Lament

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Katy K.

I was just run over by a herd of savage library teens, but will do my best to do justice to this book. This is more of me trying to catch up, in this case with Maggie Stiefvater, who’s now one of my Top Favorite Authors.

LamentLament by Maggie Stiefvater.
Dierdre is a talented young teen, playing competition-level traditional Irish music on the lever harp. (Did I mention that I am just learning to play the lever harp myself? I love Dierdre just for being a lever harp player. I love Stiefvater even more for being a harp player herself, but she only ever talks about the bagpipes online.) Her best friend James plays equally well on the bagpipes. But on the day that we meet them, Dierdre steps outside to calm her nerves just before playing the big state competition, and meets the charming and good-looking Luke. He’s there with his wooden flute. In just the few minutes that it takes for them to try a duet, Luke has Dierdre playing better than she’s ever played before. She changes her entry from solo to duet, and off they go, taking the championship.

Only, it turns out, not so great after all, because her spectacular playing has brought Dierdre to the attention of the Faeries, who are intensely jealous of her talent. And she finds out that she has more magical talents – talents that both draw the Faeries to her and that they do not like humans to have. She and Luke begin a forbidden romance – forbidden because Luke is a human enslaved by the Faery Queen, who naturally takes a dim view of fraternizing with the enemy. The plot gets more complicated, entangling James and Dierdre’s beloved Granna as well her ever-critical Aunt Delia. Everything will come to a head by the Summer Solstice, when the border between the mortal and the Faery worlds is at its thinnest. (It was quite accidental, but I read this over the Summer Solstice, which was just perfect.)

This was Stiefvater’s first published novel (why, why do I check Wikipedia to confirm this when I have only 25 minutes to write a review???), and it looks like the third and final book in the series is slated to be published sometime this year. So maybe, I say, trying to be properly critical, it feels a tad less polished than her later books. Maybe. But this business of teen musicians and faeries woven together is so very much my thing that I couldn’t complain. Yes, Dierdre got herself into trouble more than once by not letting people finish explaining themselves, but this seems to be endemic to teenagers in general. And in any case, Stiefvater isn’t pulling any punches with the story. Dierdre may win the day, but it’s not tidy and not everyone we care about comes through. In short, I was sucked in completely, and went straight on to the next book.

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Barefoot Pirate

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Katy K.

Sorry for the radio silence, friends! It’s been crazy days, including one day home with a sick kid. So I’m posting late but it’s still Kidlit Blog Hop week – happy hopping!

Kid Lit Blog Hop

Have any of you e-book reading readers heard of Book View Café? It’s an author collaborative where 95% of e-book sales go to the author. I first discovered them a few years ago, when I found that the last book in Sarah Zettel’s Arthurian quartet, previously only available in the UK (from an author who lives in my town! The outrage!), was available as an ebook. I went back recently and bought this book (based mostly on the cover) just to have something fun to read with my eight-year-old boy on my e-reader.

Barefoot PirateBarefoot Pirate by Sherwood Smith.
Joe Robles is just about to pull an intriguing-looking book off the shelf of his school library when he notices another hand on the same book. Joe wins the brief struggle, but promises his classmate, Nan, to read it right away and give it to her the next day. Both kids are entranced with the premise: the book tells the story of Blackeye the pirate, the daughter of sailors killed by an evil regent. Rather than giving up, she founds her own pirate band to fight the evil in power. But the prince is drugged by the regent and held captive in a tower enchanted so that no person from that world could get in to free him. It concludes with instructions for the readers of the book to magically transport themselves to Blackeye’s world and join the fight. (The magical book reminded me pleasantly of Diane Duane’s So You Want to Be a Wizard, without being so similar as to feel unoriginal.)

Of course both children want to go, but before they do, we learn more about Nan and Joe. Nan is a red-headed foster child. Abandoned at a young age, she’s been shunted from one foster house to another, worked hard, never given enough to eat, and always a target for bullies at school as well. Joe is a middle child with overly busy parents, stuck constantly defending his younger brother from their older sisters’ teasing. Joe himself has come under fire from his former best friend for still caring about pretend games and fantasy books and feels like he doesn’t fit in anywhere, either. Joe feels slightly guilty for leaving his younger brother, but both kids want more than anything to escape to the world described in the book.

Once they get to the other world, they find themselves part of the motley kid’s resistance movement. The gang here is clearly diverse, including a centaur as well as several shades of human kids, though there were enough of them, and with similar enough names, that I had difficulty keeping them all straight. Joe and Nan, though, are busy trying to figure out why the book thought they would be useful enough to come over, and what skills they might possibly bring to the group. The two of them weren’t friends in our world, and the magical journey together doesn’t make them instantly trust each other. There’s a lot of character depth, even as the group is engaged in the expected training, spying, evading capture, and the final release of the prince. And following that – what will they do once their job in Blackeye’s world is done? Barefoot Pirate is a solidly middle grade book with enough action to keep my son engaged combined with enough in the way of character and meatiness for me to enjoy it.

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Fearless

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Katy K.

Another series up to date! Am I on a roll or what?

FearlessFearless. Mirrorworld Book 2. by Cornelia Funke
I had to switch to reading in print only because my library didn’t have the next book on audio. This is the second book in the series, and so has spoilers for the first book. In the first book, Jacob Reckless succeeded in breaking the curse on his brother, but the cost was a curse that gives him a maximum of one year to live. Naturally, he hasn’t been able to tell this to anyone – not his brother and Clara, back in our world, nor yet his best friend Fox in the Mirrorworld. After all, there’s a cure for everything in the Mirrorworld. At the very beginning of this book, he tries two separate magical remedies, each more dangerous than the last, and the last ones his mentor can think of, but nothing works. Now it’s on to the very last resort, the mythical Witch Slayer’s crossbow. The major mythic power is that of being able to kill any enemy, no matter how large, but Jacob has pieced together a less common myth, and hopes that if it’s shot at him by someone who loves him, it will save his life instead. Now he must share his secret with Fox. But they must also keep their goal as secret as possible, because the politics of the Mirrorworld are not peaceful, and no monarch would hesitate to use the crossbow to wipe out an entire opponent’s army, or perhaps even entire nations. The most famous of all Goyl treasure hunters, Nerron, known as the Bastard, is also in on the search for the crossbow. The narrative is split between Jacob, Fox, and Nerron, so we know that Nerron is doing just as well with the search as Fox and Jacob (if not better), and there is every chance of Nerron letting them find part of what they need and snatching it from them before the end. Additionally, Jacob is given a business card in our world with just a name on it, Erl King. This made my skin all creepy crawly, because of the classic Goethe poem, but Jacob doesn’t recognize the name, and while the card gives Jacob the occasional message, the mystery is never resolved.

As in the previous book, it’s a dark yet beautiful world, and the stakes are higher than ever. It’s one narrow escape after another, and what keeps it from being a simple adrenaline/horror rollercoaster is the effort Funke puts both into the world and the characters. It’s clear why Jacob loves the Mirrorworld, and would keep returning to it even if he weren’t currently working to save his life. The taut relationship between Fox and Jacob is also a thing of beauty. Fox was a young girl when she first met Jacob, but she ages more quickly in her fox form, and is now only a little younger than him. There are definite romantic feelings on her side, while Jacob is fighting them, feeling that he needs to keep thinking of Fox as a little sister. Neither of them is in any doubt that the other is the most important person in their world, but the risk of spoiling their friendship if they try to take it to the next level and fail is more than either of them is willing to do. Meanwhile, they are constantly, of necessity, putting the person they love most in the world into danger. Nerron, too, is much more of a sympathetic character than one would expect of a non-human villain. I’m going to hope that there will be more Mirrorworld books, because while the official plot wraps up at the end, there are a lot of ends left hanging, and I want more.

It’s summer reading time, folks. And while for non-librarians, this may conjure up visions of reading on the beach, for me it’s trying to write reviews in between helping 20 or so kids an hour get their latest summer reading prize and find the next book. Fun, but exhausting, and I don’t really trust my sentence-writing ability in these circumstances, so please pardon any mistakes.

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Caddy’s World

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Katy K.

Caddy's WorldLook! I finished a series!

Caddy’s World by Hilary McKay.
This is the most recently published book in the Casson Family series, which started with Saffy’s Angel. The four Casson Family books that came between Saffy’s Angel and this one were all delightfully different in terms of what was happening, but similar in that it was always the same quirky Casson family, featuring some amount of time with each child in the family and his or her trials, no matter whose name was on the cover, as well as a character who wanted to be part of the Casson family. I read them all and enjoyed them very much, but didn’t feel a need to review them all individually. I love the children. Eve Casson, the mother, manages to pull through despite her distraction, while Bill, the father, simultaneously saves the day and is generally despicable.

This book jumps back in time to when Caddy, the oldest, is 12. Her life revolves around her small circle of friends, a stable quartet each with her own defining characteristic: “Alison – hates everyone. Ruby is clever. Beth. Perfect. Caddy, the bravest of the brave.” But change is coming. Many of the girls, including Caddy, see change coming and fight it as hard as they can, trying to change who they are so they can fit where they were. Ruby has earned a scholarship to the local private school, which sounds dreamily academic, but would mean leaving her friends behind. Beth is growing taller every day, and begins eating as little as possible so that she can stay small enough for her beloved pony (this part was especially distressing.) Alison carries on as usual, hating everything. Caddy fights furiously any hint that her quartet might not stay as close as they are now forever. She is changing, too, and here develops her first crush (one of many, we know), a boy named Dingbat who effortlessly charms three of the four friends, and would give up the three to have the one resister.

Meanwhile, those readers like me reading in publication order finally get more detail on Rose’s birth and why Eve needed to name her Permanent Rose. Rose is called just the Fireworks Baby at first, because she was meant to be born in November, close to Guy Fawkes Day, though she arrives in summer, several months too early. Caddy felt that her family was large enough already, but even once the baby has charmed her, she is upset, fearing that Rose will suffer the same fate as all the baby birds she’s tried to rescue herself. Even though having read the others I knew that Rose would be OK, I loved learning more of her story and seeing her go from an alien, awkward creature (McKay is very honest in her descriptions of the frightfulness of a very premature baby) to a healthy member of the Casson pack. Even as much as I enjoyed the other books, I was still deeply impressed with her ability to take so many different plot lines and characters, both ranging from the ordinary to the extraordinary, weave them together cohesively, and make me care about all of them.

I wish it weren’t the end of the series.

You can read what other book blogging people thought of this at:
Sonderbooks
Ms. Yingling Reads
The Book Nut

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City of Bones

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Katy K.

Long-time readers may remember that I first picked up Clockwork Angel, straight off the returns cart at work, because it looked like steampunk, having completely missed it in the list of bestselling children’s and YA fiction that I faithfully read in Publisher’s Weekly. Um. That might say a lot about my mental state the last few years. Anyway, it was only talking with one of the pages at the library who’s an enthusiastic Clare fan that got me to read Clare’s first book, set in 2007 and therefore decidedly not steampunk. It’s a fine time to start, though, as the movie is coming out in August.

City of BonesCity of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Read by Ari Graynor.
Clary Fray believes herself to be a mostly ordinary New York teen. Sure, her father died before she was born and her mother’s never dated again – but really. She loves drawing and manga and hanging out with her best friend Simon. And then her world starts cracking. She sees two boys and a girl – whom no one else can see – murdering another boy in a nightclub. Then her mother disappears, leaving a giant spider-like demon in the apartment looking for Clary. This draws her into the world of the Shadowhunters and their New York Institute. She learns that her mother had once been a Shadowhunter, and that for some reason, she was hunted by an evil rogue former Shadowhunter named Valentine (cue the Imperial March.) The Institute is populated by the teens she’d seen in the nightclub – darkly handsome Alec and Isabelle Lightwood, and blond Jace Wayland, as well as an older Shadowhunter who’s there as their tutor. All of the Shadowhunters are arrogant, but Clary finds herself attracted to Jace in spite of this. Meanwhile, there’s lots of demon-hunting, intrigue, a quest, adults not believing teen telling them what’s going on, as well as exploring the invisible world of vampires, werewolves, and faeries. It’s all written in purple prose that nevertheless moves the plot along at breathtaking, can’t put it down pace.

The funny thing about reading a first book in a series so late is that it made it really obvious how much Clare refined her world in the intervening books. I especially noticed the development of the parabatai or blood brother relationship. In this book, two sets of major characters say that they are parabatai, but there’s never a hint that this is any more than kids nicking their fingers and holding the cuts together, as any mundy might do. In the later-but-set-earlier series, this relationship involves rituals, runic tattoos, and a serious, life-altering commitment to the partner. City of Bones, too, seems more of a fan’s mash-up of several different worlds – I noticed Buffy and Star Wars themes right away, and Wikipedia also cites some Phillip Reeve books that I haven’t read. There are worse places to draw inspiration from, to be sure, and enough sources to make this different – but the themes really showed. The other series (and probably later books in this series) are set much more solidly in their own world.

I listed to this on audio, partly because I was in need of an audio book and partly because the print books were all checked out of the library due to the upcoming movie release. (I wish I could find the cover picture from this version to show you, which featured a scared-looking, dark-haired girl of about 12, who bore no resemblance to any character in the book.) Unfortunately, I didn’t find it a great audiobook adaptation. Ari Graynor sounds fine and convincing reading Clary, but she didn’t differentiate consistently between characters of different genders or ages. It got really confusing listening to a 400-year-old (or so) warlock talking with the voice of a teenage girl. Also, I found her accent especially strongly American, even when reading bits in other languages, and it was just a little grating. I kept going all the way through because the plot was compelling enough that I couldn’t stop, especially knowing that it would take months to get my hands on a print copy. I tried City of Ash, the next book, on audio as well and found that it had the same problem, even with a different narrator. Maybe it would be a good candidate for a full cast narration someday, or a reader really talented at doing unique voices for each character. It’s also fast-pasted enough that I can finish that fat books in a couple of days, but listening to a 17-CD book just takes ages. So for now, I’m reading the series in print. But I am still reading it (or at least, I will be when I’m done waiting for the third book to be returned.)

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The Great Lollipop Caper

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Katy K.

A few notes: Yesterday marked my 800th post. Yay me! Yay reading!
Today is the official release date for Sarah Zettel’s Golden Girl, sequel to last summer’s Dust Girl, which I loved. I haven’t been able to lay my hands on it yet, but look for my review as soon as I do, and for a guest post from Sarah coming up soon.

Great Lollipop CaperThe Great Lollipop Caper by Dan Krall.
Mr. Caper has always hated Lollipop. All the children in the whole world adore Lollipop, while Mr. Caper’s fan club is limited to a few adults. But one day, Mr. Caper hatches a dastardly plan to make all the children of the world love him: he will infiltrate the lollipop factory and make all the lollipops taste like capers! Then he will bask in their adoration and Lollipop will know what it means to feel rejection! But when the children taste the caper-flavored lollipops, chaos breaks loose and Mr. Caper must re-evaluate. Can Mr. Caper and Lollipop find a way to fix the mess Mr. Caper made and regain Mr. Caper’s fan club? The story is illustrated in minimalist style that has the feel of classic Saturday morning cartoons. Everyone in my house, including the three-year-old, eight-year-old, and two generations of adults was charmed by this story.

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Relish

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Katy K.

RelishRelish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley.
Lucy Knisley (French Milk) loves food. In this book, she shares stories of food in her life, with particular episodes linked to food and recipes to go with each. She writes about her mother’s excellent cooking and how her mother worked her way in the food industry in New York City, then got divorced and started a farm upstate, which Knisley then had to help on. After the divorce, Knisley’s father traveled with her stay connected, taking her to fancy restaurants in Italy and being disgusted when she nipped out for American fast food. In a hilarious coming-of-age tale, Knisley (then 12), her mother, and her mother’s best friends and kids go on vacation in Mexico. The mothers both fall ill, leaving Knisley and her best friend, a 12-year-old boy, to roam the city unsupervised, spending all their money on Mexican candy and other forbidden treats. (Warning for parents: the friend discovers that the sale of porn magazines isn’t regulated in Mexico, and there are tiny, undetailed cartoon images of a rack of porno magazines. But this is as explicit as the book ever gets, and there is no violence.) In later life, Knisley travels abroad with a college friend, gorging on apricot-filled croissants in Venice, and later yet, as an impoverished grad student, saves $250 for a single meal at the best restaurant in Chicago with her boyfriend.

Through it all, love of life, love of food, and love of friends and family intertwine. The recipes are as much cartoon as the memoir parts, shown with pictures for each step along the way and ingredients drawn out instead of listed. My love, foodie and graphic novel found, found this Absolutely Perfect, and I really enjoyed it as well. I’d say it’s best for teens and up, due to the reflective nature and the slight hint of adult content.

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Chantress

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Katy K.

ChantressChantress by Amy Butler Greenfield.

Lucy has been raised on a remote island with just old Norrie for company and only vague memories of the mother she believes died in a shipwreck on the way to the island. Always, she is told that she must never sing, and she must never take off the stone pendant she has always had. But of course, she becomes a teenager, and rebels. She takes off the necklace, sings the song she hears floating in the air – and is magically transported to London. In a move both dangerous and informative, she’s sung herself into the library of Lord Protector Scargrave. (I’m trying to think if I’ve ever read of a well-meaning and uncorrupted Lord Protector.) She manages to conceal herself in time to overhear him detail plans to search for and eradicate any remaining Chantresses, and is able to conclude that she is a Chantress herself and therefore in Mortal Peril. Fortunately, she manages to follow a spy, Nat, through a secret passage out of the library and is eventually offered shelter by Master Penebrygg, his master and part of the resistance movement. Lucy will have to learn to use her powers very quickly indeed if she is to stop Scargrave from spreading his darkness and fear even further over England than he already has.

There were a fair number of predictable elements in this book, from Lucy being the Chosen One to the development of some romantic feelings between Lucy and Nat. This did not stop me from finding a great many things to enjoy about it. The basic premise is that singing is pure magic, which I love and means that I can add it to my Fantasy for Music Lovers list. Even though there’s clearly a lot of alternate history going on, the story is set firmly in London of 1667-1668, with a lot of effort put into making the daily life as accurate as possible, which I also very much appreciate. The romance is sweet and subdued, with much more emphasis on getting to know each other and accepting each other’s differences than on Longings. (Nat is a scientist and opposed to magic in general.) I thought the Shadowgrims, Scargrave’s spell-altered raven spies, were just scary enough without being overly terrifying, making this book suitable for younger teens and older middle-grade students on up. Though there is danger and action, we spend a lot of the book with Lucy as she tries to figure out who she is and how to use magic ethically. All in all, I found it a highly satisfactory book.

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How I Choose for Audiobook Week

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Katy K.

Audiobook WeekToday’s Yesterday’s question from Jen at The Devourer of Books is how do I pick my audiobooks and how do I decide whether to read or to listen. (I wrote this yesterday, and then the library got too busy and I didn’t have a chance to post it.)

The vast majority of my books, both print and audio, come from the library. I usually listen on CD in the car, though I’ll sometimes download audiobooks from the library through Overdrive as well. I have a few books purchased from Audible and Pottermore, ones that I’d listened to before and knew I would want again.

Bloody JackDeciding what to read and whether to read or listen is a bit trickier. Often, if I read of a good book in a journal or on a blog, I’ll look first to see if it’s available as an audio book. If it is, I’ll try to listen. Unless I already have a hefty wait list for listening and my stack of print books is shorter, in which case I might skew towards print – but the reverse happens just as often. Katherine Kellgren is my favorite narrator right now, and I’ll listen to just about anything she’s reading – favorite series she’s done include the Bloody Jack/Jacky Faber books, the Enola Holmes books and the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place. Wil Wheaton is also amazing paired with the right book Ready Player One – Ready Player One at the top, of course, and Little Fuzzy (which I never finished due to technical difficulties, but should really get back to.) Until she retired last week, I relied on my teen librarian, who was on the Odyssey awards committee and knew what kind of books I liked, to tell me what books I needed to listen to. I will really miss her. I often have long hold lists for print books, but because audiobooks take me longer to finish, I’m more likely to just go to the library shelves and browse for them.

divinersThere are also good reasons to read things in print, though, too. If it’s a part text, part picture book, like Brian Selznick’s books, or the Wimpy Kid books – I know there are audiobooks available, but it makes more sense to me to read in print in that case. I just gave up on the Mortal Instruments series on audio because I didn’t think the narrator worked – even though they switched narrators from the first book to the second. And I am something of a wimp. If there’s a book that I think is scary enough that I don’t want the full immersion that audiobooks give me, I’ll turn to print again – as I did with The Hunger Games and The Diviners. Sometimes, too, length will put me off an audiobook, as I don’t have enough time in the car by myself these days to make it through the really lengthy books. And I read print faster than I can listen, so if it’s something there’s a time crunch on, I’ll also go for print.

Either way, I know I’m a helpless addict because I always need to have at least one book in print and one on audio going at any given time, and preferably at least one backup for each as well.

And wait!  It’s also Kid Lit Blog Hop day.  I’ve been too busy writing about audiobooks in general to write about kid lit yet this week, but I’ll link up one of my posts from last week.  And you should definitely hop over and see what everyone else found the last two weeks!

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Favorite Audiobooks for Audiobook Week

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Katy K.

audiobookweekbutton_zpsdb6e126cIt’s Audiobook Week over at Devourer of Books. I always have two or three audiobooks going at any given time, so I thought it would be fun to join in the audiobook love. Here’s the breakdown: I must always have an audiobook in the car for myself, usually on CD. Right now, that’s The Wake of the Lorelei Lee by L.A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren. (I would happily listen to her read a grocery list.) My eight-year-old son also needs a separate book for when he’s in the car. We’re doing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at present. And sometimes (like right now), I’ll listen to a different audiobook on my iPod at home for when I’m doing things like washing dishes or folding laundry. I’m still finishing up Goliath by Scott Westerfeld, which I started for the 48 Hour Book Challenge last weekend. (I also keep a couple of print books going for myself and one to read to my son, but that’s a story for another day.) I grew up in a family that read aloud instead of watching TV, so I transitioned easily from having a family member read to me while washing dishes or driving to listening to audiobooks.

Today’s discussion topic from our lovely hostess Jen was our favorite audiobooks of 2012-2013. Here’s what I’ve been listening to since last June (mostly, I hope, and deliberately skipping the couple that just didn’t work for me):
nightcircusDaughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Read by Khristine Hvam.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. Read by Jim Weiss.
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. Narrated by Frederick Davidson.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Read by Jim Dale.
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. Full Cast Audio.
Book of 1000 DaysThe Raven Boys. Book 1 of the Raven Cycle. by Maggie Stiefvater. Read by Will Patton.
Harper Hall Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey. Performed by Sally Darling.
Will Sparrow’s Road by Karen Cushman. Read by Katherine Kellgren.
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Read by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham.
Reckless by Cornelia Funke. Read by and Lionel Wigram. Translated by Oliver Latsch. Read by Eliott Hill.

Looking back at my whole list, I’m impressed to see that there were really only two books that I listened to that were so awful that they didn’t make this list of good audiobooks. My very favorites of these were The Night Circus, Raven Boys and The Scorpio Races. But really, all of the books above had me longing for more time doing otherwise less than pleasant tasks so that I could get more story, thinking about them even when I wasn’t listening.

Do you like audiobooks? What are your favorites?

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