A Book Roundup and a Disclaimer

I'm going through a number of book reviews from 2004 and later, which I'd like to post here before tackling some of my more recent reading. It's somewhat difficult for me to decide which ones I should transfer to this blog; sometimes, all I have is a few words indicating whether or not I liked a book on a first read. Other times, I know that I might have enjoyed a book, but I also recall valid criticisms of the book--only, not the nature of the criticisms. Sometimes, I know that I have a book that I didn't care for, but another reader might. Though this disclaimer will eventually end up many entries back, I think it's important for me to note here that the oldest couple hundred reviews that will make their way here might be somewhat thin, at the very least! I also hope that I can give a brief but accurate enough summary of the books I read before I started writing longer reviews.

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
I'd only seen movie versions, and found the prose in the book unexpected. I find Barrie to be quite odd, and there are stereotypes and situations in the story that I think kid readers might wish to have explained or challenged. It is certainly an influential and magical read, though it's probably not a re-read for me.

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park (Random House - Yearling)
When I first read this, I could find dozens of books for kids about slavery in the U.S., about what it was like to live (usually in Germany) under Nazi occupation, and a few about Japanese internment in the U.S. To find a book about living in Korea under Japanese occupation surprised me, and as I knew very little about the situation, I purchased a copy. Outside of the first three examples I gave of books dealing with historical oppression, and the Civil Rights movement, such topics tend to not be on the K-12 curriculum radar unless they come in as literature--I knew nothing about the events touched on in When My Name Was Keoko before I had a (kickass) Korean voice teacher who explained a bit about the history to me (I no longer recall the context of our discussion). This book, based on real events, had some rough prose at the beginning but takes off after that, alternating chapters (and tenses) to tell the story of a brother, sister and their family. I don't have much of a perspective on the history of the time, and can't comment on the accuracy of the book, but I think it's an appropriate text for a middle grade reader to use as a jumping-off point for additional research.

The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt, ill. Tony DiTerlizzi (Simon & Schuster Children's)
This is frightening! Unlike many picture books, this could be thought of as one without a happy ending--although, now that I think about it, I wonder who I'm thinking the happy ending should have been for! Perhaps I want the wrong character to be happy? (Or perhaps it's a little difficult to see an unhappy ending for a prominent character...) Illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi sets the tale by Mary Howitt to dark, cobwebby stills, and this was a Caldecott Honor book. Despite the very scary feel, it's perfect for those kids who like to feel shivers run down their spines.

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer (Penguin - Firebird) is set in a futuristic Zimbabwe where Tendai, Rita, and Kuda are kept safe from gangs in their parents' house--at least, until they escape for a little adventure. Once on the outside, the children are kidnapped and sent to the plastic mines, giving you just a hint of the tension between technology and the natural world of the story. Three detectives--the Ear, Eye, and Arm of the title--are enlisted to find them, but can they do it when the kids don't exactly want the adventure to end? At least, not before they figure out that their lives are in danger...

This is one of those books that I find pretty hard to review, and pretty hard to sell to friends. But here's a quote from the teen heroine: Tendai was reading Sun Tzu's Art of War, and Rita had the writings of Julius Caesar. "Who cares how the Romans built their roads?" she grumbled. "They should have all stayed home and had orgies." That's not a line you'd see in too many young adult books, you have to admit--and though it's not representative of the plot, it's a hint that this book won't be quite what you expected.

I really enjoy this story, and I think it's one of Nancy Farmer's best, inspired by the many years she lived in Africa. One thing that I think makes this a difficult book to get others to pick up is the cover art; while I don't have a recommendation, necessarily, I don't think that any of the covers for this Newbery Honor have been able to reflect the adventure within. Some, I think, focus too much on the adults and not enough on the teens for this type of book. The bottom left is my least favorite, and I think the least appealing; I own the one on the bottom right; the top left might make me think it was published well before the mid-90s; I think I like the top right best, but I wish it balanced the mask with the hint of the science fiction setting a little more. Here's a sampling.

The River - read in 2004

The River by Gary Paulsen (Random House - Yearling)
I can't even begin to tell you how much I adore Hatchet, much less its updated cover. Or perhaps I can: I haven't read it in years, but as a kid I was absolutely fascinated by the tale of survival, particularly because I knew that the area around where I grew up was treacherous and lacking in edible resources. Brian's story of surviving a summer on wit and a few plane crash items still sticks in my memory. The River is Hatchet, redux, but The River, which I read in under an hour, just isn't quite as satisfying. Brian's Winter and Brian's Return, by the same author, might be better alternative reads for alternate endings for Hatchet, detailing a scenario in which Brian deliberately visits the wilderness and in which Brian is not rescued in the summer, respectively.

Sometimes, You're the Monster

Racing the Dark by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Agate Bolden)

Iolana is a diver, and she's just made her first dive to steal precious gems from the sea. She gets two: one a lovely blue, and the other a forbidding red that marks her for--she doesn't know what, but it likely means that she will never leave her tiny island home. She hides the red stone, and things begin to happen. The spirit world, the environment, the political climate, her relationships with family and friends--they all come into play, and when her island is flooded, her family must leave, and be separated. It turns out that Lana's mom would do many bad things to keep her safe, and Lana, in turn, would do anything to keep her mother alive. Handily, plenty of people with terrible intent are happy to lend a hand, even Death her(?)self, and in turn, Lana may unknowingly destroy all.

One important theme is power, and the abuse of it; this is played out in Lana's apprenticeship to a witch, and the witch's use of her for her own ends. Even when Lana realizes this, it's very hard for her to recognize what's happened. This story also has a very strong feeling of being about women. There are men, yes, and they have storylines and lives of their own, but the central struggles with motherhood and family and love felt like they were coming from a different place than in a lot of stories where Girl Has an Adventure. Lana isn't taking on The Adventure Boys Have. It's difficult to explain, but I'm simply left with the impression that epic heroine's journey here, even if it plays to the same endings others have, is being approached somewhat differently than usual.

This is a complicated universe, and the many threads drag a little around the 2/3 mark, partly because you don't know what matters and what doesn't, and the part where you see where some threads are going is delayed by the episodic nature of this part of the story. As the first part of a trilogy, the story starts in a small space and many paths fan out as the plot moves along, though this first book, in my opinion, is not in the pattern of many "part one" books lately that serve only to set up a world. Lana develops quite a bit between the opening pages and the closing, as do other characters and themes, and while things certainly aren't resolved neatly at the end of the book, there is a sense that a new part of the story will begin in the next volume.

Racing the Dark is set in a world inspired by Polynesia and (I perceive) Japan; people of various backgrounds and beliefs wander lands that don't map to Earth geography. I think inspired by is the key phrasing here, because this goes further than filing the numbers of off existing places/people and renaming them for convenience. There are things obviously drawn from reality; Lana's home island has houses on stilts to get up and away from floodwaters during the rainy season. It felt like the ways that people lived were drawn from their geography first, and from the in-world religions and cultures, and lastly from the real world, and then rarely and when it seems like it would be very hard to explain a concept quickly (ex. "pagoda" is used once to explain the shape of a building). Another example might be that on Lana's home island, she doesn't have to wear a blouse--it's warm enough, it's not needed culturally, etc. When she goes to other islands, she has to wear one, and there's a struggle with not wanting to change vs. fitting in (and staying warm in a different climate). That's just one example of something that seemed to me to draw on reality, but something fitted into the world for a purpose. For my taste, I appreciate that such details aren't magically hand-waved, but addressed in terms of their physical and emotional impact; I also appreciate that they're woven into the complexity of the world.

This book ends on a really dark note--surprising for the first part of a trilogy, in a way. The follow up is due out June 2010.

Tiger, Tiger--

In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (Random House - Laurel Leaf)

One of the last books I read in 2004 was this one, written when Atwater-Rhodes was a teenager. It's the start of a series with shapeshifting, vampires, and romance, and it was popular well before the Twilight craze, so if you'd like to see what the paranormal romance landscape looked like a decade ago, I'd recommend adding this one to your reading list. This book is pretty spectacular for a 13-year-old author--it's very consistent in point of view and shows that she thought about structure in the way she portioned out her chapters. I love this example of how telling stories isn't just for grownups (though one does need to be a legal adult to sign a publishing contract)--and as an example of how rare it is for someone to be ready to be an expert storyteller at such a young age. If you're a teen author and want to practice, I recommend lots of reading, lots of writing, and lots of sites where you can chat with other people in the same boat; one specifically for YA writers is Inkpop.



The last book I read in 2004 was The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins). It has pictsies in it! Tiffany Aching's little brother has been spirited away by faeries, and she's got to get him back. Her budding powers as a witch aren't quite a match for the scary faeries, so she'll need help from the Nac Mac Feegles, or the Wee Free Men. As with Pratchett's other stuff for kids, it's relatively light-handed with the puns and parody, which are the parts I always like best, but I still found this to be an enjoyable read.

Truckers - read in 2004

Truckers by Terry Pratchett (Random House-Corgi)
This book was heralded as Terry Pratchett's first YA novel, but I'm going to label it here as MG--middle grade--because our concept of YA has changed a lot since I read it. Truckers is about tiny space aliens who live under the floorboard of a department store, sort of like a twist on The Borrowers and similar stories. I no longer have this book, it seems, but I can tell you that this wasn't the first Pratchett book I read, and that in comparison to his adult works, this one felt very vibrant and clear, and I enjoyed it a lot. I don't hear many people mention this one, so it might be a great gift for someone who enjoys Pratchett, or someone who likes humor.

The Life of Pi (2004 read)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Mariner Books)
Life of Pi is one of those books that's really, really difficult to describe without spoiling the whole thing. It's also one of those books that can be read across several genres and age groups. For me, it doesn't fit any single category.

Piscine Molitor Patel is castaway and has an otherworldy, fantastic experience. Or maybe he doesn't. The author gives us two stories, one that is almost, almost believable, and one that is far too believable. In the end, we're forced to attend to questions of how far our faith in a story will extend, on multiple levels. I had a hard time getting into the story, but once I did, I was plugging for the hero to make it. And admittedly, I was unsettled the whole way through. The story has a lot of deliberate ambiguous pairings. Which of two versions is correct? I'm not sure we are to know; instead, I think we're to question. In questioning, this book has stayed with me for a long time.