The Hero and the Crown

Book: The Hero and the Crown
Author: Robin McKinley
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: clumsy, black-sheep princess turns out to be Dragon-slaying, world-saving princess

Aerin may be the only child of the king of Damar, but it hasn't won her a big fan following so far. For years, people in and out of the royal court have whispered stories of how her witch mother used magic to ensnare the king in marriage and get an heir on the throne, and how she died of disappointment when her child was born a girl.

Aerin longs to do something of use for her father and the kingdom, so with the help of her cousin, Tor, she secretly learns to use a sword, and she becomes Aerin Dragon-Killer. Dark powers are stirring in the north, and though smaller than their legendary counterparts, small dragons are becoming a dangerous nuisance in the villages. But rumors exist in her father's books that one of the great dragons may still be alive, dormant and waiting to rise again and cause fiery mayhem. And there is still another problem to consider: the common source of the dragons, the rebellious spirit in the northern lords, and more ominous signs of dark times to come. She may have been belittled by people all her life, but Aerin's country needs her now for the gifts she never imagined she had.

A classic high fantasy; dragon-slaying and magic destiny-discovering adventure at its best. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. And if you want more there's also The Blue Sword, written two years before this one but set much later in the history of Damar.

Dairy Queen

Book: Dairy Queen
Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: your basic "girl runs farm, girl joins football team, girl falls for rival quarterback" story

D.J. Schwenk's two older brothers were high school football stars. D.J. is athletic, too, but now that her dad's recuperating from surgery, she's more or less been running her family's dairy farm. No more basketball, no more volleyball, and barely any time to hang out with her best friend, or do anything fun for that matter. From all those years of helping her brothers with workout drills, D.J. knows her way around a set of calisthenics. So when a family friend (and coach of the rival football team) asks her to train his quarterback over the summer, D.J. doesn't know exactly why she does it, but she agrees. Said quartback's name is Brian Nelson. He's got talent, he's got looks, but he's also a big whiner who blames other people for all his mistakes and isn't a fan of hard work. But he's not about to get shown up by a girl, so let the training begin.

Brian's actually not a bad guy, which complicates D.J.'s life when they're spending almost every day together. More complications ensue when she decides that what she really wants is the last thing anyone expects: to join the football team. A worthy addition to teen girl power lit. D.J. is funny, honorable, and heroic, in a rural-Wisconsin-meets-Title-9 sort of a way. Language and content is definitely on the high school side of the spectrum, but nothing all that edgy.

The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen

Book: The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen (Book Two of M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales)
Author: M. T. Anderson
Audience: Grades 4-6
In a Nutshell: makes fun of mystery series books, and has a crazy fun time doing it

I love M. T. Anderson. Loooove him. No, we're not related, despite sharing a last name. Everything he's ever written rocks. Sometimes (make that usually) it's disturbing in some way, but so well done. The guy is twisted, but boy, can he write. Just try to say the title of this book out loud and not want to read it. Some readers may not know what linoleum or lederhosen mean, but it still sounds fantastic. The Thrilling Tales series features a trio of heroes: Katie Mulligan, Jasper Dash, and Lilly Gefelty. Katie is the star of a creepy mystery book series- think Goosebumps. The "Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut" books were big in the 1940's, when fearless, brave and courteous Jasper fought bad guys with his crazy "futuristic" inventions, such as the Gyroscopic Sky Suite. Lilly doesn't have a book series. She doesn't realize yet that her life is not boring, so she's happy to hide in her famous friends' shadows. In the first book, the three friends saved the world from whales on stilts (hence the title: Whales on Stilts!) In this second tale, the trio try to take a vacation from mystery and the forces of evil, but no luck. They go to a mountain hideaway called the Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort, where Jasper has a coupon for free dinner. It turns out that the coupons were a fake, and many other mystery series stars were lured there by the same bogus coupon. No sooner have the guests realized the hoax then they get word that the adorable Hooper Quints have been kidnapped, and they all set out to solve the mystery. All except Katie, who really wants a vacation. But how long can she ignore a good mystery? And why is one guest always letting out bloodcurdling screams? And will Jasper survive his encounter with immunoglobulin E? The book is weird and quirky enough to appeal to readers who like weird, quirky books; if they are familiar with some of the books being panned, it gets even better. Goosebumps, The Bobbsey Twins, and any given old-fashioned horse books are just a few of the targets of Anderson's (fond) satire.

The next book in this thrilling series? The teaser in the back begins like this:

It is a land of wonders...

It is a land of mystery...

It is a land that time forgot

(or chose specifically not to remember)

It is called... DELAWARE!

How can you not love that?

I haven't gathered enough data to know if actual kids find these books as hilarious as I do, but oh well.

School's Out-- Forever

Book: School's Out- Forever (Book 2 of Maximum Ride)
Author: James Patterson
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: kids with wings hide from crazy scientists and look for their parents

The first book was action-packed and interesting, and this one pretty much is, too. To be honest, I read this a while ago and now I'm trying to catch up on my Barker posts. Max and the other genetically-engineering flying children continue their quest for truth, parents, and blowing stuff up. Lots of action, twists, turns, betrayals, but not a whole lot accomplished in the end. But there's a third exciting installment due out in May, so stay tuned. Maybe book three will be more revealing.

The Prophet of Yonwood

Book: The Prophet of Yonwood
Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Audience: Grades 4-8
In a Nutshell: find a home, fall in love, help the world

Nickie's great-grandfather just died, leaving the family's huge old mansion in the small town of Yonwood, North Carolina, to her mom and aunt. The house is so old it has a name: Greenhaven. Nickie's aunt, Crystal, just wants to clean it up and sell it as soon as possible, and Nickie comes along to help. She also has three goals of her own: 1. To convince her aunt not to sell Greenhaven so that she and her mom and dad can live there, out of the dangerous city; 2. To fall madly, passionately in love- not forever, just for now, to see what it's like; 3. To do something helpful for the world. She sees her chance to do #3 when she hears about the Prophet. Several months back, a woman in town had a fiery, frightening vision of the future, and now she's half-delirious in bed, muttering confusing things that a few prominent town members (like Mrs. Beeson) interpret and pass on as God's will to the rest of the people. With the President on television nearly every day warning of an imminent war with the extremist "Phalanx Nations," people are all too willing to believe a vision of fiery doom, and they do whatever Mrs. Beeson tells them to do in the hopes that they can prevent the coming disaster and destruction. Nickie tries to help Mrs. Beeson do good by reporting people who might have evil tendencies, but she soon realizes that it's not as easy as judging appearances and first impressions to decide who's good and who's eeevil. To mix things up, throw in a cute stray dog (good?), a new friend who loves snakes (evil?), a mysterious white-clad "terrorist" wandering the woods, and a secret message hidden in postcards from her father. Nickie reaches all three goals, but not how or when she expected.

This book was disappointing; all the more so because I love the first book, The City of Ember, and the sequel, The People of Sparks. Prophet is presented as the Third Book of Ember, prequel-style, but the connection is pretty slim. The author threw in a lot of wrap-up and tie-in facts in the final chapter, almost like she hit her page quota and resorted to summary. The story quickly gets bogged down in message and metaphor, mostly related to the current state of the post-9/11 world. Not that war, fear, safety vs. freedom, and questions of religion and who really knows God's will aren't perfectly good topics to tackle, but the approach here gets too heavy-handed. It hampered my attempt to enjoy the story and characters apart from The Lesson To Be Learned. I don't like being hampered.

Foundation

Book: Foundation
Author: Isaac Asimov
Audience: High School to Adult
In a Nutshell: they're saving humanity, but they have no idea how

Sometimes I feel like a big slacker of a sci-fi fan, because there are a lot of classic novels I've never read. This was one of them. Here's the deal: Hari Seldon is the galaxy's greatest psychohistorian, meaning he can predict major events and risings and fallings of civilization based on what he knows of history, sociology, and statistics. That's right, math. Don't bother looking up "psychohistory", because the author made it up. Leave it to Asimov to imagine a universe where a math geek will save us all. That's what Seldon set out to do: through his science he sees that the gi-normous and all-powerful Galactic Empire will soon collapse, plunging the human race into 30,000 years of primitive dark ages before we recover. Seldon believes he can reduce that dark time to a mere 1,000 years. How? By setting up the Encyclopedia Foundation on a little planet on the edge of nowheresville, galactically speaking. The job of the Foundation members is to create a massive encyclopedia containing the sum of human knowledge so that it won't be lost in the dark time to come. A nice idea, but will that really eliminate 29,000 years of suffering? No, not really. Turns out old Hari Seldon had a lot more planned than just a 1,000-volume leather-bound set. The tricky part is, Seldon purposely didn't tell anyone else what chain of events would begin after the Foundation was created. So the people of the Foundation planet have no idea what they're really doing, or how it might save humanity.

The premise is very interesting, and I enjoyed the book for a while. But honestly, I got a little impatient toward the end. Like Asimov himself mentions in the foreward, the book is all ideas and talk, talk, talk. Big, exciting things do happen, but they're always "off-camera", so to speak. Only once that I remember was the point of view actually in the action. Maybe I've just been reading too many action-heavy YA books (is that even possible?!), but after a while I wanted to see the action for myself, not just hear someone talk about what just happened, or was still happening, or was about to happen. Anyway, I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll check out the rest of the series quite yet.

Howl's Moving Castle: The Movie

Movie: Howl's Moving Castle
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Rating: PG
Audience: Children to Adult
In a Nutshell: like the book, but with an anti-war message instead of a trip to Wales

I was a good girl and read the book first, then rented the movie. Generally I like Miyazaki a lot, and Howl's was no exception. There were definitely changes from the book, he certainly made the story his own, but I like each version for what it is. Diana Wynne Jones's original novel is more light-hearted. One could describe it as a playful romp and not be lying. The movie isn't so much "playful romp" material, although there is plenty of humor. The movie has slightly darker themes, two of them being the big bad pointless war that Howl opposes, and the danger of Howl losing his humanity to the bird creature he can change into. Also, there's no magical door to Wales like there is in the book; there's no connection to our world at all. Besides that, many characters and parts of the story are similar, if adjusted a bit to fit movie format and Miyazaki's style. Billy Crystal as the voice of Calcifer the fire demon is one of the best parts. That's one thing I'll say for Disney, which handles the English language dubbing and theatrical releases of Miyazaki's films: they do an excellent job casting the voice talents. I won't go into any more detail, but I'd say the book and movie are equally great in their own ways.

Bodies from the Bog

Book: Bodies from the Bog
Author: James M. Deem
Audience: Grades 4-8
In a Nutshell: title says it all

I read this one because I was fascinated by Bodies from the Ash and wanted to see more from Deem. Lots of nice big photos of bog mummies and artifacts from Denmark, England, Ireland, and more to be found here. The author tells us about how bog mummies form and what we've learned from them so far about ancient European cultures. Were these people sacrificed, murdered, executed, or just accidentally drowned? Everyone has their opinion. At least, everyone who studies bog bodies does. And if you read this book, maybe you will too. It's visual, it's informative, it's nice and macabre. Thumbs up.

Ithaka

Book: Ithaka
Author: Adele Geras
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: waiting for Odysseus with a few Greek gods, a few hundred nasty houseguests, and one very old dog

This is kind of a sequel, but it stands alone. The first book is called Troy. Now the battle of Troy is over, but Odysseus is still far from home. While he's off having all the adventures it takes to get an "odyssey" named after you, life at home on the island of Ithaka goes on. His faithful wife Penelope and son Telemachus still believe he's alive and coming home, but after 12 years and counting few others share that belief. The story is told mainly through the eyes of Penelope and Klymene, a girl who, along with her twin brother Ikarios, is a servant at the palace and was raised with Telemachus. The arrival of Telemachus's distant cousin, a selfish man magnet named Melantho, throws love complications out in all directions. Then dozens of nasty, rude chieftains and their men arrive to vie for the hand of Penelope and camp out in the courtyard for months, and if Penelope doesn't find a way to stall them things could get ugly. The regular narrative is augmented by two kinds of poetic interludes as Penelope unknowingly weaves on her loom the story of her husband's journey as it happens, and as Odysseus's dog, Argos, dreams and waits for his master to return.

This isn't necessarily my kind of book, but I read it for a review group and actually liked it. It's good historical/mythological fiction written from the other side of Homer's famous Odyssey, the side with the women and children, and the writing kept me engaged. The male-female relationship content gets pretty mature, though not graphic, as both the teen and adult characters are the target of Eros and Aphrodite's influences. It also made me wish I knew The Odyssey better to know how this story ties in. Not enough to actually re-read it, but good job anyway, Ithaka.

The Lathe of Heaven

Book: The Lathe of Heaven
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Audience: High School and Adult
In a Nutshell: one man's dreams become reality- literally

George Orr is afraid to fall asleep. More specifically, he's afraid to dream. Sometimes, the things he dreams come true. Not just in a make-a-wish-and-magically-get-a-puppy kind of way. If he dreamed he had a dog, he wouldn't just wake up and find one on his doorstep. He would wake up to discover he had gotten a dog 2 years ago, and no one in the world would remember the way things used to be- no one except him. The dog thing doesn't happen in the book, but you get the idea.

George is ordered to go to a psychiatrist who specializes in dreaming, a man named Dr. Haber. Naturally, at first Haber thinks George is delusional. The good doc uses hypnosis and a machine called the Augmentor to help George dream something pleasant and hopefully break his fear of dreaming. But being aware of the content of George's dreams gives Haber the ability to remember both realities when things change. Not just that, but having control of what George dreams gives Haber the power to change the world. Like most people, he thinks he has good intentions, that he is trying to create a better world. But nothing turns out quite the way it should, and the dreams reshape history in twisted, only partly positive ways. As Haber gets closer to finding a way to take George's abilities as his own, George must stop him before so much meddling causes the world to fall apart at the seams. Very intriguing sci-fi classic about the interconnection of dream and reality, mind and matter, and the evil that lurks in the heart of man.

It's set in Portland, Oregon, which lends the story that Pacific Northwest geography I love so much. On an interesting geo-historical side note, the book was written in 1971, 9 years before the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Le Guin mentions the beautiful peak of St. Helens several times, but it is Mt. Hood that erupts in the book's dream-altered realities.

If you're wondering where the title comes from (I know I was), each chapter begins with a quote, many drawn from Eastern philosophy, especially Taoist thought. Chapter 3 begins with this quote from Chuang Tse:

Those whom heaven helps we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven.

So now you know. If you're wracking your brain to remember what a lathe is, here's some help:

All clear now, right?

It spins chunks of wood and shapes them into things like table legs and baseball bats. More to the point, it was probably the only power tool in existence before 300 B.C., when Chuang Tse, a.k.a. Zhuangzi, a.k.a. Zhuang Tze, etc., was thinking Taoist thoughts. If he were writing today, would he say, "those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the Black & Decker plunge router of heaven"? Who knows.

Howl's Moving Castle

Book: Howl's Moving Castle
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Audience: Grades 5 and up
In a Nutshell: a floating castle, a running scarecrow, a talking fire, a nasty witch, and some magical pink hair dye.

In the fairy tale world, the fair and virtuous maiden who gets the prince and the happy ending is always the youngest in the family. Sophie is well aware of this; as the oldest of three sisters, and a step-sister to boot, she knows that her life will be very unremarkable. It doesn't really bother her that much, and she accepts that her fate is to work hard in her family's hat shop for the rest of her life. But then, against all odds, interesting things start happening to her. The Witch of the Waste puts a powerful curse on Sophie that turns her into an old woman, and Sophie runs off and invites herself into the magical moving castle of the Wizard Howl, which roams the hills around her village. Inside she finds Howl's young apprentice, Michael, a fire demon named Calcifer who lives in the hearth, and a magical door. It opens onto one of three places in the kingdom, and one place in another world: ours. Howl himself is not as evil as his reputation claims; besides, it was a rep he started himself so he'd be a more intimidating wizard. He spends hours in the bathroom in order to look and smell nice, and his favorite pastime is getting girls to fall in love with him, then never seeing them again, but that's a pretty weak definition of evil by fairy tale standards. High school evil, sure, but there are bigger, eviler fish to fry here. Like the Witch of the Waste, who also put a curse on Howl, and it may catch up with him soon. And why is there a very persistent scarecrow following Sophie? She's an oldest daughter: what magic could she possibly have?

Howl's is a fun, energetic tale with lots of interesting characters, twists and turns, cool magic, and a bit of romance. I've been meaning to read it for years, and the anime version by Hayao Miyazaki finally prompted me to do it. I haven't seen the movie yet, but if Netflix comes through, I will tonight. More on that later...

Daring to Draw Near

Book: Daring to Draw Near: People in Prayer
Author: John White
Audience: Adult
In a Nutshell: from bargaining to dancing, famous prayers in the Bible and what they show us about God and ourselves

I've gotten a little backlogged again on updates, so these will be short and sweet. White examines 10 prayers in the Bible, and by "prayer," he doesn't just mean kneeling with eyes closed and hands folded. All sorts of divine-human interactions qualify: Abraham pleading for the people of Sodom, Jacob wrestling with God, Hannah crying out for a child, David dancing before the ark of the covenant, Jesus' last words on the cross, and more.

I found that oodles of the ideas that I read here were stuck in my head for days, and some are even sticking with me permanently. One main point of the book is that prayer is always initiated by God, and we are responding to him. The way he reaches out and the way we respond both vary wildly, but God is always the one to initiate. It's often through a situation in our lives which creates a need or a question that we bring to him. Whatever the further meaning is behind what's happening to or around us, God's foremost desire is that everything draw him and us closer together. It's something to think about. For those who believe in Christ and want to be challenged and inspired in their prayer life, or for those outside the faith interested in learning more about what prayer really means in Christianity, try this book. I know I'll be coming back to it many times in the future.

Magic Lessons

Book: Magic Lessons (Book Two of the Magic or Madness trilogy)
Author: Justine Larbalestier
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: magical teen will either go crazy or die young- unless her gooey old ancestor can help

Reason Cansino's mother had the gift of magic, but she disavowed it; now she's in a looney bin. Reason's grandmother has the gift, but at 45 years old she's ancient for a magical one. They usually die before they're 20. Reason only discovered from her grandmother about a week ago that she has the gift as well (see Book One: Magic or Madness, for that story), and that her grandmother's back door in Sydney, Australia, actually leads to New York City (New York City?!). Just two days ago, she and a couple magical friends stopped power-hungry magic guy Jason Blake from sucking the magic out of them and taking it for himself. He's even Reason's grandfather- some grampa. Now the door is acting very strangely, swirling and bending in very un-woodlike ways, and it even spits a weird bitey sluggy thing at them. When Reason gets sucked over into the New York side, she enlists the help of Danny, the hunky older brother of her friend Jay-Tee, to help her figure out what (or who) this creature is that's guarding the door home, and why it smells like family to her. (Her magical perception manifests most strongly as smell- it works in the book a lot better than when I explain it.)

Reason's ultimate goal is to figure out a way to beat the rather limited "go mad/die young" option, in order to save herself, her friends, and maybe her mother. A few interesting twists at the end assure us that there is plenty of story left to wrap up in Book Three, Magic's Child, which according to Amazon.com will be out in March 2007. I like Larbalestier's style, and the Aussie slang is colorful, as always; JL is, indeed, Australian, so it's authentic. Another personal tidbit: she is married to Scott Westerfeld, one of my favorite authors lately. I see a lot of cross-pollination in their books, such as the importance of math and number sequences for certain magical powers. Who knows, maybe they've both dug math forever, and they actually met at an "Authors Who Love the Fibonacci Sequence" mixer. The content here gets a little, shall we say, PG-13 in places, so just be aware that it's aimed more at high-schoolish-aged teens.

The Unusual Suspects

Book: The Unusual Suspects (Book Two of The Sisters Grimm)
Author: Michael Buckley
Audience: Grades 4-6
In a Nutshell: killer spiders, frog-girl monsters, attack rabbits and more when fairy tale offspring run amock

Sabrina and Chloe Grimm are the great-great-great-great-granddaughters of Wilhelm Grimm, of Brothers Grimm fame. Two years after the disappearance of their parents, the sisters Grimm have gone to live with their grandmother, Relda, in her crazy old house in Ferryport Landing. As it turns out, fairy tale creatures are real, they left Europe 200 years ago to escape persecution, and they all live in Ferryport (formerly Fairyport)Landing. A magical barrier keeps them in town, where the Grimm family can keep an eye on them. When there's a mystery involving the Everafters, the Grimms are the detectives to solve it. In this second book in the series, the sisters start school, just in time for the mysterious and gruesome murders of two school staff members. In the midst of the investigation, Sabrina puts up with pranks from Puck (the trickster king), and struggles with pre-pubescent bouts of anger and her growing prejudice against all Everafters. Throw in a rampaging herd (flock? warren? pod?) of rabbits and you've got yourself a story.

This series got off to a good start with Book One, The Fairy Tale Detectives, and I've heard that Book Three is good, but this middle child is a little weak. It wasn't bad, but the message about anger and prejudice gets pretty heavy-handed at the end, and the plot doesn't exactly skip right along. Maybe I've just had my fill of fairy tale twisters for now after The Big Over Easy, but this one didn't grab me.

Generally speaking, the series has got orphans searching for their parents and lots of odd, sometimes macabre goings-on. Sound familiar? It's worth a try for Lemony Snicket fans in search of something to tide them over until The End arrives on Friday the Thirteenth of October (how perfect).

Children of the Great Depression

Book: Children of the Great Depression
Author: Russell Freedman
Audience: Grades 6-10
In a Nutshell: title says it all

Changes, hardships, and daily life during the Great Depression come into sharp focus through the eyes of the children it affected in another well-written, expertly-researched offering from Russell Freedman. From lack of food and clothing to 12-year-olds and younger needing to leave school to work in factories, mines and fields, from sharecroppers to boxcar kids on the move, from the Dustbowl to the Lone Ranger, the book discusses what conditions were like during the Depression for children in different parts of the country with different economic backgrounds and different races. It also covers the sorts of things kids did for fun, from an afternoon at the pictures if they had a dime, to playing with homemade toys or listening to the radio.
The rich selection of photographs comes from the archives of FDR's Farm Security Administration, which produced over a quarter of a million pictures from all areas of the country between 1935 and 1943. Freedman always does good work, and this is no exception. If you want really well-researched and readable non-fiction alongside the best photos and other historical tidbits available, he's your man.

The Big Over Easy

Book: The Big Over Easy
Author: Jasper Fforde
Audience: Adult
In an Eggshell: Humpty Dumpty had a great fall- and it was no accident

Two days after meeting the author, I finished the book (slightly behind schedule). It was a fun read, although I have to say it wasn't as good as the Thursday Next series. However, it was actually the first book he wrote, so it's a good sign that his later writings have improved.

Like I mentioned in the Fforde entry below, in this book Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and Detective Sergeant Mary Mary (as in "quite contrary") investigate the death of Humpty Dumpty. Jack's work has long been hampered by the state of modern crime-solving. The readability of an investigation once it is published in Amazing Crime Stories has become more important than finding the truth. Twists, turns, not too many cliches, and a detective with unique and interesting foibles will all help a case get recognition, funding, and a fair trial. It doesn't hurt to be part of the powerful and selective Guild of Detectives, either, which Jack is not, but the pompous but popular Friedland Chymes is. All sorts of fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters are mixed into an otherwise normal portrayal of Reading (rhymes with wedding), a town west of London. Normal, except for the anthropomorphized pigs. And a revered but never explained artifact called the Sacred Gonga. And the presence of really boring aliens who love paperwork and Fawlty Towers. So maybe normal is the wrong word. But like with the Thursday Next series, the combination of the mundane, the fantastic, and the just plain batty is good for all sorts of chuckles, and the occasional guffaw. Don't look for tight plotting or edge-of-your-seat suspense; just laugh when it's funny. If you don't think it's funny, you should put it down.

Puns, plays on words, and plays on well-known characters and stories abound, and they're much more over-the-top than in Thursday Next. Mr. Fforde shared an interesting tidbit of his writing process relating to all the story references. He wrote The Big Over Easy first, followed by The Fourth Bear. At this point, he had used up most of the fairy tales and nursery rhymes he knew, so he moved on to literary characters in his next book. Knowing that this one could very well end up on the unpublished shelf with the first two freed him up to write whatever he wanted, however silly or outlandish it was. And thus The Eyre Affair was born. See what nice trivia you can pick up at author appearances? Great for impressing your friends and co-workers. As long as they're big bookworms like you.

Bodies from the Ash

Book: Bodies from the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii
Author: James M. Deem
Audience: Grades 4-6
In a Nutshell: bodies from thin air do tell tales

In this book about the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the focus is on the bodies. Which is interesting, because technically, there are no bodies. After a basic summary of the day of the eruption, Deem outlines a few excavations of buried Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum over the years; some were undertaken for noble archaeological reasons, others simply to grab stuff. The focus, however, is on those who died. The speed and intensity of the pyroclastic flow (one of my favorite terms- look it up) instantly killed and buried thousands of people, leaving empty, body-shaped pockets (Antibodies? Unbodies?) after the bodies disintegrated to nothing but bones. My dance and movement-trained sister might call it negative space. The plaster casts made of the non-body holes in hardened ash reveal the last moments of the people (and dogs) of Pompeii in disturbing detail. A combination of historical records, archaeological evidence, vulcanology (no, not Spock), and educated guessing allows scientists to piece together theories of who these people were and what their final moments might have been like. I've been fascinated with Pompeii ever since it was the cover story in an issue of National Geographic World when I was a kid. Natural disaster, mystery, and gruesome evidence: non-fiction doesn't get much better than that.

Ffun with Fforde

I'm going to branch out and talk about an adult author today. Crazy, I know! Of course, his recent books are about nursery rhymes and fairy tales, but give me a break. I can't go cold turkey off the young stuff.

I went to see Jasper Fforde speak at a local Barnes & Noble a few nights ago. He's the author of the Thursday Next books (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, and so on), and most recently the Nursery Crime series. The first Nursery Crime is The Big Over Easy, in which Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and Mary Mary investigate the death of Humpty Dumpty. The second book is The Fourth Bear. Just bought it, haven't read it yet, but the story has something to do with the rights of anthropomorphized bears and the lucrative but illicit ursine porridge trafficking industry, among other things.

Mr. Fforde is a very entertaining speaker as well as a very clever author, and it's well worth the excursion if he's appearing in your area. The Thursday Next books are literary crack for English majors (and lots of others) the same way Harry Potter is for kids (and lots of others). JFf's websites are also nicely done and good for a bit of daft fun, you might say. If you were British. Here's the Nursery Crime Division site, with links to the others. I couldn't decide who to buy his book for, so he signed it like this:

Fantastic.

Most exciting news of the evening: his next book will be the fifth installment of Thursday Next. His publisher shot down Apocalypse Next as a title, but I'm sure he'll think of something equally clever and punny.

I even got an awesome Ginja Assassin postcard w/ signing.

My only disappointment: the new Porridge t-shirt was not available for purchase.

Oh well, that's what the internet is for, I suppose.

The Tenth Power

Book: The Tenth Power (Book Three of the Chanters of Tremaris trilogy)
Author: Kate Constable
Audience: Teen to Adult
In a Nutshell: girl fulfills prophecy by singing the magical songs of all nine Powers- but wait, there's one more?

When we last saw Calwyn in Book Two (The Waterless Sea), she had bittten off more magic than she could chew, it turned around and bit her in the butt, and now she has lost all her powers of chantment. Chantments are songs that work like spells to work magic in the world of Tremaris, and only for those with a gift for it. There are different types of chantments that control the powers of Ice, Winds, Iron, Beasts, Seeming, and more. A chanter is usually only capable of singing one, maybe two types of chantments, but there is a prophecy that tells of a powerful Singer of All Songs who will change the world, one way or the other. A very ambitious- make that megalomaniacal- chanter named Samis would love to put that on his World Dominators Guild resume, but it was looking like the title would go to Calwyn. That is, until she lost it all.

Now Calwyn and friends are trudging their way to her home of Antaris, where the priestesses with the Power of Ice live in seclusion behind a massive ice wall, and boy, is Calwyn cranky. Not that she doesn't have her reasons. She lost all her powers, it should be spring but winter is mysteriously holding out, and her true love, Darrow, is off searching for Samis across the world. When they arrive at Antaris, they discover that not only is a mysterious illness is affecting only chanters, but a mean and nasty priestess has taken leadership and everyone's living in fear. Something is very wrong with the world of Tremaris itself; the chanter's sickness and extra-long winter are only the latest symptoms. Calwyn has an idea how to make things right, so she, Darrow and the rest head off to save the world.

The trilogy overall is an engrossing fantasy tale. I'd call this last book the weakest, but still enjoyable. The narrative occasionally jerks along to get from one major event to another, and all the elements of plot and character didn't culminate into a big three-book finish quite as well as I hoped they would. Still, there's enough grand finale magic and prophecy fulfillment to make the trilogy a satisfying read for fantasy lovers.

I won't give away the Big (though not as big as I'd hoped) Magical Moment at the end, but I will say that it brought to mind a song from a Fred and Ginger movie I just watched this week. The movie is Follow the Fleet, and the song by Irving Berlin starts like this:

There may be trouble ahead
But while there's moonlight and music
And love and romance
Let's face the music and dance

Peeps

Book: Peeps
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Audience: Teen to Adult
In a Nutshell: kiss the wrong person, get a vampire parasite

And now for something completely different: from a cute pink pig to the bloodsucking dangers of unsafe sex. But hey, at least this isn't a sequel!

During his first week in New York, Cal had a one-night stand, and now he's infected with the parasite that causes vampirism. A parasite? Who knew? The parasite's victims are known as parasite-positives, or peeps, to those in the know. Peeps quickly develop a voracious appetite for meat, including human, and grow to hate the things they once loved. That might be as general as sunlight (which doesn't kill them, they just hate it), or as specific as Elvis or potato salad. Cal is a rare variety of peep. He's a carrier, which means he has some of the advantages like increased strength and heightened senses, but without the insanity and desire to eat his neighbors. Under the direction of a secret vamp-tracking organization called the Night Watch, he's managed to track down all the girls he'd slept with (or even just kissed) before he realized what had happened to him, and now he must find his progenitor: Morgan, the mysterious girl who infected him. Her trail leads Cal underground to a world of abandoned tunnels, infected rats, and something dark and ancient awakening deep Underneath.

I've got a weakness for teen vampire novels, and I love everything Scott Westerfeld writes, so this one was kind of a no-brainer for me. Westerfeld does something interesting here: odd-numbered chapters contain the actual story, and even-numbered chapters are about parasites. Not the fictional vamp-asites from the story; just a collection of real parasites and how they survive. Disgustingly fascinating. Some theme or idea usually ties the parasite chapters to the surrounding story. The Peeps approach to the vampire legend gives too much credit to the almighty world-controlling power of biology, IMHO. I believe there's more to life than the carbon we're made of, or simple stimulus-response and survival. But the book is still a great read, and I really enjoyed it. Westerfeld has a great ear for cool that serves to give him a distictive, readable style without him resorting to just an orgy of product name-dropping. (Look, kids! I said "iPod!" Am I hip yet?) In other words, I think his books will still read cool in 10 years.

For a much more succinct teaser, here's an excerpt from Scott Westerfeld's website:
"I came up with the four important features that any vampire novel (of mine) had to include:
natural selection,
sexual attraction,
parasitic infection,
and Elvis memorabilia."

Or if you prefer a more graphic blurb (as in graphic novel), try the Unshelved Book Club's take on Peeps. I love those guys. Imagine a sitcom set in a public library and you've got Unshelved.