Going Bovine

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

It’s when I get a book like this that I wonder why on earth do I bother? Why am I wasting my time on this? Why don’t I just put it down and move on? And then I remember, I read so you don’t have to. At one point I asked a fellow librarian if it got any better. I was only half way through it. Sadly, she said no. Why did we both read it? It’s an Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee for 2012.

My coworker did give me a piece of advice. Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote is central to this novel. It would behoove a reader to reacquaint themselves with the classic first. It might make more sense. I just really don’t want to invest anymore time in it.

It took me far too long to get into a rhythm and care about the characters. Actually, I never did get into a rhythm and I never did care about the characters. It’s very hard to hear self-proclaimed geeks complain about the popular crowd when the hate is obviously mutual.

What you will find within the covers:

Drugs – Already in Chapter Two we are invited to follow the protagonist into the fourth floor bathroom of his high school where everyone knows the stoners hang out. I’m proving how beyond straight I am… It took several references to J before I realized they were smoking a joint. How naïve I am.

Alcohol – Underage drinking and partying are the norm. Think Spring Break and hopping rides with strangers.

Language – Horrific. Cringe-worthy.

Sex – Do I really want to be in the mind of a teenage boy? No, thank you. Multiple references to masturbation finally give way to the protagonist losing his virginity to the girl he lusts after. And then the same night he also has sex with the girl he loves. I suppose I could say, at least it’s not graphic.

Homosexuality – Because why wouldn’t we include that as well. I found it gratuitous. Didn’t see it as a part of the character. Certainly a surprise. Like it was thrown in at the last moment.

The art of literature might be in there somewhere. It vaguely reminds me of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineyard and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Both of which I found too confusing to appreciate despite how much my professors and teaching assistants wanted me to be amazed by the art. I’m just too put off by the blatant use of all things I want to protect my young daughters from. I can hear the arguments for and against this book. I can make both. I just don’t want my children to see this as acceptable behavior whether it is a dream, insanity, illness or reality. It’s starts little and harmless, of course.

So what is it about? Sixteen-year-old Cameron, a geek with a popular twin sister, is diagnosed with incurable, fatal, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which is better known as Mad Cow disease when diagnosed in cattle. Technically, holes form in the brain and it becomes spongy as infectious proteins attack healthy ones. As Cameron’s brain is attacked by these proteins, he spends more and more time in the land of dreams where he is given a mission by a punk angel in which he saves the world from dark matter and finds the cure for his ailment. In the process, he discovers that he would rather live loudly for a short while than continue to slack off and get nowhere in a long and uninteresting life.

Certainly potential for a great message, if you think living loudly includes stealing cars and money, doing drugs and having sex. Not recommended except for maybe a College-level literature class with a comparison between Bovine and Quixote.

Gone-Away Lake

Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

I’m not quite at liberty to say anything yet, but someone I know is moving to a new home, provided that all the paperwork goes through. Going somewhere new is not always an easy thing to do – especially if you have never known anything else. Sometimes, a little preparation is necessary.

I took my girls to the new house, and even though we couldn’t go inside, we could explore. The day was my kind of day, in other words, it was nasty out. The wind was blustery. The rain was cold and prickly. And we weren’t quite dressed appropriately. Probably should have brought galoshes… if we had them… and an umbrella.

The yard was soaked, slippery, squelching, but the treasures were abundant. The side yard is comprised of a steep descent followed by a long decline. We think – snow and sledding! The yard ends at a meandering “crik”. I’m calling it that and you cannot stop me. :P To the west is a “forest” of trees dressed for autumn. Someone else might see a difficult yard to mow. We see Terabithia.

Something had caught my eye at the top of the hill. I was just as excited as the girls. There was a branch hanging down, and if you went under it there was a path – definitely a path! – leading down the tree-covered hill. What would we discover at the end? We had to be careful. And we weren’t sure if we were allowed to be there. Were we trespassing? It was as if we had found Narnia and we were already making plans for the future. What’s at the end of the path? Friends or foes?

When I was little, I had the pasture lane on my grandparents’ farm. I even had the secret tunnels at church and later at the library. I should mention that the library tunnels were treasured when I was a young adult. I’ve never grown out of the need for a special, secret place to claim for my own. A new world to enter to escape the trials of this one.

This Newbery Honor book from the 1950s captures the classic longing children, (and apparently some adults,) have for a place of their own free of grownups. Portia and her little brother, Foster, spend their summers at their cousin’s farm. Portia and her cousin, Julian, are best friends and they always have plans for adventure, but this year is different.

Portia and Julian set off in a direction and, walking all day, cover more distance than they ever have before. They happen upon Gone-Away Lake – or rather, what’s left of it. And meet two elderly hermits who are living off of the spoils of the land. It is not a hardship. There used to be a well-to-do summer community that lived on the lake and Pindar and Minnehaha were once children who lived in these mansions that are now left vacant and decrepit. What they need, they take.

Uncle Pin and Aunt Min decide that the kids need a place of their own. The four of them pick out one of the safer houses still standing and the kids choose to clean up and decorate its attic. All that is left is to invite some friends and start a club. Up until then, Portia and Julian have kept everything a secret. Foster decides he wants in on the secret. Like a spy he follows them one day and nearly drowns in the swamp. He claims an island for his troubles.

Oh, the good old days. And the better, older days. There is action, adventure, wild stories, danger, freedom and even ghosts. The only fantasy is what the kids make in their own minds. If your child was born to the wrong time period, like I was, try this one from a quieter, safer time.

Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

I’ll start by saying, there is no question that this book will be read. The library ordered five copies for the Children’s Department and all five are checked out. This book’s predecessor, the Caldecott winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret, guarantees it. That book won the hearts of both girls and boys, lovers of literature and reluctant readers. And it opened up a whole new genre – “a novel in words and pictures.”

I finished the 600 plus page book over the course two days’ worth of stolen moments, breaks and lunch times at work. There are really that many pictures and that few words. With 26 days left to my “check-out period”, I promptly passed it off to my 6th grader with the words, “this was written by the same guy who wrote Hugo Cabret,” and she’s been lugging it around – it’s 2 pounds – ever since. Her 1st grade sister “read” the illustrations cover to cover on one trip to school.

They will probably appreciate it more than me. I was “wonderstruck” by Hugo Cabret. I read it during the Super Bowl the year it won the Caldecott. I gave a book talk to the guests present during the Half Time Show. I gushed. And gushed. And gushed some more. I am soooooo excited to see the movie being produced by Martin Scorsese. The setting and the subject matter enchanted me. If you haven’t at least glanced through it, you ought to try it.

I was completely sold on the new book by an article in the School Library Journal. (Hence the five copies.) I book talked the novel in advance. I was enamored of the background behind the story. The brilliance of the story’s foundation – that’s what captured my imagination.

(Even as I write, one of my eldest’s classmates has arrived to reserve his copy – because, of course, he saw hers! Glorious!)

I’ll make a long story short. Smirk. There are two stories in Wonderstruck. The first is set in 1927. The heroine is 12-year-old Rose and she is deaf. She is the daughter of divorced parents. Her mother is a famous Hollywood starlet and Rose lives with her overbearing father in Hoboken, NJ. But Rose can see the New York City skyline out her window and she longs to be there. Out of safety, her parents refuse to grant her wishes. This story is told entirely through pictures.

The second story is set in 1977 on Gunflint Lake, Minnesota. The protagonist of this story is a 12-year-old boy who has recently lost his mother to a fatal car accident and he has never known his father. Ben was born deaf in one ear. Just as he discovers clues to the identity and whereabouts of his father, he is struck completely deaf by a lightning strike. This story is told in prose. The two stories weave back and forth until they finally converge and the two characters meet.

In all honesty, I preferred the story behind the story.

I think it really comes down to our tastes. I preferred Hugo Cabret primarily because of the setting, Paris, France, and the topic, automatons, clockworks, the first moving pictures. I was entranced with the details and the machinery. I’ve never had a love for New York or a wish to go there. Museums of Natural History are not my cup of tea… unless they’re ancient. I appreciate Selnick’s passion for museums, librarys, literature, collections, and scaled models. I just don’t share a similar passion. So was I disappointed? Yeah. But it’s my fault, not his. He is an amazing artist.

My favorite part of the book is one particular attention to detail. The year is 1977. The characters enter the Subway and there is a movie poster hanging on the wall. STAR WARS! Page 528!

Time for Andrew

Time for Andrew by Mary Downing Hahn

The full title of this 1996 Caudill nominee is Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story. I am not alone in arguing that this is not a ghost story. There are no ghosts in this story. It would be more aptly called a Time Travel Story. Rest assured Mary Downing Hahn does not disappoint. The book is frightening in its own right, but you won’t be haunted.

Drew, short for Andrew, is going to spend a portion of his summer vacation with his Great Aunt Blythe while his parents travel to France for his father’s job. Drew adores his aunt, but he has never been to her home, the family home where Aunt Blythe lives with her elderly father. The house is ancient in Drew’s opinion and full of antiques. It is easy to imagine that ghosts walk the halls.

Drew is a timid, shy boy with a vivid imagination. Part of the reason he is staying with Blythe is so that he doesn’t have to face the school bully at summer camp. But there is a new bully to meet – Drew’s great grandfather. Every time they are put into the same room, the elderly gentleman calls Drew Andrew and tells him he doesn’t belong there and should leave. Blythe assumes that her father is senile and is very apologetic.

Drew finds comfort in the attic that can be reached from his bedroom. It is full of treasures. There are pictures of his ancestors and his aunt can tell stories to go with each. Quite accidentally, he discovers a loose floorboard and underneath he finds a bag of marbles. Instinctively, Drew knows they should be returned to their secret compartment. As if to back him up, a message warns “These marbles belong to ANDREW JOSEPH TYLER. If you take them you will be sorry.” But Aunt Blythe sees rare marbles that can be sold to maintain the property.

Then one evening, Drew finds another boy in his room – a very sick boy – who happens to be his doppelganger. It is Andrew. Not only does he dress differently, but he speaks differently as well. And he won’t last the night. He has diphtheria. Drew switches places with him hoping that modern medicine can save him. Before he hides in the attic, they switch clothes and Drew summons Blythe. Drew retreats to the attic only to return and discover himself in 1910 – remarkably, to Andrew’s family, recovered from a deathly illness.

Andrew and Drew may look identical, but that is where the similarities end. Andrew is rough and tough and mischievous to boot. Drew is uncertain how long he can pull off the charade. Luckily, Andrew’s family blames his absentmindedness on his recent illness. Drew is relieved to return to the present to switch with a healthy Andrew. Unfortunately, Andrew is scared to return to his own time. He’s afraid he will still die.

Andrew devises a plan. He will stay in the present until Drew can beat him at a game of marbles – Ringer to be exact. Since Drew has never played marbles, this seems an impossible bargain. But Andrew’s older sister, Hannah, taught Andrew to be a champion. She is happy to reteach/teach Drew. But time is running out. Drew is beginning to think and act like Andrew. And Cousin Edward has challenged him to jump off of the train trestle. Can he beat Andrew at his own game before he jumps to his likely death?

The ending is sweet. The book is warm. I hope Hahn’s fans have embraced this novel despite its misnomer. Excellent “spooky” story for kids 4th to 6th grade.

Miracle's Boys

Miracle's Boys by Jaqueline Woodson

The Coretta Scott King Book Award is presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Task Force of the American Library Association’s Ethnic Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT). Recipients are authors and illustrators of African descent whose distinguished books promote an understanding and appreciation of the “American Dream.”

I have been reading the Coretta Scott King Award winners and honor books as they have been announced for the last few years. I had always planned on going back and reading the past Coretta winners and honor books eventually. I thought perhaps I’d tackle them after the Newbery honor books – in other words in a few years. But I recently decided to intersperse them, now, with my Newbery honor books, Caudill nominees, Lincoln nominees and personal choices for primarily for greater diversity. Until now, I never mentioned what I was doing specifically because I have been enjoying the winners simply as novels. But then Miracle’s Boys threw me for a little loop. It won the award in 2001.

Here was an opportunity for me to learn more about the differences between cultures – startling, mind-boggling differences. Here is a bit of a set up. I am the oldest of three siblings. My sister, the next oldest, is ten years younger than me. Our brother, the youngest, is twelve years my junior. So when it was time for me to head to college and become independent at the ripe old age of eighteen, they were eight and six. Had something happened to our parents, I would have stayed in college and my aunt and uncle would have raised us with support from our grandparents. I know this for a fact. I wouldn’t even have considered dropping out to support my siblings. It would be more important to graduate college and perhaps later… I could do it.

In Miracle’s Boys, the oldest brother, Ty’ree, is eighteen and a high school graduate with a full scholarship to MIT. The middle brother, Charlie, is fifteen and newly home from two years spent at a correctional facility. The youngest brother, Lafayette, who is our narrator, is twelve. Before Lafayette was even born, the boys’ father died of hypothermia. He jumped into a frozen pond to save a woman and her dog that had fallen through the thin ice. When the book opens, it is a couple of years after the boys’ mother has also died of insulin shock. Even though their Great Aunt Cecile intended to take them home with her, the boys refuse. Ty’ree doesn’t go to college but takes on a full time job. Their plan is to keep the family together whatever the cost.

Until I began to concentrate on writing this review, I had forgotten about the phrase, “whose distinguished books promote an understanding and appreciation of the ‘American Dream’”. My idea of the American Dream would include Charlie and Lafayette going to live with Aunt Cecile and continuing their education while Ty’ree went to MIT. It is very hard for me to comprehend their alternative even though I love my family and depend upon my family and support my family. My dream includes adults with experience raising the children. And an 18-year-old still very much being a young adult in need of experience and skills…

This book was jarring to me. I could not imagine this scenario. I am not sure what to do with it. There are children out there living this scenario. Do they need to read about it? Who would I recommend it to? Hopefully, if the right patron ever presents himself, I’ll remember it.

Otherwise, there are limitations to the boys’ continued living circumstances. If Charlie gets into trouble again, he’s heading to a place far worse than the correctional facility for boys. And Lafayette WILL join Aunt Cecile in the South. And it could be too late for Ty’ree to attend MIT. So much is at stake here. Ty’ree is committed. Lafayette is committed. But Charlie is an unknown variable. Upon his return, he is so changed that Lafayette starts thinking of him as Newcharlie. And he wants the old Charlie back.

Each boy has certain fears and even demons that he must face. Ty’ree feels responsible for his dad’s death. Both Charlie and Lafayette feel responsible for their mom’s death. Before they can forgive each other and work as a team, they must find a way to forgive themselves and find some healing.

The Compound

The Compound by S. A. Bodeen

I’m quite surprised that it has taken me this long to write about The Compound. I read it voraciously in two days. I could not put it down. It put forth a new idea, or option rather, in my head. Dystopian Literature need not be epic or earth-shattering. In fact, a microcosm is an extraordinarily simple way to introduce apocalyptism (new word) to the reluctant reader.

So… for kids who are intrigued by the cult-following of books like The Hunger Games, but cannot or will not devote the time it takes to wade through three long novels, here is catastrophe in under 250 pages! The Compound is one of the Abraham Lincoln Award Nominees for 2012. Remember, this award is designed for high school-aged kids; however, there has been some cross-over. I think The Compound would work well for boys, 6^th through 8^th grade. Perhaps especially well for boys with sisters…

The protagonist is 15-year-old, “evil” twin, Eli. He acknowledges that he is the less likeable of the twins. Everybody loves Eddy and Eddy is everyone’s friend. Eli has always benefitted from his “twin” status with the beloved brother. Other kids put up with Eli – it is a two for one deal. But now, Eli is sealed off in the compound and his only brother and best friend didn’t make it. And it’s Eli’s fault Eddy was left outside to die in a nuclear attack.

Eli and the rest of his family have survived in the compound for six years. His billionaire father planned for every contingency. They had cows, chickens, a hydroponics lab, a research lab, a medical lab, exercise room, big screen TVs and every known DVD and book. The billionaire didn’t want his family to want for anything. They have a music room to practice their instruments. They have a studio to practice dance. They have a warehouse big enough to accommodate for fifteen years’ worth of food as well as a basketball court.

Unfortunately, there have been setbacks at every turn. Eddy’s job was to manage the garden, but since he’s gone, it’s Eli’s job to handle both the livestock and the garden. Poison killed the livestock eventually. The food is going bad before its time. And Eli’s father has a horrible plan for the continued survival of his family if the food runs out before the compound opens to the devastation left behind on the outside. Let’s call them The Supplements…

Each family member has dealt with their losses in different ways. Eli’s younger sister, Terese, who entered the compound when she was six, has never grown up. She watches Mary Poppins continually and speaks with a British accent. Lexie, Eli’s older, adopted sister, has turned on her mother and sided with her father. Eli has not allowed another person to touch him skin to skin since entering the compound and he hides behind a curtain of hair.

Eli doesn’t know how he can face another nine years in the compound. He enters his brother’s unused bedroom for the first time and discovers an old laptop – that still has wireless capabilities. And he makes contact, momentarily, with someone on the outside. Have they been living a lie? Has his father gone mad? Can Eli reenter “life” and save them all from the shadow life they have been living?

It is quite possible that a sequel could be in the works. It doesn’t need one though. It’s brief and perfect and clean in its own 245 pages. If you love a good mystery, this might even suffice.