Book 7: Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

And now this is why you don't finish books that are boring you. Because you could be reading Cosmic instead.

This was a recommendation from animouse to my husband, who tried it and didn't get into it. Which is a freakin' tragedy and I'm going to lean on him until he reads it. If the ending doesn't make him cry, nothing will. And if he doesn't laugh about a million times while reading it... well, I don't even know.

This is a love letter to dads, in the form of a story narrated by Liam, a 12 year old kid who's so big and scruffy, he's constantly mistaken for an adult. When he gets the chance to have an awesome adventure, for which he has to pretend to be a dad, it's too good to pass up. Liam is probably too young to have read Kurt Vonnegut, who warned us, "we are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be," but he learns the truth of those words. And he learns what it means to be a dad, which sometimes involves doing the hard thing.

It sounds like a book adults will love more than kids, but it's so incredibly funny, I can't imagine anyone not loving it. Except apparently my possibly certifiable husband. * (12 & up)

314 pages

Reading: 2 hours, 26 minutes
Blogging: 10 minutes
Networking: 3 minutes

Book 5: White Cat by Holly Black

White Cat by Holly Black. Simon & Schuster, 2010.

Another totally awesome book! Or perhaps, just because I don't read YA that often anymore, everything seems fresh and wonderful to me? And everyone else is going, oh not that same old tired story again.

Not that it's completely original. The plot is reminiscent of Diana Wynne Jones: an alternate universe very much like ours except for the existance of magic (feared and known as curse work,) with a protagnoist who's the one person in his family who isn't a curse "worker." In this world, laws against workers create organized crime, with curses as a metaphor for drugs, prostitution and so on. (Runaway workers kicked out by their families are preyed on the underworld; liberals are fighting against laws forcing people to take a test to reveal whether they're workers.)

I thought the world building was delightfully clever, with so many aspects of society and history shaped by curse work. Australia, for example, has no laws against curse working "because it was founded by curse workers [...] who'd been sent to a penal colony."

The narrator is seventeen-year-old Cassel, the non-worker from a family of workers, criminals and grifters. Cassel has conned his way into a prep school, where he desperately tries to pass for normal. (Not so desperately that he doesn't make book for all the other students, however.) But the painful secrets of his past and his family are about to catch up with him, in a big way.

Lies, betrayal, and a narrator constantly fighting his own nature make for a gut-wrenching read. I can't wait for the sequel. * (14 & up)

310 pages

Reading: 3 hours, 25 minutes
Blogging: 2 minutes
Networking: 12 minutes

Book 4: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan. Penguin, 2010

Okay, this is going to be one close race for my favorite book of the challenge. On a strictly critical level, Dramarama is probably the better book -- curiously enough, they have a number of similarities -- but WG, WG had me laughing an average of once a page, and we're talking 310 pages here. I could name a number of things that I disliked about it, but why bother when I loved it so much? So, so much fun and really touching, too. I don't think I've ever read a better collaboration. * (14 & up)

Book from the public library

310 pages
Reading time: 3hours, 12 minutes
Blogging time: 7 minutes
Networking: 3 minutes

Book 2: Dramarama by E. Lockhart

Dramarama by E. Lockhart. Hyperion, 2007

Every time I read one of Lockhart's books -- which is about once a year, around this same time -- I wonder why on earth I haven't read everything she's written. The desperately tired young-adult-fiction-book-with-snappy-first-person-narrator genre comes to life in her hands. (Though she's not so shabby with third person, either.) I'm so achingly grateful to read an original narrative voice that I'd probably have enjoyed this even if it wasn't filled with brilliant themes about friendship and reinventing identities and discovering ones place in the world, all in an exciting theatrical package. * (12 & up)

I'm two for two! How long can this wonderful streak last? I'm going to play it fairly safe with Franny Billingsley's Chime next.

311 pages

Reading: 2 hours, 18 minutes
Blogging: 8 minutes
Networking: 4 minutes

Poetry Friday -- review: Falling Down the Page

Falling Down the Page edited by Georgia Heard. Roaring Brook, 2009 (978-1-59643-220-8) $16.95

They say some people would be entertaining reading the phone book. Poems of lists don't sound very promising, but get the right poets and you have a wonderful concept and a wonderful collection. An excellent design doesn't hurt, either.

This is a smallish book--no illustrations, but it doesn't need them. Most of the poems run vertically/sideways, to feel more like reading a list; one is to be read bottom to top, one with four voices. The titles of the poems are all done in different styles, which adds some visual variety: for example, "What is Earth?" by J. Patrick Lewis and "Spinners" by Marilyn Singer are both appropriately round, while "In My Desk" by Jane Yolen is scattered down the side of the page in a a random feeling way and "Creativity" by Eileen Spinelli has leaning and upside down letters. The design adds to the poems without taking attention away from them.

I love how the poems takes a theme that may seem mundane--the contents of a desk, rocks, clay--and find... well, poetry, in them. Thought, sound, imagery, meaning. It's hard to pick one poem to showcase, because I liked each one better than the last. But since it's Poetry Friday, I'll go with this one:

Why Poetry by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Why poety?
Why?

Why sunsets?
Why trees?

Why birds?
Why seas?

Why you?
Why me?

Why friends?
Why families?

Why laugh?
Why cry?

Why hello?
Why good-bye?

Why poetry?

That's why!

If you love poetry, put checking out this book on your things to do list. * (6 & up)


© 2010 Wendy E. Betts

FTC disclosure: Review copy provided by the publisher. This blog is completely independent, but I receive a small percentage if you order books from Powell's via this site.