2012 Week 1

I realize this is a week late. Apparently, my school reading is going to be a bit more time-consuming than expected this semester. I'll try to do better about posting over the weekend, but no guarantees.

Title: Hatchet
Author: Gary Paulsen
Publishing Date: 1987
Reason Read: required for YA Resources (previously read in 6th grade)
Awards: Newbery Honor 1988

I remember reading Hatchet for my 6th grade English class and hating it, so when it was on the syllabus for my YA Resources class, I cringed a bit, but decided that as an adult maybe I'd better enjoy the book. I was wrong.

The story of Brian, a thirteen year old who survives a plane crash after the pilot of the single-engine plane has a heart attack, has the potential to be captivating, but not enough details of Brian's civilian life are given. All we are told is that his parents are divorced, and Brian unwittingly was privy to the reason why: his mother's illicit affair. Additionally, the writing is extremely repetitive, using the same words and phrasing ad nauseum to the point where I questioned if Mr. Paulsen owned a thesaurus. I understand that the writing is meant to mimic Brian's thoughts, but I'd like to think that even a teenager lost in the wilderness is a bit more sophisticated than this.

Grade: C

Title: Annie on My Mind
Author: Nancy Garden
Publishing Date: 1982
Reason Read: required reading for YA Resources
Awards: N/A

The quintessential lesbian romance novel for young adults, Annie on My Mind tells the story of two New York girls, Annie and Liza, who have a chance meeting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The girls quickly become best friends, and the relationship evolves into something more.

Although this novel was written thirty years ago, it is still as poignant and believable today. While Annie has acknowledged that she is gay for some time, Liza's feelings are frightening and new, and she struggles to come to terms with them, as so many others do. And on top of the main romance plot, there is a major plot point involving two teachers at Liza's school who are lesbians and how the school administration reacts to this. While the acceptance of gays has certainly made strides since 1982, the events that unfold in this novel are still extremely plausible, especially in more conservative parts of the country. Highly recommended for any girl questioning her sexuality.

Grade: A

Title: Weetzie Bat
Author: Francesca Lia Block
Publishing Date: 1989
Reason Read: required reading for YA Resources
Awards: Phoenix Award 2009

Despite being only slightly longer than 100 pages, Weetzie Bat manages to cram non-traditional families, gay relationships, and AIDS in its plot without weakening it. Often described as a pop fairy tale, the story follows teenage Weetzie, her friend Dirk, and the life they build through the results of three wishes Weetzie makes via a genie in a magic lamp. I suppose it's a bit precious, but the writing is so ethereal and poetic, I found myself easily sucked into the story. My only real complaint is that more time is spent on surface details instead of building really deep characters, but that goes along with the fairy tale concept, as do the bizarre names (i.e. My Secret Agent Lover Man).

Grade: A-

Title: Monster
Author: Walter Dean Myers
Publishing Date: 1999
Reason Read: required reading for YA Resources
Awards: National Book Award finalist 1999, Printz Award 2000, Coretta Scott King Honor 2000

Written as a screenplay by the main character, Steven Harmon, Monster is a courtroom drama concerning a murder trial of a convenience store owner in New York City. While we are told that Steve served as a look-out of sorts, checking to see that no customers were in the store prior to the botched robbery, throughout the course of the trial, the defense tries to prove his innocence and save Steve from a life behind bars. A number of witnesses are criminals themselves, somewhat discrediting the case of the prosecution. And the entire trial both the jury and we the readers are left wondering if Steve is really innocent.

Given Steve's penchant for filmmaking, the screenplay concept is a nice touch. Had Mr. Myers chosen to write in a traditional format, the story easily could have become bogged down with legal jargon, but as a quick-moving screenplay, such terminology is dealt with much more easily. That the format fits the character so well is a credit to the author.

Grade: A

Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Publishing Date: 1999
Reason Read: required reading for YA Resources (previously read senior year of high school)
Awards: N/A

Maybe this was just something we did at my high school, but I remember reading Perks in my senior year and passing the copy around to people and having them leave comments in the margins. My own copy was just between my best friend (now husband) and myself, but I had friends who also did this with larger groups of friends. I think the epistolary format and confessional tone of the letters is conducive to this.

I think I'm a bit biased toward this book, not only because of how nostalgic it makes me feel, having grown up in the 90's and come of age soon after the millennium, but also because the book is set in the Greater Pittsburgh metro area. All the places that are mentioned in this book are familiar to me, so it ends up having a special place in my ya collection.

Despite this personal connection to Mr. Chbosky's novel, the issues presented, including homosexuality, teen pregnancy, and abuse are rather universal issues faced by teenagers everywhere, which is why it's such an appealing book. I truly feel that it's my generation's Catcher in the Rye.

Grade: A

Title: Gossip Girl
Author: Cecily von Ziegesar
Publishing Date: 2002
Reason Read: required reading for YA Resources
Awards: N/A

By far the worst book I've read in some time, Gossip Girl is about as mindless as I expected it to be. And while the writing is decent, at least if one likes the style used in gossip columns, what really irritated me was that the characters are almost described in terms of what brand-name they are wearing. If one has no concept of what a certain Prada dress looks like, he'll have little idea what to visualize.

Even worse than the lack of poetic description is the sheer lack of positive characters in the main cast. Nearly all of the major characters drink, smoke, and do recreational drugs. The only girl at the school that I can tolerate is the artistic misfit, Vanessa, but aside from attending a concert with the flighty Serena, she's a peripheral character at best.

I'm glad that these books are getting teens reading, I suppose, but there's so much wrong with them that I really worry about the negative influence the books could potentially have on young readers.

Grade: C-

Mowgli Meets Dracula and the Wolfman

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
Newbery Medal 2009, Carnegie Medal 2010

I first read this book back in October of 2009, long before I had this blog. Recently, I was assigned the audiobook version for a children's resources class, hence my post. While I will focus primarily on the plot and characters, I'd also like to speak a little of the book versus the audio version.

In the opening pages, the parents and sister of the main character (a baby boy) are murdered by the Man Jack, while the baby manages to escape to a nearby cemetery where he is promptly adopted by the Owenses, a married couple who died sometime in the 1800's. While the book chronicles the life of the boy (christened Nobody "Bod" Owens) through adolescence and his eventual confrontation with the Man Jack, the manner in which it is written is more akin to a series of vignettes than a traditional novel.

There have been complaints by some that the characters who populate the book, being ghosts, vampires, werewolves, etc., are inappropriate for the young readers at whom the novel is directed. However, it should be pointed out that these characters are all friends, teachers, and mentors to our young protagonist and that the entire work is also modeled upon The Jungle Books, in which a young boy is raised in the jungle by animals. Just as some animals intended Mowgli harm, but the majority looked after him, the majority of the supernatural characters here have Bod's best interests in mind.

As has come to be expected, Mr. Gaiman's writing is a brilliant marriage of Kipling's stories and characters with a modern setting and Mr. Gaiman's trademark wit. Regarding the audiobook, which is narrated by Mr. Gaiman, it has some nice additions, such as performances by Bela Fleck, and being read by the author himself provides perhaps the truest reading of the material. I personally prefer reading the book myself, however, as I found my attention wandering while listening to the audiobook for too long.

I read a year or two ago that a book focusing on Silas, Bod's mentor and the Bagheera character, was in the works, but I've not heard anything more about it. While I would certainly enjoy returning to Bod's world, this installment works perfectly on its own.

Grade: A

Brilliant World-Building

*I had written this before Christmas break, but I had no time to post while at my parents' house, and I've only just regained the Internet at my apartment. More books read in December should be posted soon.


The Earthsea Trilogy
by Ursula LeGuin
Consisting of: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore
Newbery Honor Book 1972 (The Tombs of Atuan)
National Book Award for Children's Books 1973 (The Farthest Shore)

Although called a trilogy, each of LeGuin's three novels can easily stand on its own, as there is little connecting the two, aside from the setting and the presence of the character Ged (the protagonist of the first novel). Themes of overcoming self, as well as darkness, are the only other similarities throughout.

The first installment, A Wizard of Earthsea, recounts the childhood and youth of Ged (better known as Sparrowhawk). Unlike the other two installments, which each focus on one major event of his career, this one reads more like an entry in a dusty tome of history, detailing only events that are important to Ged's later career. As such, there is little dialogue, internal or external, which makes it difficult for readers to relate or even care about Ged's exploits.

The main story thread concerns Ged's quest to rid the world of a shadow, which he unwittingly released when attempting an esoteric resurrection spell. Along the way, the cocky boy learns the value of humility and the beauty in simplicity, growing into an adult, as well.

The Tombs of Atuan, which focuses on the retrieval of an ancient ring, is the strongest of the three, I feel. As it spans the shortest amount of time (for the majority of the novel, anyway), it can dedicate time to character development that the other novels cannot. Because of this, I feel I know more about the priestess Tenar, who only appears in this installment, than I do about Ged. I don't want to fault LeGuin for this, as I think her intent was to create an interesting world and its history, not necessarily to create complex characters to inhabit it, and in that she succeeded magnificently.

The final installment is a good balance between the other two Earthsea books, as it permits the narrative to meander a bit while still attempting to develop the character of Arren, the young prince accompanying Ged to the end of the world. While both the third and first installments involve quests where the characters sail to the ends of the earth, due to its dependency upon a limited amount of time, The Farthest Shore is better able to present an entertaining adventure than its predecessor. The main theme of death is also handled well, though if I were more invested in the characters it would have had more impact.

As mentioned before, what LeGuin does beautifully is world-building. Her characters are simply vessels to transport the reader to the richly detailed worlds of her imagination, which can only be compared with Tolkien in terms of scope.

Series Grade: B+

The Magic of Knowledge

Enchantress from the Stars
by Sylvia Engdahl
Newbery Honor 1971

Long out of print and re-released at the beginning of the millennium, Engdahl's Enchantress from the Stars tells the story of Elana, a young woman studying to serve as a field agent in some intergalactic anthropological service. While traveling with her father and fiance (both also field agents), the three are ordered to intervene in the current affairs of a primitive planet called Andrecia, and when another agent traveling with the crew is killed by one of the colonists attempting to claim Andrecia as their own, Elana is asked by her father to aid in their plan.

As the existing civilizations of both the medieval Andrecians and their more advanced conquerors might collapse if they knew more advanced civilizations existed, the field service agents cannot allow themselves to be discovered by either group. Thus, the idea to present Elana as an enchantress is born.

Engdahl does a brilliant job juggling the three narrative strains throughout the book, each one having a distinctive voice. My personal favourite is that of Georyn and his brothers, which, as Andrecians, is written in a fairy tale style with Elana as an enchantress, her various scientific gadgets as magic, and the colonists' construction equipment as a dragon. The colonists are depicted as stereotypical spacemen with rayguns, though Jarel lends a bit of humanity to them as he begins to question their reasoning behind the colonization of this particular planet. And, finally, Elana's narrative, which is the primary one of the novel, is written as a field report.

This is a fairly sophisticated novel, which is likely why it is now categorized as YA (having been published in the 70s, there was no real distinction between children's and YA fiction at the time). Not only does Engdahl's narrative accurately portray the same events as interpreted by three disparate cultures, but it also asks challenging questions of its readers, such as if it's appropriate to guide the events of a particular civilization or if it's worthwhile to pursue knowledge if it will render one an outsider. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.

Grade: A+

The Dark Is Rising

The Dark Is Rising Cycle
by Susan Cooper
Consisting of: Over Seal, Under Stone; The Dark Is Rising; Greenwitch; The Grey King; and Silver on the Tree
Newbery Honor 1974 (The Dark Is Rising); Newbery Medal 1976 (The Grey King)

While this series had been recommended to me before, I finally was able to read it when it was chosen as my book club's July selection. Unfortunately, my apartment flooded the weekend right before the meeting, damaging the last three books, which I had borrowed from a friend, and I only just got around to finishing all of them a few days ago.

Overall, I found the series to be well-written, probably more so than other children's books of its time, as Cooper never simplified her writing or condescended to her audience, as some children's authors are wont to do. I must admit, though, that the first and final installments are probably the weakest of the cycle, as they don't seem to have the same human element or the sense of urgency that is present in the other three books.

In the first book of the series, Over Sea, Under Stone, we are introduced to three siblings on holiday in Cornwall and their eccentric "uncle" (in reality, a family friend, not a blood relation). The pace is a bit slow at first, and even after the quest for the Grail had begun, I don't believe my interest was firmly held until the appearance of the sinister vicar and his henchmen. I would say the last third or so of the book is captivating, but the rest is rather dull, and I can attest that some children to whom I read the opening chapter found it to be such.

The rest of the novels in the series beginning with The Dark Is Rising follow the protagonist Will Stanton, last of the Old Ones, though the Drew children do make an appearance in the third and final books, respectively. It is on Will's eleventh birthday that he discovers he is the last of the Old Ones, and we as readers are meant to learn about the Old Ones and their abilities through him. Unfortunately, Cooper explains very little about the origin of the Old Ones, or what they truly are, which is something that annoyed me while I completed the series. It is also never revealed why Will is the last, or why the Dark has chosen now to make its final stand.

The second through fourth books follow Will and his companions (Merriman, the Drews, and a Welsh boy named Bran) as they search for various artifacts(a harp, a sword, the Grail) that will prevent the Dark from rising. While the action should culminate in the final installment, I found it to be rather anti-climatic, and aside from the personal struggle of a Welshman with whom Will and Bran are acquainted, there was very little tension or emotional impact.

While I would recommend The Prydain Chronicles before The Dark Is Rising Cycle to anyone interested in Welsh inspired fantasy, the series was still intriguing and well-written, even if more exposition could have been given at times. Having read Alexander's work countless times since childhood, I have to admit I still cry at the end of The High King each time I read it, so let that be a testament to his ability to write lovable characters as opposed to Cooper, whose work is much more cerebral.

Series Grade: B