some kiddie & y.a. lit
if i'm going to get through all the books on my list, i'm going to have to consolidate here, or else i'll inundate the friends-list of the handful of people reading this, which i wouldn't want to do. i'd actually planned to just do one gigantic post about everything, but then i spent too much time talking about jane austen and her fans in that first entry of the day. but the least i can do is link together all of the children's and young adult books, not least of all because i'm not passionate about most of them.
so, olivia kidney and the exit academy i decided to finally read because the third book in the series is out and if i want to read it (which i do), i should get to the second one first. my liking of the series is totally rooted in the fact that i dig olivia. she's a smart kid, well-portrayed to be complicated and spunky and funny and sympathetic. that said, a lot of the plot-elements to this one i wasn't so keen on. i liked the exit academy - where people about to die go in their dreams to rehearse their deaths - on one level, but on the purely physically, totally confusing, what with the flooding and the boating about the first floor. i loved the appeance of her brother and the friends she makes with the skateboarder dude and the girls next door. not so much the return of principessa. i realize that most of what i'm saying makes no sense to people who haven't read the book, and for that i apologize. maybe i'm not at the top of my game today.
now then, i am a huge e.l. konigsburg fan, so take that into account when i say that i really disliked the mysterious edge of the heroic world. and i don't think it's just a case of vaunted expectations. things i usually love about her books: big words! well-rounded characters! the fact that she begins with the assumption that the people - including the kids - who read her books are smart and doesn't talk to them like they're not! good plotting! divergent experiences coming together! and on the surface, the mysterious edge of the heroic world has most, if not all of these elements. but, i totally don't think it works here. maybe because i disliked almost every single character. maybe because the way the divergent experiences tied together seemed just too implausible. maybe because the dialogue didn't feel real - not because the words were too big, but because no one would actually string them together that way. i don't know exactly why, i just know that it felt half-assed and icky and i'm bothered by people who seem to love it. actually, people/reviews i've read on this one seem pretty evenly divided. i'm sitting very squarely in the thumbs down camp.
moving on, i really liked 13 little blue envelopes and i think maureen johnson gives good blog, so i was not surprised at enjoying girl at sea, her latest. featuring clio, a high school artsy chick compelled against her will to spend the summer with her estranged father. who happens to be living on a boat, doing some shadowy shipwreck research with his new lady, her daughter and other assorted characters. one of whom is dreamy, one of whom is an uncle character with a bad ticker and one of whom is, um, somebody else. adventure, growth, mistakes, love, friendship, what-have-you ensues. but, like, in a good way.
now then, i pretty much only read remembering mrs. rossi because amy hest came to a meeting at the library and spoke and she was very fun and enthusiastic and personable and made me totally want to go out be a writer already. and, there was a lovely stack of the books at the table, from which i took one and her sign it and then felt like i should read it. and i did, even though when i'd first read about the book in some reviews and stuff, i was pretty much like, "hm, dead mother book? no thanks. haven't we enough of those already?" but hest's book is written for a younger audience and it's unique in the fact that the departed mom is in a lot of ways the point of - the central fact of the story - instead of just an aside that defines the protagonist. and, yes, it totally made me tear up. on the bus, no less. also, it will be nice to be able to hand all those education students who come in looking for "problem books" something that i actually think is pretty good, instead of, like Susie Goes to the Hospital, or some such crap.
iris, messenger by sarah deming is sort of like the percy jackson books, only not really at all. "sort of like" because it starts with the premise that the gods are still kicking around here on earth and have, from time to time, spawned a few kids with mortal. "only not really at all" because mostly said gods seem to hang around despondent, watching tv or hanging around red light districts or pining away in a falling apart crab shak on the jersey shore. not quite the one-adventure-after-another, the-world-is-in-danger-and-only-our-young-hero-can-save-it world of mr. riordan. thus, of course, i thought it was aces. too bad the cover sucks.
both hope chest and deep down popular i read for work and they don't come out until next year. i doubt that i'd recommend you look for them. they aren't bad, just part of that vast mediocre middle.
i was likewise not so impressed with middle school is worse than meatloaf by jennifer holm, although practically everyone i've come across things it's fantastic, so maybe it's just me.
so not mediocre, however, is diary of a wimpy kid by jeff kinney. totally awesome. can't wait for the sequel. well, i can, i just mean i'm very much looking forward to it.
so, olivia kidney and the exit academy i decided to finally read because the third book in the series is out and if i want to read it (which i do), i should get to the second one first. my liking of the series is totally rooted in the fact that i dig olivia. she's a smart kid, well-portrayed to be complicated and spunky and funny and sympathetic. that said, a lot of the plot-elements to this one i wasn't so keen on. i liked the exit academy - where people about to die go in their dreams to rehearse their deaths - on one level, but on the purely physically, totally confusing, what with the flooding and the boating about the first floor. i loved the appeance of her brother and the friends she makes with the skateboarder dude and the girls next door. not so much the return of principessa. i realize that most of what i'm saying makes no sense to people who haven't read the book, and for that i apologize. maybe i'm not at the top of my game today.
now then, i am a huge e.l. konigsburg fan, so take that into account when i say that i really disliked the mysterious edge of the heroic world. and i don't think it's just a case of vaunted expectations. things i usually love about her books: big words! well-rounded characters! the fact that she begins with the assumption that the people - including the kids - who read her books are smart and doesn't talk to them like they're not! good plotting! divergent experiences coming together! and on the surface, the mysterious edge of the heroic world has most, if not all of these elements. but, i totally don't think it works here. maybe because i disliked almost every single character. maybe because the way the divergent experiences tied together seemed just too implausible. maybe because the dialogue didn't feel real - not because the words were too big, but because no one would actually string them together that way. i don't know exactly why, i just know that it felt half-assed and icky and i'm bothered by people who seem to love it. actually, people/reviews i've read on this one seem pretty evenly divided. i'm sitting very squarely in the thumbs down camp.
moving on, i really liked 13 little blue envelopes and i think maureen johnson gives good blog, so i was not surprised at enjoying girl at sea, her latest. featuring clio, a high school artsy chick compelled against her will to spend the summer with her estranged father. who happens to be living on a boat, doing some shadowy shipwreck research with his new lady, her daughter and other assorted characters. one of whom is dreamy, one of whom is an uncle character with a bad ticker and one of whom is, um, somebody else. adventure, growth, mistakes, love, friendship, what-have-you ensues. but, like, in a good way.
now then, i pretty much only read remembering mrs. rossi because amy hest came to a meeting at the library and spoke and she was very fun and enthusiastic and personable and made me totally want to go out be a writer already. and, there was a lovely stack of the books at the table, from which i took one and her sign it and then felt like i should read it. and i did, even though when i'd first read about the book in some reviews and stuff, i was pretty much like, "hm, dead mother book? no thanks. haven't we enough of those already?" but hest's book is written for a younger audience and it's unique in the fact that the departed mom is in a lot of ways the point of - the central fact of the story - instead of just an aside that defines the protagonist. and, yes, it totally made me tear up. on the bus, no less. also, it will be nice to be able to hand all those education students who come in looking for "problem books" something that i actually think is pretty good, instead of, like Susie Goes to the Hospital, or some such crap.
iris, messenger by sarah deming is sort of like the percy jackson books, only not really at all. "sort of like" because it starts with the premise that the gods are still kicking around here on earth and have, from time to time, spawned a few kids with mortal. "only not really at all" because mostly said gods seem to hang around despondent, watching tv or hanging around red light districts or pining away in a falling apart crab shak on the jersey shore. not quite the one-adventure-after-another, the-world-is-in-danger-and-only-our-young-hero-can-save-it world of mr. riordan. thus, of course, i thought it was aces. too bad the cover sucks.
both hope chest and deep down popular i read for work and they don't come out until next year. i doubt that i'd recommend you look for them. they aren't bad, just part of that vast mediocre middle.
i was likewise not so impressed with middle school is worse than meatloaf by jennifer holm, although practically everyone i've come across things it's fantastic, so maybe it's just me.
so not mediocre, however, is diary of a wimpy kid by jeff kinney. totally awesome. can't wait for the sequel. well, i can, i just mean i'm very much looking forward to it.