The Aurora County All-Stars by Deborah Wiles
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.
- ROGERS HORNSBY
SECOND BASEMAN, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
A perfect spring read! Wiles combines baseball with pageantry, poetry with a baby-eating old man and community with betrayal to make a “symphony true.” Wiles models this story after the Victorian serial novel with cliff-hanging suspense, magical mystery , oaths of secrecy, moral dilemmas, matters of identity, startling surprise, dollops of sentimentality… and dead guys. She succeeds!
One of my favorite illustrators/writers, Marla Frazee, did the cover illustration. I only wish more of her work was included throughout. I pictured all of the characters based on her cover art and style!
From the back cover: Twelve-year-old House Jackson – star pitcher and team captain of the Aurora County All-Stars – has spent an entire year with a broken elbow. Every afternoon, instead of going to baseball practice, he has sat by the bedside of a mysterious old man and read to him. Now house is healed and ready to play, but the pageant for the town’s 200th anniversary is scheduled for exactly the same time as his teams ONLY game of the year. And guess who’s directing the pageant? Why, it’s House’s nemesis (and perpetrator of the elbow break), the theatrical, full-of-herself, fourteen-year-old Frances Shotz. How can House get himself – and his team – out of this mess?
Neil Armstrong is my Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino
You are going to love this book!
It is a beautifully told story about the loss of one’s best friend, neighborhood kids, pride, and growing up. Tamara Ann Simpson doesn’t like Muscle Man McGinty from day one. The boy tells whoppers. When he brags that he can beat the entire block in a game of kick ball, he goes too far.
Tamara carries the story with such authenticity and artlessness (though considered somewhat of a bully by Booklist). Set in the summer of 1969, there is talk of moon landings, the Vietnamese War, and Slinky’s. Kirkus said it best: “The authenticity of the time and the voice combine with a poignant plot to reveal a depth unusual in such a straightforward first-person narrative. Showing a neighborhood still webbed together by typical daily contact, the characters are individually distinct and real.”
Neil Armstrong is my Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me will be released on May 12, 2009.
Once was Lost by Sara Zarr
I was greatly excited to have received an ARC copy of Sara Zarr’s upcoming YA novel Once was Lost. Perhaps this anticipation, coupled with my high expectations for this book in light of her other excellent novels, contributed to my disappointment in Once was Lost feeling so heavy.
In Lost, the story of a hot, dry small town community shaken by the disappearance of thirteen-year-old Jody is told from the perspective of the town pastor’s daughter, Sam. Sam’s mother recently checked into rehab after a DUI, her father shrugs his familial duties to attend his congregation, and her friends act differently around her because she is the pastor’s daughter.
Zarr does an excellent job painting the life of a small town pastor’s daughter, the tension surrounding the disappearance of a child and the suspicions and accusations that surface when tragedy strikes.
What didn’t work:
- Sam was as dry as a rice cake. She entered and exited the story bland. I was frustrated with her at the end! She has a minor revelation but, though her situation changes and those around her change (especially her mother), she doesn’t find her voice. She seemed much younger than her given age of fifteen (which I attributed to her religious background).
- The bluntness of this novel didn’t work for me. In the same manner that Anderson simply thrust the reader into Lia’s anorexia (Wintergirls), I felt thrust into Sam’s crappy life. Sam’s personality and that of those around her didn’t unfold through meaningful interactions but rather, they were force fed.
- I won’t give away the ending but it ends not with a bang, but a whimper.
I am an atheist but I’m … fluent in religious studies. And while this story tackled religion much better than most, I’m sure my own experiences with religion colored my opinion of the plot. However, my beef was mostly with the exposition.
Once was Lost is slated for an October 2009 release, so the completed version may be different from the one I read. If you would like my ARC copy, be the first to leave a comment with your email and it’s yours.
Fire by Kristin Cashore
“There are the ordinary humans; farmers, shepherds, soldiers, a king, and his court. This other land is also populated by a mutant species of creatures known as “monsters.” A monster mouse is mouselike except that it is covered in brightly colored fur and stunningly beautiful. There is a monster human with hair the color of flame. She is of devastating beauty and has the ability to bend other minds to her own.”
The human monster is named Fire. Imagine Aphrodite and then amplify her power.
This is not a sequel to Graceling but a companion, as the only character readers will recognize is the future King Leek. I had high hopes for this book and I wasn’t disappointed. I won’t give a detailed review, as I read a very early galley copy. But I will say I really enjoyed the main character, Fire. Cashore writes some really excellent dialogue – witty and poignant. I found myself laughing out loud or squealing at points. Those who enjoyed the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer would LOVE Cashore’s writing. Only Chashore’s much better!
I can’t wait to see the final version 
Other (more detailed) reviews/commentaries at Eva’s Book Review and The Magic of Ink.
Updates (9-7-09): NOMINATED FOR THE PRINTZ! While this is super exciting for a fantasy book I greatly enjoyed, it’s not my top pick for the prize, though it is much better written than many of the other popular titles nominated.
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
This is a review of an ARC of Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. The book is slated for a June 2009 release.
I adore this book. It was just what I needed: very readable, interesting three-dimensional characters, recognizable/believable situations (all except the convenient arrival of the ex-boyfriend) that progressed the story and added to the characterization. I even learned a little something. Oh, and did you catch the throw-back to Lock and Key?
Ever since I began dating my current boyfriend, reading has taken a back seat (and why not when he was more entertaining than anyone or anything else). But I actually told him to bugger off because I had to continue reading this book! It was a pleasure to read! Thank you, Sarah Dessen.
I really liked what Opps…Wrong Cookie had to say (though I liked Lock and Key and loved Just Listened).
Update (9-7-09): Another among several popular titles (if not literary masterpieces) nominated for the Printz and one of the more deserving of that nomination though not the award.
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley
North of Beautiful explores the concept of beauty. The discussion binds the story as it binds Terra, our narrator. Terra is tall, blond, and unbelievably gorgeous (working out ritualistically before school will do that for your body) but none of this really matters when her face is “flawed” with a port wine stain.
Realistic and beautifully written, this book touches on the many issues a woman faces, port wine stain or no. For some women, it’s acne, weight, a big nose, etc. Whatever the case, it’s not about finding someone to love you in spite of those things, but understanding your own beauty and worth, not as something decided by society, but discovered by oneself.
It’s also a remarkably poignant story about family. The personality of Terra’s father drives this story line. He was so brilliantly and realistically written that it was with an incredible amount of animosity for him that I finished the book.
North of Beautiful will be released in February 2009.
Update (9-07-09): Nominated for the Prinz, I could see this title with a sticker on it.
Everything is Fine by Ann Dee Ellis
Title: Everything is Fine
Author: Ann Dee Ellis
Edition: Gallery (2008 ALA Annual)
Mazzy’s father is chasing his dream, a career as an ESPN anchor. Her mother won’t get out of bed. Left to fend for herself and her severely depressed mother, Mazzy gets by day to day insisting “everything is fine.” She flirts with the boy next door, uses oranges to pad her bra, and eats microwaved marshmallows for dinner.
Told from Mazzy’s terse (both elegant and short) point of view, this brilliant story slowly reveals the tragedy that drove this family apart. My heart ached for days after reading this. But it’s Mazzy that I loved, her mother that I ultimately forgave, and her father that infuriated me. There is a teen that frequents my library. Her mother (single, the father long gone) is anorexic. This book gave me a glimpse of what it must be like for a young child burdened with the health of a parent.
Update: This has been nominated for a Printz and I’m so glad for it. A book that haunts me today, over a year later.
Review: Heaven Looks a Lot like the Mall
Title: Heaven Looks a Lot like the Mall
Author: Wendy Mass
Edition: ARC
This was my first verse novel. I was apprehensive because I associate verse with difficult and time consuming interpretation (i.e. poetry along the lines of Shelly and Byron). This was much much different, happily. It is a story with elements from It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story… Tessa is knocked into a coma by a dodgeball during high school gym class (ha ha) and after hovering between Earth and Heaven (i.e. the Mall), she soars upwards. In this atherial mall, Tessa (named after L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time) relives important and mostly fogotten moments in her life that culminate to explain the woman she is today. I love the brazenness and truth with which the vignettes are told. It brought me back, reminding me of some of my own weak moments, but readers will find, like Tessa, the we can all sparkle.
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
Title: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Edition: ARC
I started this book at 8 pm and finished it at 3 am because I simply could not put it down. Zevin examines how our memories define and control us in her portrait of Naomi. When an accident stripes Naomi of all personal memory of her last four years (thankfully, she retains her math/French skills!), she must begin piecing together who she is, a task made difficult because she doesn’t know who to trust. But it also frees her from past prejudices and judgments. A novel that doesn’t wrap things up with a neat bow but instead, takes its time in figuring itself out. Another great book to recommend to those pesky teens that hate fantasy but enjoy those “what if…?” questions that leave you pondering about how you might change if you ever found yourself in such a situation.
Teach Me by R. A. Nelson
Title: Teach Me
*This post is based on a reading of an Advance Reader Copy.
Author: R. A. Nelson
Tags: fiction, high school, affair, science, NASA, love, breakup
Plot: Nine, a straight-A high school senior and virgin, has a short, intense affair with the school’s new poetry teacher. She is the daughter of a NASA scientist, brilliant, funny, and focused. When Mr. Mann, her teacher, suddenly breaks off the affair, Nine will stop for no one to learn why.
Review: It is a day after finishing this book (and I read it in two sittings) and I have the overwhelming urge to weep for Nine. She is a strong character. She expresses her passion with such a blend of the physical and emotional that I was swept up from the beginning – and not because it was a “forbidden” love (social taboo)… after all, they are both legally adults (and maybe my years in college — seeing so many grad students marry their older professors — has made me sympathetic to their situation) – but because I’ve know men like Mr. Mann. I know how they seemingly swoop in one day like a meteor and shatter everything you’ve ever known, only to disappear mid-sentence. I know what drives a man like him. His fear. His cowardice. His false belief that he is doing the “right thing.” A man too deeply subscribed to the structure of Man to understand the chaos of Nature. Nine’s pain becomes the reader’s. And I want to weep for her.
