or bully the ram into not following through. In the end, it willingly sacrifices itself to obey God and save Isaac's life. A nice retelling of a traditional (though not scriptural) story, and the artwork is energetic with lots to look at on each page.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

Book: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Audience: Grades 2-4 or so
In a Nutshell: Harriet Tubman listens to God and finds freedom for herself and many others

The illustrator of Ellington Was Not a Street and the author of several black history titles offers up a gorgeous depiction of Tubman, her faith, and the part it played in her escape from slavery and the leadership in the Underground Railroad that followed. The word that comes to mind is transcendent. A beautiful and memorable book.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses

Book: A History of the World in 6 Glasses
Author: Tom Standage
Audience: High School and Adult
In a Nutshell: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola explain everything

Beer was portable wealth in ancient Egypt; Coke represents-- and pioneered-- current globalization trends. In between, lots of other stuff was either influenced or reflected by various major beverages. Very interesting angle on world history with lots of tasty factoids to wet your whistle.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You

Book: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You
Author: Ally Carter
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: James Bond boarding school for girls

They speak 14 languages, but they don't know how to talk to boys. They are students at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. Most of the world thinks it's a hoity-toity boarding school for rich girls. In reality, it's a spy school. They have all the high-tech gadgets, they can blend and infiltrate anywhere, hack any database, mix deadly poison. But mingling in the real world? Not so easy. Since her mom is the headmistress, Cammie Morgan gets out even less than the other students. But on a pratice mission in town, she meets Josh. He's normal, cute, and he noticed her. But he can't find out she goes to the snob school, and he definitely can't find out she' s a spy in training. Good thing Cammie and her friends are experts at covert operations.

There's nothing too heavy here, but I liked it. Light and fun, and there's a sequel in the works.

Endymion Spring

Book: Endymion Spring
Author: Matthew Skelton
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: book finds boy. book bites boy. boy must solve book's mysteries and guard its ancient secrets from nasty scholars at Oxford.

Blake Winters and his little sister, Duck, are spending the year with their mother at Oxford. She spends all day in the library researching, so Blake and Duck are stuck there, too. One day, a book bites Blake. No, really- it's got fangs and everything. The book is really, really old, and the cover says only Endymion Spring, whatever that means. When Blake opens it, there are a lot of blank pages and one very mysterious riddle, and he's the only one who can see it. The book is powerful, it seems to have a life of its own, and there' s something it wants from Blake.

The other storyline in the book begins 500 years ago in Germany, where a young printer's assistant named Endymion works with Johann Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press. A very sketchy character named Fust shows up with a very creepy, carved chest that practically screams "I'M EVIL!!", and Endymion finds magic, mystery, and danger within.

This book got oodles of hype before it was published, and it is a good read- if you like books about libraries, books, and mysteries with a dark and sinister historical twist. A bit of a Da Vinci Code angle, if you like sort of thing. But does this story have the crazy blockbuster appeal of Da Vinci? No, not really. But it's a decent readalike for teen DVC fans.

The Oaken Throne

Book: The Oaken Throne (Book Two of The Deptford Histories)
Author: Robin Jarvis
Audience: Grades 4-6
In a Nutshell: two young enemies, a bat and a squirrel, team up to fight evil and destruction. I think.

I'll be straight with you: I couldn't do it. I couldn't keep reading this book. I was supposed to read it for a review group, but I just can't. It's an animal fantasy, and I like those. The author is well-reviewed and respected and all that, and I'm sure plenty of people get into his books. It's got similar appeal to Redwall, but with a much higher creep factor, which would be a selling point for fans of creep. It just seems overdone to me- overwritten and overdramatic. Here's an example of dialogue as Morwenna the "treacherous handmaiden" squirrel poisons her kindly mistress: "'Now you have drunk from the cup of my ambition,' she spat venomously. 'To me it seems sweet, but I fear you have not found it so. '" Maybe it's just me, but I can't get into that. It's rodent fantasy with Shakespearean hack tendencies, complete with thou's and thee's thrown in for flavor. The time period is medieval, but it still doesn't work for me, like the author is trying too hard to make squirrels seem truly threatening.

I'm not even going to get into the plot, because I have no idea what happens past page 63. I read the entire Deptford Mice Trilogy thinking I would start liking it more eventually, but I never really did. Now here's the prequel trilogy, and this is as far as I go. They're not badly written, I just...can't. Sorry.

Cinderella (as if you didn't already know the story)

Book: Cinderella (as if you didn't already know the story)
Author: Barbara Ensor
Audience: Grades 3-6
In a Nutshell: Cinderella with funky silhouette illustrations

The title of the book pretty much says it all. This is Cinderella, as if you didn't already know the story. Not really any deviations from the norm here. The time period is sort of a cross between Once Upon a Time and modern day; Cinderella has both a royal ball and homework to contend with. Cinderella's letters to her dead mother are reproduced in her own handwriting, and there are lots of silhouette-style illustrations throughout. Our heroine has a spunky voice, and there are memorable writing gems and quirky, non-traditional details added here and there, but overall it didn't make a huge impression on me. It's pretty much...Cinderella. So if you're looking for a Cinderella story, this will definitely fit the bill. And all the illustrations and letters make it a superquick read.