Saturday Review of Books: November 22, 2014

Nov21

“The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.” ~Elizabeth Hardwick

SatReviewbuttonWelcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

My Zombie Hamster by Havelock McCreely

Nov21

When Matt gets a hamster for Christmas instead of the Runesword that he asked for, he’s not a happy camper. Then when Snuffles the Hamster dies, Matt really feels “horrible about the poor thing.” But when Matt realizes that Snuffles has turned into a Zombie Hamster (Anti-Snuffles), things start to get complicated, maybe even dangerous. Anti-Snuffles escapes and begins infecting the pets in the entire neighborhood with zombie-ness. Meanwhile, Matt’s friend Charlie (girl) is acting kind of strange. And the Zombie Police are on the watch for any new zombies, dead or undead.

This 200 page zombie apocalypse novel is pretty silly, but I can see that it might appeal to younger elementary readers, second, third, and fourth graders, who want to get in on the zombie craze. I did manage to get through the book myself, and it provoked a smile in places. Give it to your favorite zombie fanatic.

Another book that belongs in this category of elementary and undead is The Zero Degree Zombie Zone by Patrik Henry Bass. This similarly short (131 pages) and easy to read story has the distinguishing feature of a cast of characters who are all African American, including the protagonist, Bakari Katari Johnson. I’ll admit to skimming this one (I’m not a big zombie fan), but again for zombie readers who want something short and sweet, The Zero Degree Zombie Zone might just hit the spot. Read more about Zero Degree at Charlotte’s Library.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins

Nov20

I didn’t care for Lynne Rae Perkins’ Newbery Award winning book, Criss Cross. As I remember it, the book was partly written in verse, and I don’t care for verse novels. It also was confusing, about teenagers, and I just didn’t “get it.”

Nuts to You is not Criss Cross. It’s not even similar to Criss Cross. If you liked last year’s The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt or even last year’s Newbery Award winner, Flora and Ulysses: the Illuminated Adventures by Kate di Camillo, then Nuts to You should be just up your alley.

It’s a squirrel story. The squirrels talk to each other–in squirrel. One of them speaks English and tells the story to the author who writes it down for us. The moral of the story is, “Save the trees,” for the sake of the squirrels and for humans, too. All of that–the talking squirrels, the environmental message, the author inside the story—should be enough to annoy me, but instead I found the entire story a delight.

First the talking squirrels. I did wonder how the narrator squirrel managed to learn and speak English. But I was willing to suspend disbelief because the squirrels are well, squirrelly, and funny and fun to be with. They have a whole squirrel culture complete with a love for storytelling and for games, a tendency toward conservatism and staying put in one place, and a capacity for bravery and perseverance that is inspiring.

The environmental message is not so heavy-handed that it made me cringe or even disagree. Humans are not the villains of the story. In fact, the squirrels seem to understand that for some reason some of the trees must be cut down, and they just do their best to roll with the punches and get on with their lives when bad things happen to their habitat. THere’s a message of “let’s just all try to live together and share the planet” that was refreshing and welcome in contrast to other books that preach about how human beings are despoiling the planet. I always feel as if I ought to find a hole and curl up and hibernate forever after I read those other sorts of environmental sermon stories.

The author is not too intrusive either. I liked her interaction with the elderly, storytelling squirrel at the beginning and end of the book. And I loved the story in the middle. Nuts to You is a keeper, for sure.

“Nuts to you, my friend. Nuts to us all.”

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Wit and Wisdom from (Mostly) Cybils Nominees 2014

Nov18

I am a collector of aphorisms, a gatherer of proverbs, and a dispenser of words of wisdom.

If we could all remember and act upon these kidlit maxims, the world would be a better place, or at least a more innocent and childlike place.

1. “Just because doing the right thing can be prickly, that doesn’t make it any less right.” ~Circa Now by Amber McRee Turner.

2. “Our goal was never to live; our goal is to love. It is the goal of all truly noble men and women. Give all that can be given. Give even your life itself.” ~Empire of Bones by N.D. Wilson.

3. “Cowards live for the sake of living, but for heroes, life is a weapon, a thing to be spent, a gift to be given to the weak and the lost and the weary, even to the foolish and the cowardly.” ~Empire of Bones by N.D. Wilson.

4. “[O]nly a coward would rather defenestrate a helpless old man than face me in a fair fight.” ~The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw by Christopher Healy.

5. “Maybe normal’s not so bad.” ~Minion by John David Anderson.

6. “Never sit down at the negotiating table with cannibals, lest you find yourself on the menu.” ~Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly.

7. “[L]ife is neither fair nor kind.” ~Always Emily by Michaela MacColl.

8. “In this game of life
your family is the court
and the ball is your heart.
No matter how good you are,
no matter how down you get,
always leave
your heart
on the court.” ~The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

9. “If I tell you, you’ll just forget at some critical point. If you figure it out for yourself, you’ll always remember.” ~The Castle Behind Thorns by Merrie Haskell.

10. “The only cage that a grudge creates is around the holder of that grudge.” ~The Castle Behind Thorns by Merrie Haskell.

11. “Bravery isn’t measured by size. It’s measured by heart.” ~Mouseheart by Lisa Fielder.

12. “A story helps folks face the world, even when it frightens ’em. And a lie does the opposite. It helps you hide.” ~The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier.

13. “Don’t confuse what you do with who you are. . . [T]here’s no shame in humble work.” ~The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier.

14. “Stay right with your brothers. Stay right with the Lord. Hit like thunder, and run like the devil’s nightmare.” ~Boys of Blur by N.D. Wilson.

15. “It’s never too late to make a better decision.” ~The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage.

16. “Everything takes as long as you’ve got.” ~The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage.

17. “[M]ost situations don’t require my input.” ~The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage.

18. “You can’t buy a friend, that’s for sure. You have to be one.” ~Alvin Ho: Allergic to the Great Wall, The Forbidden Palace, and Other Tourist Attractions by Lenore Look.

19. “No lamb for the lazy wolf.” ~Frostborn by Lou Anders.

20. “If there’s one thing more stressful than being attacked by ravenous ghost-rats, it’s finding that you’re going to a fancy party and you haven’t got a thing to wear.” ~Lockwood & Co.: The Whispering Skull.

21. “Angry and grumpy.
Jealous and grumpy.
Selfish and grumpy.
Worried and grumpy.
Sad and grumpy.
Grumpy is like ketchup—it goes with a lot of things.”
~Wisher Dreamer Liar by Charise Mericle Harper.

22. “Just because something is true, it doesn’t mean you want to know about it.” ~Wisher Dreamer Liar by Charise Mericle Harper.

23. “[T]ragedy is not glamorous. . . . Tragedy is ugly and tangled, stupid and confusing.” ~We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

24. “Be a little kinder than you have to.” ~We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

25. “In searching for the truth, be ready for the unexpected. Change alone is unchanging.” ~Heraklietos of Ephesos in The Ninja Librarians: Accidental Keyhand by Jen Swann Downey.

26. “Do not, however tempting it might be, poke sticks at sleeping grifters.” Cabinet of Curiosities, Emma Trevayne.

27. “Bring your brain to the party.” ~The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell.

28. “Do it like you mean it!” ~Little Green Men at the the Mercury Inn by Greg Leitich Smith.

29. “Failure is just as valuable as success, if you figure out what caused the failure.” ~Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor by Jon Scieszka.

30. “Together, we’re strong. Strong enough to fight, and strong enough to win.” ~Horizon by Jenn Reese.

31. “Iron resolve. Ferocious courage. And a healthy dose of insanity. That’s what makes a superhero. Not some amazing power.” ~Almost Super by Marion Jensen.

32. “It’s not your power that makes you super. It’s what you do with that power.” ~Almost Super by Marion Jensen.

33. “An empty food dish means chaos.” ~Fat & Bones and Other Stories by Larissa Theule.

34. Q: “Is there really a cure?”
A: “For every very blessed ill there is being a cure.”
~Thursdays with the Crown by Jessica Day George.

35. “You must be putting on your shoes like a very man, and going forth!” ~Thursdays with the Crown by Jessica Day George.

36. “If you’re going to do it, don’t do it stupid.” ~Loot by Jude Watson.

37. “If you think nothing can go wrong, you’d better think again.” ~Loot by Jude Watson.

38. “Never cheat, but be able to spot a cheater.” ~Loot by Jude Watson.

39. “Life isn’t fair. It never has been and it never will be. You can sit back and moan about its unfairness while the witches roll across the countryside, or you can pick yourself up and get on with it.” ~Pennyroyal Academy by M.A. Larson.

40. “You get to decide who you want to be. No one else.” ~Pennyroyal Academy by M.A. Larson.

41. “Let love heal you.” ~The Time of the Fireflies by Kimberley Griffiths Little.

42. “One’s nature is largely a product of habit.” ~The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler.

43. “It is always better to ask a question than to answer one.” ~Shouldn’t You Be In School? by Lemony Snicket.

44. “You should only snap your fingers if you do it well. It’s the same for surgery, or driving a forklift.” ~Shouldn’t You Be In School? by Lemony Snicket.

45. “If you’ve never had buttermilk and you’re curious what it tastes like, good for you and don’t be.” ~Shouldn’t You Be In School? by Lemony Snicket.

46. “The treachery of the world will continue no matter how much you worry about it.” ~Shouldn’t You Be In School? by Lemony Snicket.

47. “Everyone needs a moment on the diving board, before jumping into the depths below.” ~Shouldn’t You Be In School? by Lemony Snicket.

48. “Don’t be dazzled. Pay attention. Use your knowledge of the enemy.” ~Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins.

49. “Sometimes the thing to do is invite your adversary for cake and lemonade, and see if they can become your friend.” ~Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins.

50. “But when you are Team Squirrel, and the other team is Team Hawk, this is not a good idea. Because as far as the hawk is concerned, you are the cake. And also the lemonade.” ~Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins. (See also #6.)

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
Some of these books are also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Semicolon Book Recommendations

Nov17

I just found this site, called Anne Knows Books, which offers personalized book recommendations for a reasonable price ($3.00 a month) based on a book profile that you fill out and update regularly. I also noted this post, Why I’m Not Making a Holiday Gift Guide by Alyssa at Everead, in which Alyssa offers to give you personalized book recommendations for yourself or for those who are on your Christmas shopping list.

Well, I generally give book recommendations at the end of the year to those who add a link to their “best of” reading lists at the Saturday Review of Books on the Saturday just before or after New Year’s Day. (The Saturday Review of Books, Special Edition for Book Lists will be January 3rd this time.) But I’d love to get a head start. If you have some Christmas shopping to do, and you’d like to buy a book for someone special, or if you’d like to have suggestion or two about what you might want to read next, leave me the following information, and I will suggest three or more books for you to choose from for your gift-giving. I need to know the gift recipient’s:

Age and gender
A few interests and hobbies
Two or three favorite books or genres, if you know

You could try Alyssa, too, or Anne Knows Books, and see if we come up with the same ideas. Have fun giving a book or two or three for Christmas. I’ll leave my suggestions in the comments section here, and I might compile them into a post at some time later in the season.

Shouldn’t You Be In School? (All the Wrong Questions) by Lemony Snicket

Nov17

Reading Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler, isn’t about the characters or the plot. The characters are quirky and memorable. The plots are convoluted and confusing. But really the experience of reading a Lemony Snicket book is all about the language. Snicket plays with words like a cat plays with a hummingbird. Dangerously. (You can tell I’m under the influence, but I’m not nearly as skillful as Mr. Handler.)

Anyway, this third book in the All the Wrong Questions series is full of linguistic gymnastics and examples of literary celebration. Here are a few:

“The sun was having a tantrum so fierce that all the shade had been scared away, and the sidewalks of Stain’d-by-the-Sea, the town in which I had been spending my time, were no place for a decent person to walk.”

“I took a bite of the bread and something in the jam made me feel sparks on my tongue. It was a lunch of adventure. I felt my mouth grinning around the spoon.”

“Solving a mystery is like naming a dog. If enough people call it one thing, that’s the name that tends to stick.”

“I put it in my shirt for safe-keeping, and passed the rest of the time trying to remember everything that happens to a little bunny who appeared in books I didn’t like. He disobeys his mother and eats vegetables out of some man’s garden. He loses his jacket and shoes. He drinks chamomile tea. He gets his clothes cleaned by a hedgehog. He gathers onions. He helps his sister Flopsy. Before I knew it, it was dark.”

“It’s like the difference between what happens in a book and what happens in the world. The world is swirling with so many mysteries and secrets that nobody will ever track down all of them. But with a book you can stay up very late, reading and rereading until all the secrets are clear to you. The questions of the world are hidden forever, but the answers in a book are hiding in plain sight.”

“A skeleton key is like a skeleton. It doesn’t do much good if you don’t know how to use it.”

“I limped into Hungry’s like a broken parade.”

“In a way it was the statue that had started the fuss, as I’d learned while investigating my last big case. But the fuss had long ago grown bigger than the statue had ever been, the way an answer to a simple, clear question can turn out to be complicated and mysterious.”

I really enjoy Mr. Snicket’s metaphors and similes and bunny rabbit trails and philosophical musings, but if you don’t or if you don’t have a high tolerance for confusing and unresolved, you’ll want to skip these books. Lots of things are introduced in this book and in the two previous books that are still unexplained by the end of this third book. In this book alone there’s a honeydew melon robbery (why?), a furious, hungry, raging, disappearing dream-monster (how?), and a mysterious basement full of fish tanks (huh?). I didn’t understand any of those parts of this story at all but I just kept reading, lost in the journey.

Lemony Snicket, who is the narrator as well as the author of these stories, says in his introduction that there were “four wrong questions, more or less” that he asked and was wrong to ask. So, the fourth book should have all the right questions or the wrong answers or something. But I’m not holding my breath, a phrase which here means that I’m just going along for the ride.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Saturday Review of Books: November 15, 2014

Nov14

“These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice…and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.” ~Gilbert Highet

SatReviewbuttonWelcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

Spell Robbers by Matthew J. Kirby

Nov13

Book One of The Quantum League is a spies and robbers story encapsulated in magical abilities to manipulate matter and pseudo-physics and topped with double-crosses and triple agents and lots of anguished decisions about whom to trust and whom to betray.

When Ben goes to science camp at the college where his mother is a newly hired professor, he soon realizes that this camp is unlike any other he has ever attended. The camp director, Dr. Hughes, gives lectures in quantum physics, and then there’s a demonstration that makes Ben doubt his senses. The kids at this camp are learning to actuate, to actually manipulate matter and energy with their minds.

As if that’s not enough to take in, it turns out that there are “bad guys” out there who want to use the ability to actuate for evil, and “good guys” who are wiring to protect the world from the bad guys. However, when the so-called good guys kidnap Ben and cut him off from his family, Ben is not so sure who’s good and who’s bad.

Spell Robbers is a pretty good beginning to a series that will appeal to kids who are interested in science and adventure mixed with magic. Just remember that it’s only the first book in a series. According to his website, Mr. Kirby doesn’t know when the second book in the series will be finished and published. It sounds like it might be a long wait.

The book would be good to recommend to fans of John David Anderson (Minion and Sidekicked), Jeramey Kraatz’s Cloak Society, or Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities by Mike Jung.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

The Time of the Fireflies by Kimberley Griffiths Little

Nov12

Larissa Renaud lives in her family’s antique shop in southern Louisiana, and she, like many middle grade protagonists, feels misunderstood by her parents and bereft of friends in her new town. So Larissa becomes fascinated with an old, disconnected telephone in the antique shop that somehow rings and connects her with someone who has a message for her. Larissa also develops a compulsion to find out more about the sinister but beautiful doll that her mother displays in the antique shop but refuses to sell because it’s a family heirloom.

If southern Louisiana is really as insular, superstitious, creepy, and dangerous as this book makes it out to be, I don’t ever want to live there. And if the only way to get rid of a family curse is to employ the services of a kindly neighborhood traiteur, I don’t want to go there either.

In Louisiana, the term traiteur (sometimes spelled treateur) describes a man or woman (a traiteuse) who practises what is sometimes called faith healing. A traiteur is Native Creole healer or a traditional healer of the French-speaking Houma Tribe, whose primary method of treatment involves using the laying on of hands. An important part of Creole folk religion, the traiteur combines Catholic prayer and medicinal remedies. They are called to treat a variety of ailments, including: earaches, toothaches, warts, tumors, angina, and bleeding. In the past, they substituted for trained physicians in remote rural areas of Acadiana. Most traiteurs consider their healing abilities a gift from God, and therefore refuse to accept payment in exchange for their services.

Traiteurism is a very old tradition that is dying out, and very few traiteurs now exist. Traditionally, the rituals of the traiteur are passed down to the opposite gender. So a male must pass it down to a female, and vice versa. The traiteur must be asked to perform the treatments and will rarely offer them outright unless the need is great, and they can not ask for a payment of any kind, although it is acceptable to accept gifts for treating a person. However gifts for a true traiteur are never required. Wikipedia, Traiteur

This book reminded me of the worst, as in spookiest and most disturbing, episode of Twilight Zone that I remember. It was called Living Doll, and it starred Telly Savalasas as a step-father who was being threatened by a talking doll. I’m afraid The Time of the Fireflies might give kids nightmares and an unhealthy fear of dolls just as that television program did for me. But if you’re ready to handle voodoo, a doll with a curse, creepy grandma in a wheelchair, alligators, fire and near-drowning, then go for it. The writing was OK, but some of the dialog was forced and manipulated in order to convey information to the reader. The cover should feature that creepy doll in the story instead of being all fireflies and light.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Pennyroyal Academy by M.A. Larson

Nov11

A nameless girl dressed only in spiderwebs enters the Pennyroyal Academy, a place where girls are trained to become princesses who do battle with witches and boys are trained to become knights who fight dragons.

If that introduction intrigues you, Pennyroyal Academy is the book for you. If you got stuck, as I did, on imagining the girl dressed only in spiderwebs, then maybe you’ll get stuck again on some of the other rather odd aspects of this book. I just kept wondering how the the whole spiderwebs-as-clothing thing worked. Wouldn’t they be at least translucent, no matter how many spiderwebs you used. And wouldn’t the stickiness of the webs be nasty and uncomfortable? And how would you take them off? Yuck! There were other details that sidetracked me, too, but as these others are spoiler-ish, I’ll save them to discuss with those who have already read the book.

The princesses-in-training learn that to fight witches they must become courageous, compassionate, kind and disciplined. These are the four cardinal virtues of Pennyroyal Academy. Their commander tells them

“A Princess of the Shield is courageous. She is compassionate. She is kind and she is disciplined. Without these four core values, a girl may have all the crowns and castles she wants, but she will no more be a princess than she will a dragon.
You must prepare for battle as any soldier would, though yours are not the weapons of a soldier. Your weapons are pure hearts and steel spines. Your weapons are already inside you. And the only way to wield them is to know yourself. Which is precisely what we will teach you here.”

I liked that little speech and the idea that the girls must be trained for battle with the witches of the kingdom. However, as a Christian, I would quibble with the ultimate source for courage, compassion, kindness, and discipline (self-control). Disney teaches us, “Know yourself, be yourself, and be true to your heart.” The Bible says that the qualities of a Warrior Princess are gifts of the Spirit of God. To battle real witches and dragons, we Christians must be trained in dependence on that same Holy Spirit. In fact, Pennyroyal Academy reminded me of this song:

Deep inside we are children, not strong, self-sufficient warriors. We only war in His might and in His strength.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.