More from the teen bestseller list, this time courtesy of my parents. (I have no plans to review the Clique or A-List books, though, just in case you were worried.)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Life hasn’t been easy for Arnold Spirit Jr. First there was the whole being born with extra water in his brain, which gave him a permanently enlarged head. Then there’s living on an Indian reservation, where poverty, unemployment and alcoholism are rampant. This is the story of Junior’s first step towards hope, which he makes by attending school off the reservation, a high school where graduates actually attend college. At school, he’s regarded as a lazy Indian, while at home on the rez, he’s a traitor. This sounds like the set-up for another depressing teen book, but it’s not. Junior has a wicked sense of humor, both about himself and others, and illustrates the story with equally funny cartoons. Despite some pretty grim happenings, we’re rooting for Arnold and laughing through to the end.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Read by Alan Corduner It is Germany, early in World War II. Our narrator is Death. He introduces us to our heroine, Liesel Memminger, when he first meets her. She is on the train on her way to a foster home with her mother and brother, except that her brother dies on the train. At the graveyard where they stop to bury him, she steals her first book: a gravedigger’s manual that the apprentice gravedigger dropped in the snow. It takes time to make a new home, but Liesel slowly begins to fit into her new family on Himmel Street, the poor section of a small town outside Munich. Her new Mama may call her a Saumensch, but her Papa has kind silver eyes and plays a mean accordion. Rudy, the boy next door, has hair the color of lemons and a developing crush on her. Soon her circle of friends expands to include Max, a young Jewish man that they hide in their basement. Papa, barely literate himself, teaches Liesel to read. She plays soccer on the street and steals food and books with Rudy as food rations get tighter and she runs out of books to read. It is only a side note as Death notes the passing of the years and complains about the increasing number of souls that he is expected to ferry away, as we are so involved with daily life on Himmel Street. 
Montessori: The Science behind the Genius by Angeline Stoll Lillard I have this feeling, which other people might share, that the American educational system is broken and dysfunctional. There are whole books about this, which you could also read. Even though not everyone may be interested in Montessori in particular, this book has the advantage of being somewhat less depressing than a book focused only on mainstream education because it contains a positive solution to the problem. This is a dream nonfiction book for me (and I feel so librarianish talking about a dream nonfiction book) because Lillard is down with her research. The basic structure is looking at an issue in education or parenting, seeing what the research says about it, and comparing the research to standard education and Montessori education. She is quite explicit about pointing out potential flaws in the studies, even when doing so is not in favor of Montessori. Lillard also explains areas where traditional educators often disagree with the Montessori method (which is not quite the same as how the system is broken, as educators often agree that it is.) I’ve put lots of details behind the cut, but I had a hard time putting the book down, and am now sold on a Montessori education. Using the expertise of a highly intelligent woman who spent 50 years observing children and fine-tuning an system of education seems like a fine alternative to either trying to develop one myself by home-schooling, or relying on the aforementioned broken system. 
Stardust Movie adaptations of books… particularly books by favorite authors like Neil Gaiman. It has the potential for either extreme greatness or extreme badness. In this case, and I were charmed. It might have helped that it had been a few years since we’d read the book. Here’s the basic plot: Tristan, our hero is a social outcast bent on winning the heart of the town beauty, Victoria. They live in the little village of Wall, so called because it is bordered by a wall. Faery is supposed to lie on the other side of the wall, although no one has been to check, except, unbeknownst to Tristan, Tristan’s father. When Tristan and Victoria see a falling star together, Tristan vows to bring it back to her by her birthday. Meanwhile, in Faery, the dying king has thrown his ruby necklace and knocked a star out of the sky. His six sons (named Secundus through Septimus, some reduced to watching ghosts) are willing to kill to be the first to find it. And three witches send one to find the falling star, whose living heart will keep them young for centuries. For a star in Faery is a living woman. The story had the perfect blend of adventure, romance and humor to make it feel like a slightly wilder version of The Princess Bride. The actors – Claire Danes as the star, Michelle Pfeiffer as the witch, Robert DeNiro as the sky captain and newcomer Charlie Cox as Tristan (transforming beautifully from nerd to hero) were all phenomenal. This is one we’ll want to watch again.
My Very First Bible by Lois Rock. Pictures by Alex Ayliffe. The desire may not be universal, but Mr. FP was starting to want to learn about the stories at church. I had a definite agenda looking for a children’s Bible. The stories should be short enough to be engaging, but long enough to get the gist of the story across. The pictures should be attractive, and the characters should not look like Palestine was located somewhere in Northern Europe. Finally, it should follow the Bible narratives as closely as possible, not adding dialog, motives or morals where they don’t exist in the original. I would like to see stories of the strong Bible women included, and Mr. FP has no patience for prayers, so those aren’t a plus. This Bible met all but one of my (dare I say it) exacting criteria. The stories convey a lot with very simple words. The bright pictures look like they are cut from paper, with appealing round-nosed and smiling characters with tan skin. There’s only one very short prayer at the beginning. The stories tend towards the upbeat, with Goliath and Jesus the only named people killed. My only quibble was that the women were given pretty short shrift. Miriam, Sarah and some unnamed female disciples make appearances, but Esther, Ruth, Mary and Martha don’t appear at all. On the other hand, this is really a greatest hits Bible stories collection. With only 20 stories out of the whole Bible, there’s not a lot of room for minor characters of either gender. It was a great hit with Mr. FP, who would happily have read the whole thing in one sitting. If you’re looking for a children’s Bible either for religious text or basic cultural literacy, this is a good choice.
Brain, Child Here, my friends, is a magazine for every mother (and possibly father) on my f-list. While most parenting magazines vary by parenting style or (in my experience) devolve into bland children’s clothing and toy fashions, Brain, Child assumes only that you still have a brain and want to use. It’s not how to parent but why we parent, and how we feel about it. The issue that I read was serious and tender and funny. It had two viewpoint essays on whether or not there’s such a thing as too many toys. Both authors made good points; the “yes” stance was taken by Adrienne Martini, whose Hillbilly Gothic I reviewed a while back. There were articles on the effects on your sanity of elimination communication; how real the emotional support provided in on-line groups; a birth mother’s story; an exploration of the movement not to try to get people with autism and other thing commonly labeled as disabilities to fit into mainstream society. Perhaps my favorite – I’ll just give you the tag line in the magazine: “Special needs children are given to special mothers? One mother calls bullshit.” It’s a quarterly magazine, which could be good or bad depending on your reading speed. If I had the money, I’d be buying you all subscriptions. Since I don’t, you’re on your own.
This Place in the Snow by Rebecca Bond A group of children build a fantastical snow fort in the enormous pile of snow left by the snowplow. The words feel lovely to read aloud, and the pictures are bright, whimsical paintings.
alibrarymama 