The Ghost's Child, Tea Rex

I haven't forgotten about books! I have just been very busy, sick, and overwhelmed. But I thought I would drop in and talk about two books I've read and loved recently, since--strangely--this blog still gets a lot of hits.

Tea Rex by Molly Idle. There are certain sorts of picture books that are beautifully absurd, with pictures that appeal to a wide range of readers and not-yet readers, and that amuse adults just as much as children. These could be called Muppet Show books for the special something that makes the book readable on multiple levels. Two small children invite a dinosaur over in Tea Rex; it's the polite thing to do, and everyone will act in certain ways, and the afternoon will be perfect. Except that, well, the rules of engagement are not the same for all parties. The message I took away, though there are several, is that you and your friends may have very different procedures, but that doesn't mean you can't get along. The texture of the dinosaur is fabulous, too. Molly Idle also created the fabulous Flora and the Flamingo, and if I recall correctly, she has another book in the pipeline.

The Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett. Confession: I haven't finished this yet; I've been sipping it two and three pages at a time, and while I sampled the first lines of a few Goodreads reviews, I haven't been spoiled so far. Maybe I should spoil myself--I'm reading a review copy, and since this was published in the US in 2008, I...am very behind in my reading! I'm listing this as a YA read, but it really seems ageless, and I'm not sure it really fits in any category; the main characters are a young boy and an old woman, with most of the story in flashback to when the old woman was teenage-ish. Maddy once traveled the world, seeking, but what she sought didn't please others; she finally pleased herself best with the mysterious Feather, a wild boy she meets on an Australian (?) beach. Unfortunately, the shiniest love may not be enough, for them or for their unborn child. Hartnett nails a fairytale sort of voice, the sort of voice that is very hard to nail, and the sort of voice that I usually can't be on board with, because it's affected or old-fashioned or dull or more suited to being presented orally and with awareness of storytelling conceits. But I kinda love this. And maybe I love this because it's bleak and beautiful, perfect for the sort of tale where the land and the sea touch, over and over, but can never really be together.

Australia Trip, Part 6

Cairns!

We woke up early because our tour departed early. Handily, people in Cairns understand tropical problems, and the mirror had an unfoggable bit on it. (Handily, there was also a clothesline in the shower. I used to see those all the time, but I never touched them; I thought they were part of the drain, or something to put a hanger on, so I was surprised when C pulled a rope out of the wall.)

Despite the early, the tour came a bit after we expected. I do get it--give people a time so they can be late and it won't matter. Hmph! We were carrying some granola-like bars (mine was nuts and coconut) and water, and I had a windbreaker, which turned out to be much too warm as we made a bunch of pickups and headed out of town. It seemed that a couple of different (perhaps not entirely full) tours were collapsed into one; some of us were on a day trip, and others were staying overnight in the rainforest.

I'm not quite sure where we stopped, but we went out along the coast (on the Captain Cook Highway, I think) and had a moment for pictures. It was strange to me to get out of the van and find myself in warm, humid air right along the coast, where I'm more used to being cold! The strangeness of the combination made me very unsettled that day, and I'm not sure why (or whether I ought to just blame things on, still, not feeling very well).


If only that had been in a certain book.


Our guide shared that they dye the emergency vinegar blue to prevent people from using it on their chips--and that the strategy doesn't really work.




But this is what scared me. Crocodiles? In the OCEAN? And also, the title of that book In the Sea There Are Crocodiles kept running through my head for days.

Our next stop was--I think, as I broke the handle off my file drawer that has receipts and things in it--was the Cairns Tropical Zoo. There are a number of zoos in the area, including some that are mostly open at night so that you can see animals that only come out then. It turns out that while on vacation, I mostly like going to the zoo, the beach, seeing nature, and sleeping in nice hotels! So this was one of the highlights.

First, we were greeted by zoo staff and we walked through a part of the zoo, including the enclosure for the dangerous, even deadly, cassowary. Take a close look. That's not a colorful turkey. That's a dinosaur with feathers, my friends. See its eyes? It's intelligent. See its feet? They will CUT YOU. They are aggressive, territorial birds. They chase away their young. But if I recall correctly, dad has to raise the babies! Also, there are a number of rainforest plants that only the cassowary can digest, so those plants depend on the cassowary to have a bite and poo out the seed for their future generations.




An owl of a sort I've forgotten, but I think it ate toads, maybe.


Kookaburras! Notably, I did not see a single one in a gum tree--and as I'll relate once we get to Hamilton Island, not really gumdrop eaters.


Then we had a talk about koalas, I think, while one crawled into a tree to eat a bunch of fresh leaves. A nifty thing: though koalas sleep most of the time, I saw more awake and feeding koalas than sleeping ones. Something I didn't realize is that koalas may have a preferred kind of eucalyptus tree, and may prefer the newest leaves, so any disruption in their growth can be a big deal for the koala population--already in danger due to their high incidence of chlamydia! Poor babies.


At most zoos I visited, there were options to take a picture with various animals, mostly as a fundraiser. In most of Australia, you can't actually hold a koala; they're hung on a tree branch, and you can pet them and take a picture with, but it's still possible in Queensland, and it was possible at this zoo. (I assume that the reasoning is that koalas are really shy and sensitive to stress, and I can understand that. At the same time, everywhere I went that it was allowed to actually hold the koala, the keepers were extremely careful to keep them happy. Those koalas were hand-raised or tame, often previously injured, with no possibility of returning to the wild; they were only allowed to "work" for short stretches of time, and for a short period so many days; you had to follow very specific rules for handling the koala, including being old enough, strong enough, and tall enough, since koalas don't like to be on the ground; and at any sign that the koala was done, that was it, and it was whisked away. Tip: Even in the zoo, they're wild animals with teeth and big claws. They're not just going to let you have a cuddle.) Anyway, C knew that we'd have an opportunity to hold a koala (and a snake, and a bunch of other things) later, so we went ahead and wandered around with our free time and breakfast time.


There was a tree full of rainbow lorikeets near where tea was set out for us.

C and I began to wander the zoo, but pretty soon, we realized that they had kangaroo kibble for sale. And that there was a big, open kangaroo and wallaby enclosure. And...well, I will have to never tell C that if we'd been on our own, we could have fed lemurs and red pandas, too! At least, maybe in pictures.

When we first found the enclosure, it didn't seem like there were many kangaroos around, but we were approached by this little hustler.






But we eventually found some that were at least as tall as we were--and there was a hierarchy! The biggest ones gently pushed their way to the front, but not so gently we forgot about their ability to kick you right over. And then all of the, say, 5' kangaroos made sounds like disgruntled Marge Simpson while the 5'6" kangaroo had a snack. The smallest ones nibbled delicately, but the largest, well, they were pretty drooly.

After a while, we bolted some tea and fruit and pastry and hopped back in the van, but this was definitely a spot I'd have loved to spend more time at. And we were off...

A roundup from my inbox

I have been sick and busy, so I'll just have to be brief:

A video from Month9Books releasing a whole bunch of covers for the upcoming year's releases:



Sheila Ruth of Imaginator Press passed on that there is a Kickstarter for a graphic novel version of Ratha's Creature by Clare Bell.

Via the Children's Book Council, there's an open casting call for people who'd like to be background players in the movie of Divergent. Check it out if you're in the Chicago area on February 9!

And Lou Aronica writes that his book, The Forever Year...

The Forever Year is the story of Jesse Sienna, a man in his thirties, whose elderly father Mickey moves in with him, something that does not go nearly as well as Jesse had hoped. However, when Mickey begins to tell Jesse the story of the woman he loved years before he met Jesse's mother, their relationship begins to change and Jesse learns things about love that resonate deeply in his own life. 

New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips called The Forever Year "pure pleasure from beginning to end, beautifully written and emotionally rich." New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas called it "a wry, tender, beautifully written novel." Multiplatinum recording artist Suzanne Vega said it was "a warm, engaging story with a valuable contemporary lesson inside."

Rounding Up the 2012 Cybils in YA SF/F

I thought I would make one last post about the Cybils, and it might be might last Cybils post ever (but more on that in a minute, especially since I might yet find a spare moment for another; first-round panelists write up enticing summaries of the shortlisted titles, and sometimes post lists of more books that we'd have loved to have seen on the shortlists).

• The Cybils website
• The 2012 MG and YA SF/F nominations (meaning anything that anything outside our general accepted reality in it, including all 205 YA books we had to consider)
• My 2012 (and 2011, and 2010) posts tagged with cybils (I have no idea why I didn't originally capitalize that)

The Cybils are book awards, given by panels of bloggers. Anyone may nominate books, and anyone may apply to be a first-round panelist or a second-round judge. I've been incredibly fortunate to have been a first-round panelist; panelists read as fast and as furious as they can for about ten weeks (yes, bad grammar there), trying to tackle as many of the books, many publisher-provided, as they can. Then, the thumbwrestling begins, and eventually, you come up with a shortlist of 5-7 books that represents the group's collective feelings about what hits the sweet spot of literary merit and "kid appeal." The first round of panelists goes into mourning for the books that couldn't be included, and the second round crowns an ultimate winner.

There are tired eyes. There are, sure, tired books. There are gems. There is a lot of work. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll jump up and down on the couch. I can't recommend the experience enough.

If you're interested in being a judge, get blogging! It probably helps if you focus on a particular sort of books that overlaps with a Cybils category. And, of course, clear your schedule, because more books are nominated each year than the year before. You'll be chatting about books, behind the scenes, with a group of people who, thankfully, come from a variety of perspectives, so practice your persuasion, too.

I won't be applying to be a Cybils judge again, I don't think. I have the utmost respect for all the hard work the Cybils staff and judges put in, and the Cybils are one of my very favorite literary organizations, but there are several (non-linear!) reasons why I won't be able to go on. It makes my heart a little squeezy, especially because I credit the jumping-into-a-giant-pile-of-books experience for helping me develop my sense of what works in a book.

Just after I found out I'd been selected as a panelist for 2012, I accepted an editing position for Month9Books (here or here). I love my job. My authors are great. The staff is fantastic. Month9Books is new, but making huge strides and moving fast. I keep pinching myself, because--for a number of reasons related to when I decided to take the leap into publishing, and related to how I don't live in NYC--I can't believe I'm actually doing exactly what I wanted to do: work with MG and YA books. Have I mentioned that I LOVE my job?

Month9Books' first eligibility for the Cybils will come next year, and though I might not work on any of the 2013 titles, there's probably enough of a conflict of interest that even if the Cybils would have me, I wouldn't have them; I wouldn't want to give anyone a reason to doubt how very thoughtful and unbiased the judges are and have to be. Setting that aside, editing books--getting deep into the plotlines and characters--at the same time as I was trying to read manuscripts on submission has been a lot of (good, fulfilling work). But add 200 additional books to the mix and that means no sleeping for me, and I kinda need that. I take my commitments seriously, and I think you can do anything if you know when it will end, but I wouldn't repeat this last autumn again! So, no matter the category, I think I'll be out of the running, so to speak.

Relatedly, I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging the future, or what I'll be doing with this blog. I'll probably leave it in place for a year, and I have some travel posts to make. But, of course, I'd hate for someone to come across a post and think oh, she loved or hated that book/my book/my friend's book, and [insert conclusion]. I've generally focused on books I can recommend (so if you're about to scroll back and look for books I hated, I think you'll be out of luck, and hate is probably too strong a word for the gentle, non-judgmental "not for me" some books prompt), but I know it's easy to extrapolate, and, well. I wouldn't count any author out unless they'd trolled me in the past, and that's a very short list. Also, I've started a more professionally-focused blog, now under construction at hallietibbetts.com, and I don't think I can juggle both! Will I review books? Well, considering the new position, probably not, or at least not like I have in the past.

I hope you'll check out the book nominations to get a sense of the broad range of what's been on bloggers' radar this year, and that you'll stick around to read and discuss all of the nominations, not just the shortlisted books and winner. My very best to all of the authors!

A Last Round of Cybils Panic

The end of the year is upon us, the Cybils are winding down, and I'm turning pages as fast as I can. I just found a few minutes to schedule one last post blurbing a sample of the fantastic nominations in YA SF/F for 2012.


Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst (Simon and Schuster - Margaret K. McElderry) was a nice surprise, especially since her books haven't quite clicked with me in the past. Normally I wouldn't mention that, but I think it's a good thing to share--the idea that you might not be in love with this book, but you open every book hoping that that one will be the one. In this one, Liyana is ready to die so that her tribe's goddess will come into her and bring prosperity. She is prepared, practiced, and ready for the ceremonial dance--but her goddess never comes. She's cast out, because her people would never believe her goddess just couldn't get there to take over her human vessel, and Liyana has to decide how to reconcile her wish to live with her wish to serve her people.

In The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda (St. Martin's Griffin), Gene is alive. He doesn't hang from the ceiling. He doesn't stay up all night. He doesn't die in the sun. See where I'm going with this? Gene wins a dubious lottery: a chance to hunt down some real, live humans. Mmm. With some of his peers. Can he hide his true self and survive in this dangerous game?

Ismae is a handmaiden of death in Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). She's impervious to poison, she can see who St. Mortain has marked for death, and she's a fantastic assassin, which leads to an assignment filled with court intrigue, secret identities, political maneuvering, and the choice between kissing and killing.






The Kairos Mechanism by Kate Milford (The Clockwork Foundry) has an interesting story outside of the story; it was a Kickstarter project by the author, and bridges the gap between The Boneshaker and The Broken Lands. Only a few hard copies were printed, and I think you should consider getting your hands on one if you can. Natalie Minks notices two boys coming from--well, nowhere, if you pay attention to where the roads go, and they're carrying the corpse of a man who either died yesterday or fifty years ago. Natalie could let it go, but she's not that kind of girl.

And so, then, you probably want to know about The Broken Lands, also by Kate Milford (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - Clarion). In 1870s Brooklyn, when the under-construction Brooklyn bridge looms over a grittier, but no less vibrant NYC, a card sharp and a fireworks expert have to battle the forces of evil. Real history is braided masterfully with the supernatural in this book.







 All of these books are nominated in the YA SF/F category for the 2012 Cybils awards. These reviews are based on copies provided by their respective publishers, except for Grave Mercy, as I owned a copy.

Still More Cybils Panic

Can I mention all of the books I've read? All of the books I really liked this season? No, but I can blurb a few more...

Insignia by S.J. Kincaid  (Harper Collins - Katherine Tegen Books) is fast-paced military SF for fans of Ender's Game and Brain Jack. Tom is nobody, really, and neither is his no-good gambler of a dad. However, Tom is pretty good at video games, and at bluffing, which gets him a spot on an elite team of teenagers whose brains are, let's say, wired. In a future where countries fight for corporations, Tom has to fight the forces of evil that come with an executive washroom and an expense account, but he also has to figure out what's left when your brain is no longer your own.

Ashen Winter  by Mike Mullin (Tanglewood) is just as personally frightening as Ashfall was for me. Sure, it's been a while since Yellowstone blew up, covering the rest of the country with ash and sending temperatures dropping. Sure, we could just keep eating kale, one of the few things that will grow. But Alex's parents are still out there, looking for him, and he can't just wait for them to come home.

When I picked up The Infects by Sean Beaudoin (Candlewick), I knew I'd be in for a ride. See, I don't always know exactly what is going on in Beudoin's books. They're so weird. But I am so glad they're out there. In The Infects, a kid is on his way to camp for juvenile delinquents. And then there are zombies. And it's weird, okay? If you like things a little absurd, The Infects is one to pick up.

In What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang (HarperCollins), the souls of sisters Addie and Eve share one body. Children start out as hybrids, and eventually, one of the souls slips away. It's part of growing up--and it's part of being a good, non-criminal person. Addie and Eve haven't settled, though, which makes them suspicious, different, and ill. When Addie and Eve are sent away to get better, the fight for both of their lives gets dire. This makes an interesting contrast to Every Day, by the way.

Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier (Knopf) completely charmed me. Neryn's not supposed to be magical; it's prohibited. She can see the fairies, though, and that means she has to run. To be straightforward: I've read so many books-with-fairies in the past five or so years that few stand out, but Neryn's journey had something Frodo-esque and pure about it. And there were some very clever moments that stole my heart. If you've read this one: Go small!





All of these books are nominated in the YA SF/F category for the 2012 Cybils awards. These reviews are based on copies provided by their respective publishers, either through the Cybils program or when I requested them from NetGalley and completely forgot to read them earlier in the year. So it goes.

Yet More Cybils Panic

Another roundup of books I'd like to review more carefully for you--but which I simply can't if I'm to attempt to finish looking at as many of the 205 YA SF/F nominees as I can...

This gets tough to do; as soon as I'm through with one book, I'm on to another, and even when I'm ruminating on a book, a few days' distance makes it hard to put together a few lines. I hope this gives you a few hints and inspires you to go looking for yourself!

Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough (Bodley Head) is a book that sort of defies its category. "Beware of Long Lankin, who lives in the moss..." That might fit nicely with the last line of Rock-a-bye Baby, but Long Lankin is a much scarier ending than just falling out of the sky. Two girls are sent to live with their great-aunt in the late 1950s. The house where they live, moldering, old, is being swallowed by the sea and by sorrow. Great-aunt Ida wants Cora and Mimi gone, but something much more sinister might get them all first. I'm not entirely sure how to conceive of the children's viewpoints (I couldn't figure out if Cora was an old-school, mature 12, or, say, 14), and the great-aunt receives sections from her point of view as well. Long Lankin is lovingly written, and has something scary for everyone, but it might take a mature reader to unravel the time/place. I definitely think that an older teen who loooooves scary movies will find something here; I spent one long night awake after a certain scene!

I love the cover of The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke  (Strange Chemistry). The detail, the paper-cut feel, and the swirly font all hint at the story of Ananna, a girl whose world might have been a parallel universe to any bit of the Arabian Nights. Ananna's parents, pirates (quite respectable ones), have plans to marry her off, but Ananna is having none of it. She makes a daring escape on a camel and carries on: there's no going back. It's not easy to be a young girl, on her own, with no tools or funds at your disposal, but things are really not easy when there are assassins involved.

The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman (Small Beer Press - Big Mouth House) is another that defies category (the Cybils divides only into contemporary and SF/F in YA and MG, so anything with an odd happening is usually SF/F; though this is largely, closely focused on non-magical history, there are a few otherworldly, time-travel-y bits, and that's why this is here). In this carefully researched story, Sophie slips back in time from 1960 to 1860 on her family's land. In 1860, she's taken for a slave, but don't think this is a story of a girl who solves all the woes of the past. She's part of others solving for themselves, and part of something bigger, and more thoughtful, regarding class, race, and power.

Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan (Walker) starts with a boy, Daniel, who's not very pleased to be spending the summer at Leisure World with his dad. His dad is a drunk. Daniel's also not so great, by his own judgment, and then there's a boring summer of boring sport(s) to look forward to. And then there's a girl that only he can see... Covers don't have much to do with insides, but I thought that this cover was really, really interesting. I don't know that it expands on the title, so much, but it's simple, iconic, and memorable.

When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux - Books for Young Readers) is another with a very striking cover, and one with a creepy, evocative title. Felicita lives as one of the privileged few in Pelimburg, though it's quickly clear that privilege does not come with freedom; her best friend kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, and soon, Felicita has escaped to the slums. Her friend's death has called forth a strange magic that might or might not be the best thing for everyone, and Felicita has to decide where to fight...




All of these books are nominated in the YA SF/F category for the 2012 Cybils awards. These reviews are based on copies provided by their respective publishers.