Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Treasures in the Blog

Outside of a Cat has a review of an old favorite of mine, The Teddy Bear Habit, which turns out to be back in print as part of a series called.... "Lost Treasures!" It's like waking up to find someone else wiping my kid's butt: a dream come true. The series is put out by an imprint of Hyperion called Volo; who do I have to kill to get on their review list?

these kids today, part II

I had the sweetest teenage patron at the library today. I'm not sure how old she was--they all look like kids to me these days, and by the way, get off my lawn!--but she was highly embarrassed by her "age-inappropriate" selection of Tamora Pierce and Manga books. I told her I still read Tamora Pierce and assured her that at the library, our motto is No Shame.

Review: Adam and Eve and Pinch Me

Starting off Foster Care Month with an especially good book:



Adam & Eve and Pinch Me by Julie Johnson. Little, Brown, 1994;
Tundra, 2003 (0-8877-648-X) $9.95 trade

"If I've learned one thing in my life it's this: if you don't want
your heart broken, don't let on you have one" Sara Moone tells her
computer, the only thing she will allow herself to have a relationship
with. Shuffled from one foster home to another--"what do you do with
something you don't want? Throw it out, of course,"--Sara has cut
herself off from any positive feelings, living only for her sixteenth
birthday, when she will be free to live on her own, completely alone.
But as she types in the story of her latest foster home, with a
kindhearted farm couple and two other foster kids, Sara's sharp,
immediate narrative begins to show signs of thaw within her. Then a
new threat to her safe isolation appears: her birth mother, who once
gave her up and now wants her back. No longer able to convince
herself that she doesn't feel anything, Sara must try to figure out
which feelings to listen to.

Told in a caustic yet passionate voice that betrays the pain and
longing underlying Sara's hard facade, this is a beautifully realized
story. The small-town atmosphere and the characters of Sara's foster
parents are lovingly drawn, with an initial mockery that gradually
changes to interest and respect, as Sara begins to see beyond their
seemingly stereotypes behaviors. Sara herself is a terrific
character--sometimes hilarious, sometimes infuriating, but never
boring. Her journey from mistrustful stray to loving family member is
a tender, life-affirming triumph. * (12 & up)