Capsule Reviews

So, sometimes I read a book and I feel obligated to review it (this is my own thing - no one is forcing me) but I don't really have terribly much to say about it. Because I'm trying to review everything I read, I sometimes put these reviews off and then I get to where I am now - months and months behind in my reviewing. I've decided to give myself permission to write quick reviews of books like these - books which I may have enjoyed but that I don't think warrant an entire post to themselves.

Under Wildwood (Wildwood Chronicles, book two)
By Colin Meloy, read by the author
Published 2012 by Balzer + Bray

I was enthusiastic about the first book in this series so I decided to download the audio version of book two in an attempt to make progress with series begun but not completed. Never again will I switch formats in the middle of a series. This book did not work at all for me in audio - there was too much happening and it was all happening very slowly. My interest waned pretty extensively over the course of listening and, as a result, I'm pretty sure I'll need to reread this book before I pick up the final book in the trilogy. I'm still not sure that marketing this as a children's book is really the best thing for it - not only is it hefty but the vocabulary is likely to be challenging to middle-grade readers (unlike, say, the Heroes of Olympus series which may clock in with just as many pages but much simpler vocabulary - if you don't count trying to pronounce all the Greek and Roman words).

The Magician (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, book two)
By Michael Scott, read by Erik Singer
Published 2008 by Listening Library

Hmm, maybe it's just series books that I find I don't have as much to say about? Regardless, my fiance and I listened to this book on a road trip, just as we did with book one. I had mixed feelings about the first book but I like to finish what I start, so we went ahead with book two. I felt pretty much the same about Josh and Sophie as I did in the first book, with the addition of it being pretty obvious where the series is going to go from here. The reason I keep returning to these books is the mythology - Scott has done a wonderful job of embracing a wide and varied world of mythology that I find endlessly interesting. I keep reading in hopes of discovering more new mythology. I liked the new characters introduced in this volume, and I thought the separation of Nicholas and Perenell made the storyline a bit more dynamic. Once again, we've downloaded the next book - we'll see when we find time for it!

Toppling
By Sally Murphy, illustrated by Rhian Nest James
Published 2012 by Candlewick

I'm a sucker for a verse novel, so I quickly read this one on a slow night at work. I was a bit let down by the book. I understand it's difficult to write a story such as this - a young boy's best friend is diagnosed with cancer. How do you write something that is true but not hopeless or maudlin? I guess my complaint is that this book mostly felt superficial. While I understood intellectually that John was having a tough time dealing with Dom's diagnosis, it didn't come off authentically on the page. I think I just hoped for more from this one.

Review: Unhinged

Unhinged (Splintered, book two)
By A.G. Howard
Published 2014 by Amulet

WARNING: There may be spoilers ahead. To read my review of book one, go here.

Alyssa has saved Jeb and now just wants to graduate so they can head to London. But, nothing is ever so simple for her, especially when Wonderland begins to peek through to the real world. Can Alyssa figure out a way to balance her two selves and stop the Red Queen?

Reading this book was a no-brainer for me. I actually requested the e-galley and read about half before it expired. Then I was mad at myself for not being able to finish it because I'd entered the year of no library books, which meant I'd have to bend the rules to finish it. But then, my colleague loaned me her copy of the ARC (which, yes, I realize is still bending the rules), so I quickly devoured the rest of the book.

As mentioned in my review of the first book, I'm an Alice junkie and I still think Howard is doing a fantastically creepy job of expanding and twisting Carroll's original creation into something haunting and compelling. She continues to explore the darker nature of the characters in this book, and I think it works well. Once again, though, I feel like the real strength of this book is the descriptive language - Howard has created some fantastical creations but with her prose, they are easy to imagine.

Though I think Howard is successful at exploring a dark world, Wonderland does not have as much of a presence in this book as in the first. Similarly, Alyssa was a bit more grating here than in the first and the plot felt a little lacking. The romance with Jeb was not my cup of tea in book one, but I felt a bit more keen on it here in book two; however, there is a lot of love triangle stuff going on that I found frustrating.

Perhaps my biggest disappointment was reaching the end and realizing that this was only book two of a series (which I hope will only stretch to three books). I had not known there would be a book three and I was sad to get to the end of this one only to discover it wasn't really the end. Regardless, I'll be back for book three, to see how it all plays out.

Review: No Place to Fall

No Place to Fall
By Jaye Robin Brown
Expected publication December 9, 2014 by HarperTeen

Amber feels bigger than her small town when she sings. When she hears about a special arts high school in the city, she decides to audition. Practicing with her best friend's older brother gets complicated and before long, Amber is making some questionable decisions. Will she be able to get everything she wants?

I downloaded the e-galley of this because I thought it had potential to be a fun contemporary realistic fiction. Unfortunately, I was mostly disappointed with this book.

For starters, this book feels very disjointed. The first few chapters focus on the end of summer and Amber's encounters at the hiker barn. Then, rather abruptly, the story switches to the start of the school year and Amber's actual life. The chapters are short, which makes this a quick read, but nothing flows very well and I just don't think it's well-written. As a whole, the book feels underdeveloped. Amber, the main character, feels pretty cookie-cutter, as do most of the other characters in the book. The setting doesn't really fare much better - it reads like generic South and not much more. And the plot is perhaps overdeveloped - there's a lot crammed into the book and none of it is fleshed out as much as I'd like. It seems like Brown wanted to tell several different stories and threw them all together here, but none of them are as successful as they could have been.

Additionally, there were some things in this book that just made me uncomfortable. The one that sticks most in my mind is within the first few pages when the main character describes someone as "Indian. Red dot, not feather." And that's it. I'm sorry, but that just isn't acceptable. Amber's feelings about her own sexuality are also confusing, which, yes, is realistic but also frustrating - it's going to send a confusing message to the teen girls who read it. I also had significant problems with the ending - everything works out just fine, which is not realistic at all, particularly not for the situations in this book.

Thanks to the publisher for a digital advance reader's copy, provided via Edelweiss.

Review: Princess of Thorns

Princess of Thorns
By Stacey Jay
Expected publication December 9, 2014 by Delacorte Press

Princess Aurora has lived much of her life in exile, hidden from the ogre queen who destroyed her family and would destroy her as well. Now, she will risk discovery by the queen in order to rescue her brother and prevent a horrible prophecy from coming to pass. Prince Nicklaas is the youngest son of a terrible king, cursed so that he will never reach adulthood. But Nicklaas believes he has found a way to break the curse - he just needs the assistance of Aurora. Little does he know that the young Ror he finds on his journey is the princess in disguise. Can the two work together to break their curses and save their kingdoms?

So, I loved Jay's Megan Berry series way back when and was always on the lookout for her next novels. I enjoyed both Juliet Immortal and Of Beast and Beauty, so when I spotted her newest title, I knew I'd be requesting it. Happily, I downloaded and devoured the e-galley.

Like last year's release, Princess of Thorns is a bit of fairy-tale retelling. However, it's not exactly - Princess Aurora is the daughter of Sleeping Beauty and Prince Nicklaas is one of the boys in a "Wild Swans/Twelve Brothers"-type tale. We also meet the witch from Rapunzel and pass by Rapunzel's tower and encounter a girl in a red hood travelling with a wolf. Though I love a direct fairy-tale retelling, I love stories inspired by the tales just as much, so I was very excited to dive into this story and read Jay's take on these tales.

I'm pleased to say that, once again, Jay has enchanted me. I really, really liked this book. I liked Jay's choice of multiple narration (mostly dual, but with an occasional chapter from the Ogre Queen), though I was disappointed that the Ogre Queen's voice stopped appearing later in the novel. I usually enjoy books with multiple perspectives - they give me a chance to see events from more than one point of view and provide a more complete picture of the action of the novel. But, they only work if the characters work and I think that's the main reason I enjoyed this book so much.

For the majority of the book, we alternate viewpoints between Aurora and Niklaas. I loved them both, though both could be quite frustrating at times. Their voices are similar - both are wary of trusting people but both need the help of a stranger to achieve their goals - but distinct enough that it was clear to me whose narration I was reading at all times. Aurora is impulsive, most frequently acting before she thinks things through, which obviously leads to some less than ideal situations. Niklaas is arrogant, sure that he can charm any woman into what he wants (and yes, I did have a little feminist revolt against his character, particularly as he believes that women are mostly good for certain things). Both are stubborn, which of course means chemistry and clashes. They are a fun pair to read about and I enjoyed that Jay developed the relationship between them over time. I was completely invested in their stories, both separately and together, and I rooted for their success the whole way through. However, it's not difficult for me to see that some readers are definitely going to have a big problem with Niklaas and his beliefs about women. I can't say that they set well with me, only that I enjoyed enough of the rest of the story to keep with it.

This book also hits a lot of fantasy tropes, and I enjoyed them. The long journey, cross-dressing, a villain with a change of heart - everything just worked really well. I can see that this story may not be for everyone - as I said, the characters can be quite frustrating at times and the journey can seem a bit long - but for me, this book worked perfectly. I don't think this is a perfect book, but I enjoyed it and I hope Jay continues writing fairy-tale retellings.

Thanks to the publisher for a digital advance reader's copy, provided via Edelweiss.

November Check-In

It's the start of a new month, so once again, it's time to take a look back at what I read the previous month. Here are November's stats!

Early-chapter: 1

Middle-grade: 8

Teen: 6

Adult: 2

Picture books: 30

Library books: 39

Books owned: 8

Not a bad month overall. We got a rash of new picture books as we're finally able to order consistently again, so I read most of what came in (I like to keep current even though I'm not doing many storytimes). I was also finishing up an online course so I had to check out quite a few library books for that. I can't believe the year is almost over. I haven't made as much of a dent in the books in the house as I'd like, so I'm really going to try to work on that in December. How was your November? Any standouts?

Summer Program Recap Bonanza: Preschool Programs!

I promise you, I'm not the only person who did programming at my library this summer - but these posts are really making me realize just how many programs I did run! I can't believe how much we did this summer! Anyway, my latest round of recaps focuses on the programs I did aimed at preschoolers and early elementary kids.

Make Your Own Band: I started seeing a lot of pins on Pinterest for easy homemade musical instruments and thought, "hmm, that would be a fun program." I was right! Over 100 patrons came to make enough instruments to start their own bands. We made tambourines (small paper plates, pipe cleaners, bells), maracas (toilet paper tubes, beans), castanets (cardboard, buttons), pellet drums (plates, dowels, yarn, pony beads), and kazoos (craft sticks, straws, rubber bands). It was noisy fun!

Thomas the Tank Engine: holy cats, this program was insane! Over 200 people showed up! We hit our program room fire code capacity in the first 20 minutes, so I had to spend most of the program at the door, making sure people didn't try to crowd in until other families left. I expected a big program, but I also expected people to stagger their arrival a bit more - the program was an unstructured hour long. Everything could be done at their own pace and when they finished what they wanted, they were free to go. Unfortunately, no matter how much we advertise it, the majority of patrons still tend to arrive right at the program start time. Anyway, I made train tracks on the floor of the department leading to the program room door (which was time-consuming! but also gave people a place to line up). Parents loved the little extra touch of this. We had train scene pictures (using train die-cut shapes and crayons), coloring sheets, puzzles (simple pictures of Thomas characters cut into squares), Thomas face masks (silver dessert plates, craft sticks, circle punches, markers), pin the number on Thomas (yes, I made a giant drawing of Thomas and the kids had to stick his number in the right spot), coal toss (the coal was made out of tinfoil and black tissue paper and the kids tossed it into cardboard boxes decorated to look like train cars), and a scavenger hunt (with train whistles as prizes). This program was a huge hit and we will definitely repeat it in the future, hopefully with a slightly more manageable number of attendees.

Royal Prep with Sofia the First: we initially planned a princess party for this summer, but, with the growing popularity of Sofia the First, we decided to take advantage of that and focus it around her. I think this was the first program I cosplayed for this summer - I wore an old prom dress and tiara and was a princess. Once again, we had over 200 attendees for coloring sheets, scavenger hunt, crown decorating (we have a princess crown die-cut), amulet necklaces (like the one Sofia wears), pin the amulet on Sofia (we bought a ready-made version of this), story corner with a princess (that was me!), and practice your poise (walking across a beam while balancing a book on their head). Our poor planning meant that this program happened the same day as our Teen Anime Con, so we were crazy busy all day long! But we had many happy princesses by the end of the program!

Color and Create: after some of our crazier programs, this one was more relaxed but just as fun. We wanted something low-key that celebrated the simple pleasure of coloring - still one of my favorite stress relievers! But, we wanted to offer a bit more than just coloring, so we included tracing (by far, the biggest hit of the program - all we did was tape down some easy to trace pictures of popular characters and provided them with tracing paper), coloring sheets (once again, we utilized popular characters - superheroes, princesses, etc.), scratch art fish ornaments (so simple and so pretty), and mazes and puzzles (very simple ones).

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: when possible, we like to coordinate our programming with upcoming movies or big book releases, so when I found out about the new TMNT movie being released this summer, I put a program on the calendar. It was a lot of fun to plan and the kids who came had a really great time showing off their ninja skills. We had a pizza toss (frisbees made to look like pizzas and we tossed them into Michelangelo's mouth!), decorated shells (Chinet plates and arm loops made of yarn - really easy, though a bit pricey because of the plates, but I wore mine the whole party and received many compliments), ran through Splinter's Training Course (they had to crawl through a tunnel, roll around in the radioactive ooze, grab a katana, and strike their fiercest ninja pose), decorated shurikens (yes - my lovely coworkers and I folded many, many paper shurikens prior to the program), colored (you may notice a pattern - it is always a popular station to take a break at), and hunted for turtles throughout the Children's Department.

Shark Week Celebration!: every summer when Shark Week rolls around, we think to ourselves "why didn't we plan a shark program??" Well, I wasn't letting that happen this year - I put it on my calendar during Shark Week 2013 so I wouldn't forget (though I realized why we haven't done one before - Shark Week inconveniently falls at the beginning of August, right as we are winding down our programming). This was one of the program that kids seemed most excited about during school visits and we had a great turnout. It included Shark Week bookmarks to color (a slightly different change from just coloring sheets), scavenger hunt, shark hats (made out of party hats and paper shark fins and teeth), shark jaws (once again using the Chinet plates to make an awesome set of jaws), shark feeding (I made a life-size shark with his mouth open for the kids to feed fish or to have their picture taken with), shark trivia board (a simple board with shark-themed questions on slips of paper that, when lifted, revealed the answers), and a live shark cam (I simply projected it on to the big screen during the program). We had a lot of happy children at this one.

Those were my preschool programs of the summer! Questions? Let me know!

Picture Book Saturday

Big Bad Bubble
By Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri
Published 2014 by Clarion Books
The team behind Dragons Love Tacos strikes again, this time bringing us the true story of what happens when bubbles pop. Though I didn't love this one as much as their previous books, I still enjoyed it. The monsters are cute and the book works really well as a read-aloud - lots of opportunities for fun with it. A lot of fun. These guys are quickly becoming some of my favorites for storytime books.

The Adventures of Beekle
By Dan Santat
Published 2014 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Santat is one of my favorite illustrators and I'd heard nothing but praise for this book so I was definitely looking forward to it. This is a great book with endless appeal for kids - it's all about imagination and friendship and setting out to do the impossible. It's lovely to look at and heartwarming to read. The pictures are gorgeous as usual and the story is touching and charming. It is definitely a book to be enjoyed over and over again. So delightful - how does Santat keep doing it?

Froodle
By Antoinette Portis
Published 2014 by Roaring Brook Press
Though I'm not so keen on birds, I can appreciate this book. One day, a little bird decides to sing a different song - that's right, birds don't always have to say, "tweet." This is another book to celebrate our differences, the small things that make us unique, the choices we make to become our own person. But, where this book really shines is in the nonsense. It is a perfect book for storytime because the kids will delight in hearing you read the nonsense song of the little bird. The illustrations are simple yet appealing. Just some silly fun that will definitely delight young readers.