Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos (2006)

Joey Pigza is different. He doesn’t want to be different but he can’t help himself: he spins into lockers like the Tasmanian Devil, eats an entire shoo-fly pie, jumps from the roof of a barn and swallows his house key before he even realizes what he’s doing.

His decisions are made instantanously and sometimes result in injury to himself or others. It doesn’t help that his parents abandoned him and his elderly grandmother is unfit to care for him.

Then, his mother returns and, after an accident at school, Joey gets the medical attention he needs.

Jack Gantos is not only an excellent writer, he is a fabulous story teller. The audio version of this excellent book about an ADHD boy is one of few I have enjoyed. I as tough on readers as I am on authors, but Mr. Gantos excels at both!

Audio CD | Library copy | Listening Library | 2 hours and 58 minutes | ISBN 978-0807220030 | $22.60

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma (2011)

I know all about being ashamed of a family member – the number of times I’ve wished my mother would act her age in public, if not in private. It’s horrible, being ashamed of someone you care about; it eats away at you. And if you let it get to you, if you give up the fight and surrender, eventually that shame turns to hate (p 39).

Seventeen-year-old Lochan has been the man of the house since his father ran off to Australia with his lover. For five years, he’s taken care of three children with the help of his sister. Maya, thirteen months his junior, has always been more like a friend to Lochan than a sister. While their alcoholic, childish mother neglects them, Maya and Lochan babysit, cook, clean and basically run the household.

Stressed-out with only each other to rely upon, Lochan and Maya to become inseparable and eventually, the two begin an incestuous relationship. Hyper aware of the taboo they are breaking, they try - unsuccessfully – to keep their physical relationship mild.

The Kirkus review of Forbidden calls Suzuma’s lengthy exposition, heavyhanded and I couldn’t agree more. This novel could easily lose a hundred pages. It’s the kind of wordiness and verbal garbage the Twilight fans love but that I find so loathsome. Hemingway said, “If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.”  This novel is all above water, so to speak.

Not that the books is without its poignant scenes, among them Lochan’s panic attack and Kit’s little rebellions. I agree with Kirkus’s assessment that Kit is the best developed character and, not surprisingly, we see very little of him. I found the ending somewhat unsatifying. The mother showing up on cue, stealthily and lucid? Lochan’s actions… I can almost buy into. He clearly had problems but Maya seemed a little overly dramatic, though I suppose everthing is the end of the world to teenagers. Lochan should have taken the lawyer. I can’t see a kid as smart as he apparently was passing on a chance for representation.

Overall, an uneven read in need of a lot of editing but I can see the teen appeal. Read instead: Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes, Doing It by Melvin Burgess or Teach Me by R. A. Nelson.

Read other reviews:
Afterglow Book Reviews
Kirkus
Novel Novice
Portrain of a Book
The Compulsive Reader

Advance Reader Edition | June 28, 2011 | Simon Pulse | 464 pages | ISBN: 978-1-4424-1995-7 | $16.99

Bluefish by Pat Schmatz (9/13/2011)

“You know how sometimes you don’t know something is stupid until it falls out of your mouth and then it’s too late?”
Travis didn’t have an answer for that one, since he usually kept his stupid thoughts in his own head (p 57-8).

One fish. Two fish. Red fish. Travis. The stupid bluefish. In a new town, Travis hopes to escape his label, but he doesn’t expect to. His Grandpa, a recently recovered alcoholic, is difficult to live with. There’s not much Travis cares about now his dog Rosco is missing. Then Velveeta takes an interest in him.

Velveeta is sharp-tongued and observant. Humorous, but with secrets of her own that we learn through letters to someone named Calvin.

Bluefish is a character story and a good one at that. Travis is illiterate until his new English teacher uses unique methods to engage and teach him. With copy of Haunt Fox in tow, Travis begins to set right the neglect he suffered. Velveeta connects with Travis while reading The Book Thief - sometimes helping, sometimes hindering – and learning plenty about herself in the process.

This is a quick read at a little over 200 pages and it leans a little on two established titles, but carves a niche of its own. Characters are revealed slowly (but not too slowly) and subtly (the only way I like it!) until we are endeared to them, flaws and all. The ending is abrupt but I find I liked it. The characters still have obstacles to face but its real. Life doesn’t tie things up in nice little bows, but personal discoveries will carry Travis and Velveeta through to another day and they may actually find themselves looking forward to it.

This is a review of an advance reader copy provided by the publisher, Candlewick, via NetGalley. Read the Kirkus review.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (2010)

Let me tell you – if you think your best friend dying is a bitch, try your best friend dying after he screws you over. It a bitch like no other (p 7).

Vera knows what really happened the night Charlie Khan died. He didn’t kill all those animals, though everyone assumes he did. He wasn’t a bad kid. She knows his father beat his mother and bullied him. She knows he had the spirit of the Great Hunter. After all, she was in love with him.

But that was before he ditched her for Jenny Flick and the Detentionhead crowd. From their youth, the two played together, grew together, protected and supported each other.

Then, during their junior year in High School, Jenny Flick inserted herself into Charlie’s life. Vera never understands why he abandons her for Jenny and her loser friends. But after Charlie acts cruelly toward her, she no longer cares. A few months later, Charlie’s dead.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Vera Dietz has many quality points. It is told from several different perspectives: Charlie’s (aka the dead kid), Ken Dietz (Vera’s dad), even the town’s make out point, the Pagoda. Mostly, it’s told from Vera’s perspective, alternating between the present and ’history.’ Each voice is unique and genuine. Each contributes to the story.

This is not just a story about Vera and Charlie, about friendship and the hope of romance, but it is also a story about family, community and loss. There’s an element of bullying. Vera hallucinated under the weight of her kept knowledge. She turns to alcohol for relief, and this is handled well and honestly.  

But there’s also some room to trim. Vera begins to drag just before the conclusion and I became a little impatient for things to wrap up. It gets a little repetitive. It just needed a little more editing.

While Vera is a very good book, I didn’t love it. It isn’t as divisive as Nothing nor as unique a plot as Stolen (whose language I often found beautiful). It lacks the economy of text that defines Revolver. (These are the other 2011 Printz honor books.)

But it is darkly humorous and the characterization is excellent. The narration, while it jumps perspective and time, is seemless, a huge feat in itself.

I certainly struggled alongside Vera and, especially her father. I felt a good deal of sympathy for him and I hated him for his weakness. I raged at their enemies, Jenny Flick and Mr. Kahn, and pitied Charlie.

However, the inclusion of Vera’s vocab class words is a technique I’ve seen used by other authors and it just didn’t resonate with me. It seemed… lazy. I would have just had Vera use the words, like parsimonious to describe her dad, rather than tying it to her lessons, as if she was just discovering the words to describe her dad at age 17. On top of all the Zen comments (Which Zen guy said, “If you want to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water”? p 22) it was a little much. Oh well.

Of course, I still highly recommend this as a great read for older teens. Read other excellent (and more in depth) reviews at: The Book Smugglers, A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy, and Reading Rants.

If you enjoy this, I’d also recommend:

Her and Me and You by Lauren Strasnick (2010)

Later, we ate Adina’s dinner on the floor of the drained indoor pool. We sat on blankets over pool tiles (p 25).

Her: Adina. Anorexic. Moody. Possessive of her twin brother, Fred. Possibly in love with him.
Me: Alex. Her entrance into a new school becomes complicated when she is befriended by the Bishop twins. 
You: Fred. Friendly, enigmatic, and clearly protective of his sister. He befriends Alex.

Her: Evie, Alex’s best friend.
Me: Alex clearly has strong feelings for Evie. Their relationship changes once Alex moves away and Evie has a new boyfriend.
You: Ben, the boyfriend. What does he know about Evie? He dates her for a month and thinks he is in love with her. He can’t possibly know or love her as Alex does.

Her: Caroline. The other woman.
Me: Because of her father’s infidelity, Alex has moved with her mother to Meadow Marsh. Her world is turned up-side-down as everyone she has ever cared for changes.
You: Alex’s mother is a broken woman, unable to cope with the loss of a husband she stills loves, she turns to drinking. Or ‘you’ is Alex’s father. She’s angry with him, obviously, but she would have chosen to live with him if her mother didn’t need her so badly.

Alex beings spending more and more time with Fred as she attempts to make sense of her new life and redefine herself. But Adina runs hot and cold, sometimes undermining Alex and at times, oddly supportive or affectionate. Mix in Alex’s feelings for Evie and the bare-bones narration and you get a lot ambiguity.

Her and Me and You is a quick read, a novel that sucked me in immediately. It helps that Alex, the teen girl in transition, comes across as very real and understandable while also open to new experiences. She isn’t too judgemental but rather compassionate.

She’s at a point in her life when she is on her own for the first time, friendless, and capable of forging her own path. She also senses she must live else her best friend will move on without her (without the recklessness that so many YA characters rush headlong into). I appreciated that Alex had a strong moral compass and that she wore her emotions on her sleeve. She kind of reminds me of me at that age!

Adina is also one of the more realistically portrayed anorexic characters in YA lit. She’s not in your face (a la Wintergirls – bleck!), but through little things Alex notices, we see how she treats food. Her mental state is all over the place, but ultimately, self-serving behavior wins out.

A little gem of a book. Read other reviews: I was a Teenage Book Geek, The Compulsive Reader,  The Hub: YALSA.

Gone by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson (2007)

Connor has been living with his Aunt ever since he ran out on his alcoholic mother. His father, once a charming drunk, is now in assisted care living after he accidentally and drunkenly stumbled in front of a moving car.

Connor is absorbed in nothing. It is a state of being for him. Until Ms. Timms, his former teacher, is everything to him.

There’s not much I liked about this novel. I thought it was surface-level. The student/teacher taboo was partly excused because Connor had graduated before any intimate exchange took place, even though he was a few weeks shy of eighteen. It felt more like a gimmic because we never really understand the attraction between the two, unless lust is the extent of it.

There was plenty of that. But why not Connor’s Chow Line coworker? Why the need to be recognized by Ms. Timms, a teacher? What made her special, other than her obvious good looks? Why did she choose Connor? I could infer it was that they are two broken people, but there is no indication Ms. Timms took the time to examine Connor’s past and he never volunteers it. All in all, it just didn’t add up for me.

The most veracious emotion Connor displayed was for his grandmother. He finds comfort in the paste jewelry she once wore and that he now keeps in a sort of treasure box.

I think SLJ’s review was accurate:

Events are sequential, relying heavily on coincidence. The supporting characters are revealed through narrative description rather than interaction. Even the pets are props. As often as not the cat is used to arouse Connor from his current fantasy or sexual self-indulgence. There is the obligatory separation and consequent pursuit in the last pages, a trip from Maryland to New Mexico. And it is in this futile endeavor that Connor comes to realize what his life really means. But by this time, readers may not care.–Sheila Fiscus

For those interested in teacher/student relationship books, there are two stand out tomes:

Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes (2009)

Marti was going to be a Madman, all right. I wondered what happened at home: did they hit her? Nobody sober after noon? Fights? A head of coke on the coffee table? Bedroom visits from her mother’s creepy boyfriend? Wall-to-wall crosses and nonstop prayers? All of those were certainly possible, based on the other Madmen.

I didn’t ask. I’d know soon enough. One problem with an underground, you always know too much about what’s buried (p 134).

Kyle has a plan and it’s call Operation Be Fucking Normal. After Kyle’s father died during his eighth grade year, his mother went crazy: drinking, smoking and slutting it up. Kyle has played the parent, working several jobs to pay the bills, cleaning the house, and taking care of his alcoholic wanna-be hippie mother. Under all that stress, he was bound to crack. Now the kids call him Psycho Shoemaker.

He then received his ticket to group therapy at school with all the other messed up kids. The group became known as the Madmen Underground. Kyle and his best friend, Paul are long time members. And the madmen stick together.

This book follows 6 days in Kyle’s life in September 1973. It is a Printz Honor Award winner and deservedly so. Exceptional writing. Pitch perfect. Once I got into this book, I couldn’t put it down. Sure, there’s a lot of crazy going on, your heart will break, your spirits will lift and you’ll want more. John Barnes is a man I’d like to meet. He transported me to another time and a different life and I was so invested!

ADDED SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

I did meet John Barnes at ALA. He signed a copy of his book for me on the event floor and spoke at the Printz Award Reception. I think he was a little overwhelmed by it all but I was so delighted to hear he felt rejuvenated by the award. He was coming out of a 10 year slump, of sorts, but plans to write more! I haven’t read any of his adult fiction, but I intend to pick up Directive 51, his new adult sci-fi book.

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp (2008)

Okay, yes, maybe I do drink a little bit more than a little bit too much, but don’t go getting the idea I’m an alcoholic. It’s not some big addiction. It’s just a hobby, a good, old-fashioned way to have fun. Once, I said that exact thing to this uptight church girl at school, Jennifer Jorgenson, and she goes, “I don’t have to drink alcohol to have fun.” So I’m like, “I don’t have to ride a roller coaster to have fun either, but I do” (p 18).

I thought I was going to hate this book. I wanted to hate its narrator, Sutter, but I ended up not hating him. His logic is alternately crazy/reckless (note the above quote) and insightful/reserved…

I walk over and have a closer look at the drawings. Actually, her horses look more like dogs, but there’s no need to mention that. I’m pretty sure, for her, drawing them is a lot more important than what they end up looking like (110).

He takes no shame in his behaviour. He knows what he can get away with and more importantly, he knows why; his parents don’t take the time to care…

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I’ll try to make it up to you.” And I am sorry about making her call my friends and the hospitals and all, but I know my mom. Trust in me isn’t real high on her list of priorities. A good trip to the beauty shop next week and she’ll forget all about it” (p 82).

Ricky is Sutter’s best friend and fellow pot head/lush. The two have lengthy discussions, partake in dangerous stunts and act as comic relief at school and during parties. Sutter always has a story to tell, a performance to give. You’ll find it easy to forget he is constantly buzzed or high. Or you might find it easy to forgive him for it. Sutter has that effect. But I cringed ever time he got in his car.

The relationships Sutter has with the women in his life, the boys at school… he has intuition and an understanding of human nature that belies his youth.

This story works on so many levels. Ultimately, I found it unsettling. There is so much truth and despair… like one of those Oscar-worthy films (Revolutionary Road or A Single Man) that you know you should watch but know you will walk away from it saddened… The Spectacular Now will make you question how you live and how you understand the world. Great stuff.

The Spectacular Now was a 2008 National Book Award finalist.