Some thoughts: ALA Youth Media Awards

Well, if you're like me, I know what you were doing the morning of Monday, January 28, 2013: watching (either in person or online via live-stream) the ALA Youth Media Awards. This year, I tuned in online and it was just as exciting as being there in person last year (well, maybe not, but it was still pretty exciting). I have been avidly following reviews and buzz, reading Heavy Medal and Someday My Printz Will Come, and trying my own hand at predicting the winners. I did not fare well at all, prediction-wise, but I have some thoughts about the winners and I'd like to share them (and please share your thoughts as well!).

I don't really have opinions on all the awards - I don't have time to follow them all with the same level of rabidity. I think the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults and Morris Award winners were no surprises - after the shortlists were announced, I think both categories had pretty clear frontrunners and those frontrunners took home the awards. I am of two minds about the overlap between the ENYA and the Sibert - it is fantastic that the three books that made both lists are so truly distinguished that they score multiple honors; however, there was no shortage of great non-fiction this last year and it would have been nice to see more diverse titles honored (I say this even with my depressing showing of non-fiction reading this year - I know there were a lot of great books out there that I didn't get to).

I was surprised that I had only read one of the Stonewall books: October Mourning, which was truly excellent. Given the buzz, I expected to see The Miseducation of Cameron Post on the list, but I will definitely be checking out the titles that were honored as soon as I can. I am so impressed with the honors bestowed on Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - I'd heard of the book but hadn't read it yet. I will definitely need to change that ASAP - except my library doesn't own a copy yet. I've been assured it's on order - I'll be stalking our catalog to put my name on the holds list.

I am not surprised to see Tamora Pierce win the Margaret A. Edwards Award - it seems like it's been a long time coming. Though I've never read her, I know she's done important work in the fantasy genre, especially with regards to female characters. I also know many people who grew up reading and loving those books - I just wasn't a fantasy reader in high school. I'll definitely check her out when I get a chance. I'm also not surprised to see Katherine Paterson win the Laura Ingalls Wilder. Personally, she's not my favorite author, but she has definitely made a lasting contribution to literature for young people.

Though I wasn't of the camp that believed Wonder would receive Newbery love, I thought it was a shoo-in for recognition from the Schneider Family Book Award. Perhaps the love for it has faded over the year since it was published? Regardless, I am definitely interested in checking out A Dog Called Homeless - I've seen it on our shelves and didn't know it dealt with the disability experience at all.

The Printz seemed to be a whole slew of surprises - and I'm ashamed that I've only read one of the Honor books. Once again, I really need our library to get a copy of Aristotle and Dante - I've already checked out In Darkness and Dodger to read as soon as I can. I love when there is a book that's completely out of left field - I mean, who had heard of The White Bicycle before? I'm pleased that Code Name Verity received an Honor - it is a truly excellent book. But I can't help but be a little sad that The Fault in Our Stars received no love (excepting the audio version's Odyssey Award win). I admire all the hard work the committee did and I trust their decision - it's just a book I love so much that I want it to get all the love.

I love, love, love that the Caldecott committee named five Honor books - the illustrations in picture books just keep getting more and more stunning and I love that the committee made it known. I am especially thrilled that Peter Brown received an Honor for Creepy Carrots! - his work continually amazes me. I also really loved Green and am not surprised to see its Honor. What I really love is that This is Not My Hat won the whole shebang - I think Klassen is doing really interesting things in picture book illustration and I love this book so very much.

Not a ton of surprise with the Newbery - I'd seen all the books in various discussions and I definitely cheered out loud when The One and Only Ivan won. It's a beautiful book with tremendous appeal - I can't wait to read it again and share it with kids. Personally, I'm surprised that Three Times Lucky honored - I don't remember being that impressed with it. I guess you never know!

What are your thoughts?

Review: What We Saw at Night

What We Saw at Night
By Jacquelyn Mitchard
Published 2013 by Soho Teen

Allie Kim suffers from XP - xeroderma pigmentosum - a severe allergy to the sun that leaves her to live in the night world. Thankfully, she's not alone - her two best friends have XP as well, and the three of them have inhabited their nighttime world together. But things begin to seem a bit off with Juliet - and then Allie sees something disturbing one night, something that might possibly be murder. What's really going on here?

Well, I think my review could be summed up by simply repeating that last question: what's really going on here? I requested this title because it sounded like it had potential - I'm hoping that mystery is the next big thing in youth literature and the intrigue of XP definitely gave this one a twist. Unfortunately, this book did not work for me at all. Mainly this is because I can't answer the question I've asked twice - I have no idea what the heck is going on in this book. I don't know if it's a matter of poor execution or poor plot or both. But I'll try to take a closer look and see if I can find some answers.

Execution-wise: this book is not well-written. I'm struggling to remember whether I've read Mitchard before (edit: I've just looked - I read All We Know of Heaven and actually specifically mentioned that I thought it was well-written) but if I go by this book alone, I'd struggle to know how she is a successful author. Many, many times throughout the book (too many to count) the writing just didn't make sense - I found myself wondering if I'd somehow managed to skip a paragraph or a page or something but I never did. The writing is just disjointed and the narrative does not work well at all. I rolled my eyes at the melodrama that is Allie - and when I spend too much time rolling my eyes over a character, chances are the book is not going to be a win for me. I get that Allie and her friends live a very unique life and may experience a bit of arrested development, their exposure to the greater world being severely limited by their medical condition. But that makes me want to be sympathetic to them and it sort of feels like Mitchard is doing everything in her power to make Allie annoying so I won't feel any sympathy for her. She is a bit too much for me, I'm afraid. But is this poor writing simply due to a poor plot?

There is so much going on here and none of it is what I thought this book was going to be about. There is the exploration of friendships changing and perhaps dying as people grow up and change. An exploration of how a shift in one relationship can cause many seismic shifts in other relationships across the board. There is the exploration of a life so outside the realm of what most would consider normal, and how an otherwise typical teenager deals with this life. And then there is the mystery - the so-called murder that Allie spies one night. As with the narrative, this entire plot line felt disjointed and confusing - it made no sense to me. I felt like Allie was constantly searching in every conceivable direction for the answers and it irritated the crap out of me. The best part is that, though the murder happens relatively quickly in the book, the bulk of the investigation into it doesn't play out until maybe 3/4s of the way through, and even then seems secondary to everything else going on. The inclusion of Parkour really threw me - what does this have to do with anything? For a book published by a mystery/crime imprint, I expected more focus on the mystery.

In the end, this was just not a book I enjoyed and I have a difficult time figuring out who I'd recommend this book to.

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

Program + Review: beTWEEN the lines

Well, I definitely don't have much to say about December's installment of our tween book club. The kids seem to be coming pretty consistently now, which is nice. I did have a few new attendees in December - one regular book-clubber brought two of her friends, and another boy showed up. The group of friends made for a slightly more difficult group to control - they seemed more interested in just chatting with each other than in participating in the discussion. Actually, that's probably the most interesting thing to note about December's discussion: this is the book that I came up with the most discussion questions for and yet this was the book that the kids seemed to have a hard time with contributing. We soldiered through, but this was our shortest discussion to date. We finished up with voting for February and handing out copies of January's title.

Our December title was:
Mockingbird
By Kathryn Erskine
Published 2010 by Philomel
Caitlin's life is black and white; anything in between is confusing. Her brother, Devon, used to help her figure out the in between stuff. But Devon is gone now. When Caitlin discovers that what she needs in closure, she begins a search for it the only way she knows how.

I don't have a lot to say about this book because it was a re-read for me. I found it just as effective on the second read. Caitlin is an easy character to understand and root for, and this unique portrayal of grieving is powerful and realistic. The kids really seemed to like the book; a couple told me that they had chosen to do school projects based on it. They liked the different perspective this story gave them, though none of them knew what Asperger's was. I found that very surprising - they knew about autism but not Asperger's. I do feel that this book tries to do too much - it wants to be about a school shooting, and it wants to be about a girl with Asperger's, and it wants to be about dealing with grief and healing. But, it's an excellent book, one I highly recommend.

Picture Book Saturday

Boot & Shoe
By Marla Frazee
Published 2012 by Simon & Schuster Children's Books
Boot and Shoe were born in the same litter. They eat out of the same dish and they do the same things every day. But Boot naps on the back porch while Shoe stakes out the front porch. This suits them fine, until a crazy squirrel comes along and stirs things up. I love the simplicity of the story and the illustrations here; it works perfectly and makes this book very appealing for young ones. This is a very sweet story about friends. My only complaint, if you will, is that the dogs look more like cats.

The Ant & the Grasshopper
By Rebecca and Ed Emberley
Published 2012 by Roaring Brook Press
Once again, the Emberleys are adapting traditional fables in their inimitable style. In this case, however, they are taking their adaptation even further. Once you start reading this book, you may realize that it doesn't have much in common with the traditional tale besides its name. In this version of the tale, the ant hears the sweet and sassy music played by the grasshopper and his friends and forgets her work to find the source. The illustrations are incredibly vibrant and feel imbued with the music. I love the bright colors and style, but it's not my favorite story.

The Three Ninja Pigs
By Corey Rosen Schwartz, illustrated by Dan Santat
Published 2012 by Putnam Juvenile
Okay, it's pretty clear that I probably wouldn't have picked up this book if it hadn't been illustrated by Dan Santat. I just completely love his style - it's fun and evocative and really interesting. But, I might have given this a shot even with a different illustrator - I'm a fan of retellings and this one definitely takes the story in a different direction. The three pigs don't understand why the wolves won't just leave everybody alone, but they're not going to take it. So, each pig signs up for a different kind of martial arts that they plan on using the next time a wolf tries to bully someone. This is a fun new version of "The Three Little Pigs" that I think kids will enjoy.

Princess in Training
By Tammi Sauer, illustrated by Joe Berger
Published 2012 by Harcourt Children's Books
Who says princesses don't skateboard or karate chop? Well, Princess Viola's parents for one. So they send her to Camp Princess, where she will learn true princess things, like the royal wave and waltzing. When a dragon shows up at Camp Princess, though, Viola can't resist showing off her special skill set. This would be a fun book for a little princess who also likes more rough and tumble activities (which I think is a good percentage of little princesses). The illustrations are perfect for depicting Viola's sweet and spunky sides. It's a pretty basic story but definitely has kid appeal.

Review: Every Day

Every Day
By David Levithan
Published 2012 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Every day, A wakes up in a new body. Will it be male or female? Happy or sad? In a relationship or single? A doesn't know - just a new body every day. So A has made some rules: don't get attached, try not to stick out, and don't interfere. But the rules go out the window the day A wakes up in Justin's body and meets his girlfriend, Rhiannon. A has found someone worth breaking the rules for.

Do I really need to explain why I wanted to read this book? I like Levithan, this book got tons of buzz before and after it was released, and that concept is insanely interesting. I wanted to read this book so much that I bought a hardcover copy and had it signed by Levithan at the Texas Book Festival before I read it. This is another book that made the shortlist of Pyrite contenders over at Someday My Printz Will Come, automatically bumping it up in my TBR queue.

So, what do I think of this one? I'm going to start by saying that I made a very conscious choice in that previous paragraph when I said I liked Levithan - I chose not to say I love him. I want to love him - I think he's publishing great books that meet teens where they are at - but for me, I haven't enjoyed all his books as much as I hoped to. So, when I heard people saying this was his best book yet, I had high hopes. Did they pan out? Yes - and no. While I really truly enjoyed this book, I did find some flaws.

I loved this book's concept and the deeper, more intense questions that concept left for Levithan and readers to explore. How can we truly know another person? A struggles with this, even when he (I'm sorry, I'm going to default to the masculine pronoun here) sees their lives "from the inside." But how much of each body's life is A really seeing? After all, he is only there for one day - and then he'll be in a new body. And while A talks often of "accessing" the body's memories and thoughts, there are a few instances where A believes he knows better than those accessed memories. It's very interesting, and something I think teens will really love to spend time thinking about.

Another thing I enjoyed - how romantic this book is. It is and it isn't a typical romance - after all, two people meet and feel a connection but can't be together for some reason. It's just that, in this case, the reason is extraordinary. Though the romance in this book is a case of insta-love, it didn't feel as hokey and unbelievable as those types of romance usually do. I'm not sure if I can pinpoint why this felt different - maybe it's just how strongly and deeply A feels for Rhiannon. Maybe it's partly because neither of them are crazy or scary. I don't know - but this book feels like a love letter to love and it's beautiful to read that. It's going to sound super lamesauce to say this, but it made me remember all the most amazing things about falling for someone and all the amazing and wonderful things about being with someone you love. BUT - even though I enjoyed the romance, it was problematic. A has rules for a reason and I find it a bit hard to believe that he would just throw them all out in his attempt to be with Rhiannon. Because what A is doing by continuing to see her, day after day, body after body, is essentially kidnapping that body for the day. A has no regard for what his host is supposed to be doing each day, choosing instead to seek out Rhiannon. It became uncomfortable for me, as a reader, to see this behavior continue.

Something else I found interesting: Nathan's story. I know we are supposed to be on A's side here, but I completely understand where Nathan is coming from and I think this is another really fascinating issue for readers to explore. I like that there are not a whole heap of answers when we get to the end. Is A a victim? Or something else?

Like many others, I, too, found A's experience in the fat body problematic. Though A does express discomfort with a host's situation at other points in the book, none of them seem to reach the same degree as when A is inhabiting a fat body. In a book that appears to be, at least on one level, about tolerance and love is love no matter what, this depiction is unacceptable. It does not, at all, jibe with A's until-then complete acceptance of the body he's inhabiting. There is a chapter before this where A is hosted by a drug addict, and A is uncomfortable, attempting to fight the body's overwhelming need for a hit. Yet even this is not portrayed with as much discomfort and disgust as when A inhabits the fat body. I just - I expected better from Levithan.

All right, I think I've rambled long enough. As this is most likely the last Printz-worthy contender I'll get to before the announcements, I'll go ahead and throw out a prediction. Though it's not my favorite book of the year, I'm hard-pressed to ignore Code Name Verity as one of the, if not the one, most distinguished books published for young adults this year. I think this gets the gold, hopefully with a number of Honor titles. This was an excellent year for YA fiction and I'm definitely eager to see the announcement.

Review: Ask the Passengers

Ask the Passengers
By A.S. King
Published 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Astrid Jones sends her love to the passengers of planes that fly overhead. But, in her own life, she sometimes has trouble with love. Like, she may be in love now. But with a girl. So is she gay? And does it matter?

Another book that has been on my radar for awhile (and even more so once it started racking up starred reviews), I had definitely been looking forward to reading this one. This is another title I bumped up in the reading list when it made the shortlist for the Pyrite over at Someday My Printz Will Come. This one I'm struggling with a bit more than I did with another recent Pyrite read, The Diviners. To be sure, this is a wonderful book. Astrid is an incredibly real and complex character and I loved reading her story. King is one of the best YA novelists writing today - her stories are affecting and real, stories that you lose yourself in and don't mind it one bit. As I've said many times previously, I welcome the addition of new books dealing with sexuality and coming to terms with the struggle that many teens face. This book is an absolutely beautiful exploration of that struggle - Astrid questions not only her sexuality but the whole of human experience throughout the novel. This book is about more than just coming out - it's about growing up and how it's okay to not have it all figured out by your eighteenth birthday.

So, what's my problem? In this case, I think the discussion over at Someday may have impacted my reading of Ask the Passengers. Over there, a number of folks pointed out that it's problematic in a book about sexuality to never have the identity of bisexual come up. While Astrid is struggling with her sexuality, no one, not even her pseudo-imaginary version of Socrates, suggests that Astrid doesn't have to be gay or straight, one or the other. To me, this is very troubling and I like to think I would have noticed and commented on this even if I hadn't seen it mentioned over on Someday first.

Unlike others in the Someday discussion, I didn't find the inclusion of the passenger stories disingenuous or detracting from the story. I've come to expect a step outside the box and a dose of magical realism from King - and I think the passenger stories are those things for this novel. Additionally, though this is a fantastic book, well-written and well executed on a number on levels, I'm just not sure that, for me, this is the most distinguished book of the year. Will I be sad if it wins? Definitely not. But I would be surprised. Your mileage may vary, of course, and I'd love to hear a persuasive argument in favor of this one.

Review: The Diviners

The Diviners (Diviners, book one)
By Libba Bray
Published 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Evie's parents don't know what to do with her anymore in their small-town, so it's off to glamorous New York City and the care of her uncle Will. But Will is a bit of a strange one, running The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. What no one knows is that Evie has a secret gift of her own - and she's not the only one. Around the city, others are hiding their strange talents, but not for long. When a series of occult-based murders hits the Big Apple, Evie and her uncle find themselves mired in the investigation. Can they catch the killer - or is Evie the next victim?

Okay, I'd been looking forward to this one ever since I found out about it - 1920s New York City, spunky heroine, creepy paranormal twist. I was thrilled when it started getting good reviews, and even more excited when it landed on the shortlist over at Someday My Printz Will Come. I've been keeping up with the award chatter over there and trying my best to read along (though I'm failing pretty miserably). So, when this book made the shortlist for the Pyrite, I bumped it up in my to-read queue and tackled it (did you know it's like 600 pages long??) over the Christmas holiday.

Good or bad, I'd already seen some of the discussion over at the blog regarding the issues people had with this title. I'd like to hope that it didn't color my own reading experience of the book (though, if I were reading for committee, I would have avoided keeping tabs on the discussion until after I'd finished my own reading of the book). Initially, I have to say: I thought this book was amazing. I'm definitely a hard-core Libba fan - the only thing I haven't read yet is Beauty Queens but someday soon, I promise! - and this book had, as I mentioned, no shortage of awesome things for me to love. Evie - I adore her! She is the epitome of a 1920s go-getter girl. I love, love, love the ensemble of the book as well. In addition to Evie, we get a host of other fantastic characters to follow along - Theta and her roommate, Jericho, Memphis, even Uncle Will. There is no shortage of awesome characters to enjoy.

The setting: 1920s New York City - is there a place more glamorized in our collective minds? Everything about Bray's writing screams with the glitz and romance of the era. This is where I worried the discussion over at Someday would most impact me - a number of people have felt that Bray's overly specific descriptions and abundance of slang bog down the story and feel slightly ridiculous. I shouldn't have worried. For me, what Bray does here doesn't feel any different than any other historical fiction novel - being overly specific helps introduce readers to products, fashions, and slang that they are most likely unfamiliar with. There is A LOT of slang in the book, but it really helps evoke the time period and bring flavor to the characters and setting.

The paranormal: this may be my favorite aspect of the book. I absolutely love when something is presented so completely and wonderfully in a novel that I begin to wonder if it's true or not. Bray does that here, with her storylines about an end-of-the-world cult and Naughty John. I wanted to go do some research of my own when I finished reading. Bray enrobes seemingly every word of this story with a creepy hint of the supernatural and it works wonderfully. For maybe the first time in my life, I was unsettled by a fictional bad guy. Naughty John is the real deal, y'all.

The writing: is there anything Bray can't do? There are so many threads in this story, so much imagery, and in my opinion, it all works wonderfully. I have always loved Bray's writing, so there's no real surprise here.

I think I've gushed long enough. I adored this book and am on absolute tenterhooks for the next installment. Head over to the Someday blog for some different perspectives. Personally, in terms of Printz potential, despite my adoration for the book, I'm not sure it measures up. It's a great field for the Printz this year and I think The Diviners suffers a little from first-in-a-series syndrome. Regardless, I thought this was a fantastic read, highly recommended for everyone.