Miss Peregrine's home for Peculiar Children

Author: Ransom Riggs
Ages: Teen
Rating: 5/5

About: A boy like other boys, grows up hearing stories from his grandfather. These stories are magical and some are a little bit scary. But as the boy grows up, he also grows out of the stories. Until one day the stories return, too real and very frightening.

Thoughts: This book had a creepiness factor that I loved. It hovered over the line of creepy suspenseful and creepy nightmarish. But I didn't get nightmares, and I had fun being teased with mystery and magic... or rather peculiarity.

I'm not sure if this will be turned into a series. The ending is certainly open enough that I wouldn't be surprised, but I felt satisfied enough by the forward momentum of the characters.

The photograph inserts in this book were a treat, and really made this story something special. I was fascinated with the end notes where the author writes about his encounters with the collectors of peculiar photographs. An interesting world of treasure hunting I never knew about before.

The Alchemyst

Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Author: Michael Scott
Ages: 12+
Rating: 4/5

About: Josh and Sophie both got summer jobs in San Francisco, Josh at a bookshop and Sophie at a coffee shop across the street, with the aim to save up and buy a car. But their summer goals very quickly change when they get mixed up in a centuries long battle with immortals they thought only existed in myths and legends.

Thoughts: I listened to this on Audio book, and really liked the narrator -Denis O'Hare. He did great voices for all the characters, including different accents.

This was a good adventure, and I quite enjoyed the way that the author wove history in with the story. This book ended with a straight lead in to the second, which I picked up right away, I was so into it.

I was disappointed that the second audio book has a different narrator. It really threw the story off in my mind and stopped listening to it. When I come back to the series I will read them instead.

Octavia Boone's Big Questions

About Life, the Universe and Everything

Author: Rebecca Rupp
Ages: 9+
Rating: 4/5

The book: Octavia's life is fun and interesting with her free spirited parents. They've brought her up to ask questions about everything and not to believe everything she's told. But life gets a lot more complicated when her mom joins a religious group that Octavia and her father don't understand.

Thoughts: This was a book with big questions as the title tells us. Octavia is resistant to her mother's interest in The Redeemers, and becomes increasingly worried as her mother drifts farther away from her family and seems to forsake the values she raised Octavia with. The people in her mom's new faith community are essentially good people, though Octavia is not shy about voicing her questions, confusion and often her frustration with the paradoxes the parishioners teach and the experience of life.

I liked that through the book Octavia though she is distrustful of The Redeemers, she is respectful of the religions and faiths of her friends and generally regards religion with curiosity -even if she doesn't really "buy" any of it.

Octavia has a logical and kind of scientific way of thinking about things. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be explained by her early admission that she has a sensory processing disorder where words for her have their own colours and smells. While this certainly added an interesting aspect to her perspectives, I'm not sure I understand the larger use of this detail for the story -if there is one.

Overall a good thoughtful book, with a realistic end. I would recommend this for a mature reader as the subject seems a bit heavy (it made me cry a little bit).

The Cellist of Sarajevo

Thoughts on the book:
This is not a book I normally would have chosen to read, but I did enjoy it.
I was in elementary school in rural Alberta during this time, so I really had no notion about what was going on or what the seige of Sarajevo was about.

I thought it was interesting that the author never really said who “the men in the hills” were. Some how the author was able to steer pretty clear of the politics of what the war was about. Someone from the audience asked him about this. His response was in two parts. On the one hand he didn’t want to take sides in the politics o of a world he was not really apart of, and besides, the story was about the civilians and not the men in the hills. And on the other hand he felt it would be far too difficult to try to explain the politics of the war and not have that take over what he wanted the novel to be about. He has had people congratulate him for this choice, but also has received some very angry responses from people who feel that by not naming them he is protecting or removing some blame for what happened.

I felt that I really responded to Arrow’s storyline as well. She won me over in the sequence where she is reminiscing about being so in love with life that it overcame her and brought her to tears.

Another comment from the audience came from a woman who was upset that Galloway would kill Arrow’s character. And while I was a little disappointed too, I think that seemed the most appropriate ending for her. From a woman who was brought to tears my the beauty of life, to a woman who was transformed into a weapon who ended other people’s life, I don’t think that she could have returned to the person she was before the war. Certainly nobody would be the same, but in becoming a killing machine, no matter how much she tried to separate that person from her past self she could never go back to that person. And in the end I think it came down to that ultimately she didn’t believe that the longer she lived the smaller the chance became that she would be able to hang on to the person she used to be.

I also think that considering how strongly she felt about allowing somebody else to choose when she would “dive into a grave,” it was important that her character choose when the end of her life would be. If Arrow and lived, she would have had to escape the city, and I don’t think I would believe that she would abandon the city in such a way.

I especially think that it is an interesting way to show how brave she was in comparison with the other two characters who were so afraid to die -and yet how she was also more scared. Kenan and Dragan lived their lives in complete fear and struggled to survive because they were afraid to die. And yet they did also have hope that there would be something to rebuild when the war was over. Arrow decided she had to die because she had no hope that she herself could recover from the war. So she was brave in that she was not afraid to fight (in the war sense) and die, and she was too proud in a way to allow anyone else to take her life from her. And yet more scared than the other two because she couldn’t wait or believe that life could return.

Notes on Stephen Galloway's Talk

The author Stephen Galloway gave a talk about his book and answered a few questions about it for the One Book One Calgary launch on November 4th.

He started talking about what inspired him to write this story, there were two things.

First, it was this photo, which he came across in 1992 in the New York Times. This is the actual photo of a man named Vedran Smailovic. He is the cellist who played the Adagio for as long as he could after 22 people whose city and lives were deteriorating around them, were killed while trying to buy bread one afternoon.

Second, he was inspired to write the story after 9/11, when governments were talking about the merits of going into Iraq and Afghanistan. He was thinking about the fact that the majority of casualties in war are civilians. And so he wanted to write about the people in a war who are “not in the business of war.”
So, who are those people? What did he have to say about them?

Arrow: He wanted her storyline to be about “the abdication of hatred.” Arrow is very concerned with the hatred inside of her and where it came from. She used to think (I don’t remember where she talks about this as I don’t have the book with me anymore, but I think its around where she shoots the sniper while protecting the cellist) that you could hate somebody because of their actions. If they hurt you in a substantial way, say because they killed someone, then you could hate them. But then shoots the sniper, even though she had determined that he had no intention of killing the cellist. Why did she do that? She can justify it to herself that she didn’t have a choice because he could have chosen to after the music stopped or on a different day, but I don’t think she really believes that. I don’t have notes on how the vein of thinking went exactly… but Galloway uses Arrow’s character to show how something like the seige of Sarajevo happens. By allowing other people’s hate and rage to dictate our own hate and rage, we are abdicating our response (or free will).

Kenan and Dragan: Are to show the role artistic expression and engagement play in humanity and civilisation. As the city around them degrades and collapses, signs of civilization fall away. Kenan talks about how he thought that the tram was a sign of civilization, and how as long as the tram was working they would be okay. But then it stopped. Dragan talkes about how the ashes of the library fell down on the city for days like black snow. So what was left of civilisation? The cellist in the street sharing his art.

Galloway talked about how he sees civilisation as an agreed upon way to act and interact. In the famous photograph of the cellist, we see that somebody has not held up their part of the agreement. Art remains when government and laws fall away, and so really isn’t ART the truest sign of civilisation?

Interesting: The book is “constructed” like a trio sonata (which is not the same as an adagio). Arrow’s storyline is the melody, and Kenan and Dragan are the bass line.

Favorite thing he said… “A book is a template for an imaginative experience.” Which made me chuckle a bit because Marc had posted this webcomic on my Facebook wall just the day before.

One Book, One Calgary

The city of Calgary is doing a neat community initiative. They are trying to get everyone in the city to read one book. This way if you see somebody else reading it on the bus or in a coffee shop, you can approach that person and start a discussion. Community building with books at the heart -what a dream!

Below is a summary of the book taken from Calgary's website about it. Check out Calgary’s Website about ONE BOOK ONE CALGARY http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/one-book-one-calgary

About the Book:
The Cellist of Sarajevo is a haunting novel with universal resonance. It tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in their midst.
One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills 22 people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the 22 victims.

The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope.

Incarceron

Author: Catherine Fisher
Ages: 14+ (for language)
Rating: 3/5

About: Incarceron is a prison intended to evolve into a paradise. It was an experiment that went horribly wrong.

Thoughts: I have mixed feelings about this book. I mostly enjoyed reading it, though it got overly complicated and drawn out towards the end. The main character Finn spends so much time thinking about himself and wondering who he is, that his lack of character growth is a pretty big annoyance for me. I wasn't very fond of Claudia either, despite the amount of time the author put into showing the stress of Claudia's double life on her identity. And ultimately she also was solely preoccupied with herself -hang the consequences that might mean for anyone else.

All along the journey was the threat that their trials may all be for nothing. This is definitely where most of the suspense comes from, sharing the characters' fears that Sapphique really is a legend and that he never did escape Incarceron. I did kind of like the dialogue of hope and faith between the characters on what they believed and why, especially since the journey through Incarceron was based on this legend. I like the ideas that Fisher had for the journey sequence, but overall I think it dragged on a bit too long.

What I liked about this novel was the main idea structure for the story. That outside Incarceron peace and perfection are tried to be achieved by stepping back in time to an idealized past. And yet, there are cheaters everywhere sneaking technology making it clear for the reader that a far more advanced technology exists in this world. On that note, I quite liked the reveal about the truth of Incarceron and where it is...

Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians

Author: Brandon Sanderson
Ages: 9 and up
Rating: 3.5/5

About: Can you imagine a hero who will save civilization with a special talent... a talent for breaking things? Alcatraz is a boy that nobody seems to want. He is transferred from foster home to foster home because he has a habit of breaking things. He doesn't break things on purpose, he just has a talent for it. At least that's what he is told by the mysterious old man who claims to be Alcatraz's grandfather, and who tells Alcatraz that it's up to them to save civilization!

Thoughts:
During a staff special (staff choice) for the summer reading game, a 10-ish year old boy enthusiastically told me that this was one of his favorite books. I recommended him a book, and he asked if he could recommend me one too, I accepted.

This book was pretty funny. Especially as a librarian, I thought it was great that the bad guys were EVIL librarians (librarians who withhold information!) The story was a fast paced adventure, mostly.

The author (or Alcatraz) introduces each chapter with a witty commentary about the events that just happened, or to tell us something he feels we must know, or just to comment in general about his life or the book. I thought they were interesting and funny at first, but was definitely annoyed by the mid-point in the story. These breaks in the story made action less exciting, and really disjointed the pacing. I ended up skipping over these parts for the last 3/4 of the book, and really didn't feel like I missed anything and actually enjoyed the story a little better after I made that decision.

The ending was so clever I giggled to myself, and made me think quite well of this book. I'll probably check out the rest of this series over the fall/winter.

The Search for WondLa

Author: Tony DiTerlizzi
Ages: 9 and up
Rating: 4/5

About: Eva Nine has grown-up under ground, in a place called the Sanctuary. Her mother is a robot, who is training Eva in survival skills. But the world above ground is full of dangers neither Eva or Muthr can prepare for.

Thoughts: This is a fun new fantasy book. The adventure takes Eva all around a bizarre world, a world that she needs to find her place in. I liked reading about all the different animals on the surface, and the wandering forest was cool. But I would have liked to learn a little more about Rovender, and the colonization of the planet Urth.

The answers Eva gets at the end of the novel are a surprising, though not very satisfying. But it looks like there will be another book to follow this one, and I will definitely read it to find out what happened to Eva's people, and how she'll make her way in the... universe maybe?!

Boneshaker

Author: Cherie Priest
Ages: Adult, good for Teens too
Rating: 4/5

Summary: Briar and her son are outcasts. Years ago, while she was pregnant and didn't know it yet, her husband created a terrible machine that undermined a whole city and unleashed a toxic gas. Now that city has been walled up, the gas trapped within along with those who were unable to evacuate in time. And since her husband cannot be found, many feel Briar should be held accountable. Tired of the injustice, her son sets out into the old toxic city to find answers. But he can't know what dangers lie inside the wall, and soon Briar must go after him.

Thoughts: This was a great adventure story. An abandoned city, a secret community, airships, zombies, heroes and bad guys... I had fun reading this one. Honestly I was worried about the zombies, but though they are an ever present threat, the story is not about zombies.

Carbon Diaries

Author: Saci Lloyd
Ages: 15+
Rating: 3.5/5

Summary: In the year 2015, after some horrific storms have swept the world and left the UK particularly vulnerable, many governments begin talking about carbon rationing. The UK has volunteered itself for the experiement, hoping to cut down on their carbon emmissions by 60% immediately. This means that every citizens' usage is monitored closely by the government. Laura Brown writes about how the carbon rationing experiment is affecting her daily life at home and in school, and how it affects her garage band and her dating.

Thoughts: I was definitely intrigued by the idea for this book. The weirdest part while reading it, was that I kept thinking that this novel was a story about the future. Sure 2015 is the future, but it is a future that is right on our doorstep!

The steps Laura's government take are drastic, but the situation is dire as we see throughout the year in her diary. The weather is wild and unpredictable. And the people are wild and unpredictable, as would likely be any citizens put under such stress.

The events in the novel seem pretty realistic, even if it is all a little didactic. But the situation really is a learning experience for everyone so it kind of works. It is an interesting look at a very possible near future, and makes me want to start composting. And yet this seems like the kind of book that a teacher could recommend with moderate success, rather than the type of book a teen would recommend to a friend.

Note: This novel is written in UK English so some of the language is a little confusing, but there is a translation glossary at the back of the novel.

Children make Terrible Pets

Author: Peter Brown
Age: 3-6
Rating: 5/5

About: A bear finds a boy in the woods and takes him home to be her pet. But her mother warns her that Children make terrible pets.

Thoughts: I read this in storytime to my group of 3 year olds, and they hung off every word. Right from the start, they were smiling. They especially seemed to like that the boy-pet makes "squeak" sounds instead of talking like they would have expected. During the story the boy goes missing and at this part when I looked up they all looked worried. One little girl had a full frown and looked like she was about to cry! Luckily all turns out well for the bear and her boy.

This story has a moral ending, but if you turn one more page past the end of the text, you'll wonder if the spunky little bear has learned anything at all.

*Peter Brown also wrote The Curious Garden which I love, but have never read in a storytime. The Curious Garden is about a boy who cultivates a small garden on some abandoned train tracks in an industrial city. It's awesome.

Saint Training

Author: Elizabeth Fixmer
Age: 12+
Rating: 4/5

About: Mary Clare O'Brien has made a bargain with God. If he helps her mother regain her faith, her father to make more money, and her brothers not be drafted for the Vietnam war, she will become a Saint. But being good is more difficult than she thought, and she's not even sure if God has accepted her bargain. How will can she know for sure?

Thoughts: There is a lot going on in this book. It takes place in the year 1967, there are major changes happening in the Catholic church, feminism is taking off, the Vietnam war is in full swing and the black liberation movement is making headlines. On top of all this, her mother is pregnant with another child (9 kids already), her family is having trouble paying the bills and she gets her first period!

While that is quite a long list of major events to cram into 233 pages, the story doesn't seem unrealistic. Mary Clare is the eldest daughter in her family, and it is up to her to help her mother look after the younger children and help out around the house. Mary Clare also seems acutely aware of the troubles in the house and feels a sense of responsibility for helping out with those too (i.e. her mother's depression and loss of faith, and some of the family bills), all the while trying her best to be good enough to be accepted early into a convent so that she can become God's bride before she "starts liking boys too much (p.8).

Mary Clare is a headstrong girl who's efforts made me want to give her hugs and cry. She's going through so much, and everyone expects so much from her! She's doing her best, but it doesn't always turn out the way she expects. And she has LOTS of questions. Luckily she's been writing to the Mother Superior of a convent she hopes to join, and the Mother gives her some steady-ing advice. The letters between Mary Clare and the Mother were some of my favorite parts of the novel.

The story spans one year, from September to September, and Mary Clare changes a lot in that time. Something the heroine/author made a point of acknowledging, and I enjoyed reading about her certainty to confusion to learning as she grew.

Didn't Like: The story flowed oddly sometimes. Perhaps nearing her page quota, the author seems to realize she still had story elements she wanted to include and had to think of ways to cover up a lapse in time. Several months would suddenly have dissolved without me being aware.
Other times the story seemed to pick up halfway through a situation and I would be confused thinking I must of skipped a few pages. Not finding it, I would continue reading and that way find out the missing information a few pages later. This was distracting from the overall flow of the story.

Grade 5 Summer Booklist!

The books I will be promoting at schools across the city are:

The Danger Box by Blue Balliet
Trackers: Book one by Patrick Carman
We the Children by Andrew Clements
The Secret Science Alliance and the Copy Cat crook by Eleanor Davis
The Courageous Princess by Rod Espinosa
Ancient Strange and Lovely by Susan Fletcher
White Crane by Sandy Fussell
Boom! by Marc Haddon
Archvillain by Barry Lyga
Cyberia by Chris Lynch
The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull
Best Friends Forever: A World War 2 Scrapbook by Beverly Patt
Masters of Disaster by Gary Paulsen
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place by Mayrose Wood

And now I've got to finish reading all of them and write annotations and practice sharing them so that it takes about 10 minutes! Of my initial goal... I've actually only fully read 5 of the books on my list (and 2 of them are graphic novels!)

Ones that I think will be particularly popular are, Trackers by Patrick Carman and Archvillain by Barry Lyga.

Trackers is an intense hi-tech mystery, where a group of talented teens have to outwit a dangerous computer hacker. There is an online component to this novel that makes reading this book more of an interactive experience. This is also a book that probably will be out-dated in just a few years due to how fast technology is changing.

And Archvillain is kind of a superman story but told by a boy who, despite his efforts to be the hero, somehow becomes an archvillain!

Reading update

It's been a little while since my last post, but I have still been reading. A lot. As part of a New Year's resolution my mom-in-law proposed a book club for the ladies in our family. Much of my Read and Response efforts have been focused at anoveltea for the last few weeks.
We've recently read and talked about:
Dianne Warren's Cool Water and
Johanna Skibsrud's The Sentimentalists

I have also been focusing on developing a summer reading list for Grade 5 students. The library I work at puts on a summer reading game for students who have finished grades 1-6 each year. We visit all the schools in the city telling them about the game and booktalking a few suggestions. Last year I visited the grade 4s, but someone else chose the books. This year I get to make-up my own list. I need 12-15 books for my list, and so far have chosen 4. These books don't take long to get through, but I want to choose books that will get the kids excited to come to the library and check these books out. The library will order an extra 3-5 copies of each book I choose, so I also want to make sure that the extra funds for this project are worth it. Plus, if I have to talk about books to a group of grade 5 who are beginning to believe reading isn't cool -well, I have a responsibility to let them know about some great books.

I have also been on my honeymoon! We went to the province of Samana in the Dominican Republic. We spent loads of time on the beach (and didn't get sunburns!), we saw wild dolphins within arms reach of our motor boat, and we made some cool pals. Of course we read a lot (Alan Bradley's The Weed that Strings the Hangman's bag), and spent a lot of quality time together. My first full day back at work, I sure missed my husband.

It's a busy time, and while I haven't been updating here, I do often update my goodreads account.

What time is it Mr. Crocodile

Title: What time is Mr. Crocodile
Author: Judy Sierra
Illustrator: Doug Cushman
Ages: 2-3

Summary: Mr. Crocodile plans out his day, he will brush his teeth, visit the library, catch some pesky monkeys, cook some pesky monkeys and eat those pesky monkeys! Luckily for the monkeys, things don't go quite as planned.

How it went:
I did this with my two-s and they were enthralled. All three groups loved it. In two of the groups the majority of the kids stretched out on their tummies to watch the pictures.

The repetition of "What time is Mr. Crocodile" got their attention every time, and the rhyming made them smile.

I preceded this book with the fingerplay "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed," which made them giggle at the end when the monkeys bugging Mr. Crocodile were jumping on his bed.

*This might be a good book to learn how to tell time, as Mr. Crocodile plans his day pretty precisely, and the passage of time is evident throughout the story.

Shoo Fly

This is not a book, but a song/dance that I've been doing with my Twos for the last week in honour of Valentine's day. We all stand in a circle -me, the twos and moms/grandmas/dad. Then moving in one direction we walk while singing

"Shoo fly, don't bother me.
Shoo fly, don't bother me.
Shoo fly, don't bother me,
'Cause I belong to somebody."

Then comes the really fun part. Still all holding hands we walk to the centre of the circle till we're comfortably close and squished. While we walk into the circle and then out again, we sing..

"I feel, I feel, I feel like a morning star.
I feel, I feel, I fell like a morning star."

We do this about 3 times. I'm often nervous about doing action things too long, because it seems like after the 3rd time somebody always trips or gets bonked and then there's crying. That said, if I do three times I'll warn everyone that this will be the last one, and then we do one more.

I've been loving this one because it gets the kids moving, it gets them smiling and interacting not only with me but with eachother (even the shy ones), and it gives me a chance to connect with them more. I get to hold a little one's hand, and when we're in the centre singing about being morning stars I can make eye contact with a few kids at once -and we all share a few nice moments together.

I didn't think of this on my own. I went to a class led by Jane Cobb, a Vancouver Librarian, who introduced me to a lot of wonderful songs and rhymes. It gave me some great ideas, and I think my programs have been a lot more fun since I attended. One of the best things I came away with was that, it's okay if I repeat songs and rhymes with a group throughout a storytime session of six weeks because the kids will feel proud and more comfortable if they recognize some of the songs. This is great for me too since I already have trouble remembering words to songs! I do try to vary it though, by adding shaker eggs or silk scarves -Which they LOVE.

Jane Cobb has two books out that I use as resources quite frequently. They are:

I'm a Little Teapot!: Presenting Preschool Storytime
and
What'll I do with the Baby-O? Nursery Rhymes, songs, and stories for babies

Jellicoe Road

Author: Melina Marchetta
Ages: 15+
Rating: 3.5/5

About: When she was eleven, Taylor's mother abandoned her at a 7/11. Since that time she's grown up at the Jellicoe boarding school, and she doesn't let anyone get close enough to her to abandon her. Or so she thought until her closest teacher mysteriously disappears.

Thoughts: I was recommended this novel by a fellow librarian who said it was "one of those novels that doesn't go out as often as it should." Now, after reading it, I think I can see why.

I felt confused when I started reading. The prologue occurs 20-some years before the start of the novel, and then there are italicized paragraphs interspersed throughout the story and I wasn't sure how it was all supposed to fit together. We shortly learn that the italicized sections are part of a manuscript the missing teacher has written, and which the heroine Taylor is reading. As I continued reading, the manuscript sections quickly became some of my favorite parts of the story -it is a beautiful and tragic story.

I also didn't like Taylor for most of the novel. She is mean and surly, an apparent shield that helps prevent her from getting too close to anyone who may abandon her again. Taylor has experienced more hurt than most of the kids at her boarding school, and the tragedy in her life seemed too unbelievable as I was reading it. Then we see Taylor starting to trust people and take responsibility for how she chooses to deal with everything, and all of a sudden I'm rooting for her -just like everyone else.

As the story progresses the pieces come together, the story gets more intriguing and partway through the book, the confusing start begins to take shape and have greater meaning. And I then I was hooked. Overall, a good story about a girl growing up and understanding her identity and her place in the world.

This is a book I would recommend for mature teen readers who would have the patience to continue reading through the slow start, or for adults who enjoy teen books.

Against the odds

Author: Marjolin Hof
Ages: 9-12
Rating: 5/5

About: Kiki's father is a doctor who has a passion for helping others in war torn countries, much to Kiki's dismay. She worries about stray bullets and illness, until her mother explains to Kiki about odds -The odds of a little girl having a father are high, while the odds of a little girl not having a father are low. But when her father goes missing, Kiki takes it upon herself to raise the odds in her father's favour. She begins this thought with the idea that the odds are quite low for a little girl to lose her pet dog and her father. And she doesn't much like her pet dog anyway.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this little novel. It was quirky and made me laugh, but at the same time it made me want to cry. This little girl was so stressed out about her father being missing she contemplates murdering her dog if it means that her father would come home safe. It was interesting to read about Kiki's logic and her feelings watching her mother and grandmother deal with her missing father, all while trying to sort out her own feelings. I liked how forthcoming Kiki was with the reader about her worries and anxiety. And I liked the rapport that Kiki had with her father and mother, it was endearing and made me root for the family's happiness all the more.

I think that this would be an important book for kids to read if they have parents going away to war or if a child has high stress about parents going away from them. The author addresses not only a child's anxiety about what could go wrong, but what happens when a parent is missing or becomes wounded while away. A lot of changes go on in that time. Kiki sees her grandmother unable to handle the stress; Kiki doesn't like being around her best friend, and she doesn't want to go to school; Kiki experiences thoughts and acts out in ways that surprise her. But throughout the novel Kiki's mother loves her, and she knows her father loves her too, and knowing this helps Kiki to deal with everything.

Secrets of the Cicada Summer

Author: Andrea Beaty
Ages: 9-12
Rating: 3/5

About: Lily has not spoken in two years. Most of the people in her small town believe she's been brain damaged by an accident, and Lily is content for them to continue thinking so, because it means they don't ask her questions about that night. She spends her time reading Nancy Drew novels and observing the goings-on of her neighbors. Until a new girl moves to town and threatens to ruin Lily's carefully built disguise.

Thoughts: I really liked the way the story unfolded, with sections about what's happening in the present and sections that are clearly her memories. This method of pacing really helps us come to the truth of what happened in that serious accident two years prior and in a way that prepares the reader for the shock of the accident, with great timing for Lily's recovery. I also enjoyed reading about Lily's favorite parts of her life because even though her life is far from perfect, the way she describes them makes me wish they were part of my life too.

The back matter of the paperback edition lead me to believe a good mystery is brewing, and that Lily is the perfect person to figure it out. The author does make a specific point of showing how observant Lily is, and she does turn out to be the perfect person to find Tinny when she goes missing. But overall the mystery part of the story was kind of lame.

Read-a-like: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

Fever Crumb

Author: Philip Reeve
Ages: 13+
Rating: 3/5

About: Fever is a girl who was raised to be an engineer in a future version of London, England even though females are not considered to be capable of rational thought. But Fever is proving to be a strong apprentice, until she starts getting vivid images in her mind, memories that are not her own.

Thoughts: I was pretty disappointed by this novel. It seemed like such a neat idea, and the reading was pretty exciting for about the first half of the book. I kept expecting something great to happen, something intriguing or jarring, but the story just flat-lined.
Part of my dis-interest may have come from the character of Fever. She was brought up by engineers who believed that people ought to be rational above all else. Showing emotion was not rational. So Fever shows very little emotion throughout the novel, and always came up with rational explanations for everything. Both of these tendencies made her character uninteresting. When she could have been moving the plot forward and being an instrument in her own fate, she would brush off odd occurrences with the simplest and most logical explanation (which was often the wrong one), and instead of forming bonds with the characters around her she thought them irrational and would concentrate on the sequence of pi. So all the work to make the story interesting fell to supporting characters and a lot of running around (literally).
Overall it was a fun read, but it didn't meet my expectations for a great or memorable story.

2000-2010

At the start of this year, I began thinking about the close of an exciting first decade of the new millennium. I made a list of memorable events, and while reflecting on it, I realized that I didn't put down "renewed love of reading." It may not seem huge at first, but it is something that I made a concerted effort to get into -and my love just grew from there. I was in the 10th grade in 2000, and I've read some pretty amazing books since then. So I've made a list, 10 books for 10 years.

The first few that really got me going were:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird -by Harper Lee
Historical Fiction
We read this in the 10th grade I read it over Christmas break. I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed this heavy subject, and a little more surprised to find that I did quite well when I was tested on it a few weeks later.

2. Harry Potter -by J.K. Rowling
Fantasy
This might be where I discovered that maybe it was okay to still read childrens' novels even though I was in high school. I was babysitting three boys, who were finally giving me a break and watching t.v. But the show was so awful I picked up the closest book on the coffee table and started reading it. It was The Chamber of Secrets and I might not have even finished it, but I babysat these kids all summer. When the book ended I picked up the other copy they owned, which was The Philosopher's stone. I realized it was a series, and the rest is a magical history!

3. The Chrysalids -by John Wyndham
Science-fiction
I started reading this one because it was lying on the kitchen counter and I was bored. One of my younger siblings was supposed to be reading it in school, but neither seemed to want to admit it was theirs. I was jealous because this novel looked interesting and my school seemed to assign us books about the same subject every year (racism in South Africa or Southern US).
This novel was totally different from any that I'd read before, and I think it was the start of my interest in Dystopia.

4. The Lord of the Rings -by J.R.R. Tolkien
Fantasy
Partway through the 12th grade I went to Chapters and told a sales person that I wanted to try reading some classic books that everyone should read. I had been looking at this series because it was on sale and the cover looked neat. When the clerk recommended I read The Hobbit first, I almost abandoned them. I thought The Hobbit was about rabbits that kill eachother, and I'd seen that movie and was not interested! (Turns out I was thinking about Watership Down which I've still not raised the courage for).
I read The Hobbit, and was super bored. It was only while I was thinking about it afterwards, that I realized it was full of action that I thought I might check out The Lord of the Rings. The lengthy descriptions would have turned me off again, except that having started the story I couldn't not finish it.
Lucky for me, since I love the heart in these books and the way the choice of words makes pictures and stories in my imagination.

5. Fifth Business -by Robertson Davies
Fiction/
This one I borrowed from a friend, partly because it was Canadian and partly because I thought I would look smart reading it. Again I got lucky, and loved the story. It is really this novel, which I read after I graduated and before I even applied to post-secondary, that convinced me I actually liked reading. This novel made me think about how lives are intertwined, and how we all affect eachother, and how symbols and literature are one way of interpreting and dealing with the mess of experiences in life.

These first five books brought me from 2000-2004. They weren't the only things I read in that time, but almost. I loved short stories and read a ton of them, mostly science fiction but a lot of mythology and fairytales. I also read a lot of stuff that I thoroughly disliked. This was mostly in part because I was choosing books I thought would make me LOOK smart (which would be more embarrassing if I hadn't met so many people in University who tried reading philosophy or Russian literature when they were 17 to look smart).

Now I try to choose books I think I'll actually like. The next five are books that I've read between 2005 and 2010, and which have made a lasting impression on my reading experience and the types of books I choose;

6. The Scar -by China Mieville
Steampunk
I was recommended this author by a friend of mine. The world Mieville creates is gritty and bizarre. The storylines are based in pure imagination, but the conflicts are rooted in human feelings of ambition, fear, and values of freedom. I've read a few of his novels now, but this one is my favorite.
It is about a floating armada, which commandeers passing ships and its passengers, making them at once it's citizens and its prisoners. The ruling government of the armada is searching for 'the scar' a tear in the world from which the possibility of our world came into existence.

7. The Chronicles of Narnia -by C.S. Lewis
Fantasy
I had never even heard of this series until walking through Chapters one day when I came across a thick book with a smoky looking lion on the cover. I was in University by this time, it was spring, early spring -the snow had temporarily just all melted -and I read this outside with a blanket on the lawn.

8. Never Cry Wolf -by Farley Mowat
Autobiography
While poring over a book called 501 must read books with some co-workers, one of them recommended this. It was a 501 must read, so I figured I should give it a try. It was the first real non-fiction book I read. Reading this I realized how interesting an author's opinions and perspectives could be without the veil of fiction.

9. The Three Day Road -by Joseph Boyden
Historical Fiction
After several years of pretty much ignoring adult fiction, I decided to read this one because it had won the Governor General Award, and I was intrigued by the Ojibway-Cree culture of the characters. I learned more about World War I than I ever did in school, and I loved the alternating narratives.

10. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Historical Fiction
I loved this movie when I was 9, and tried reading the book in the fourth grade. I quickly became discouraged with the tiny print and old language and did not re-considered it until this year. I loved it. So I also read A Little Princess and liked it. These are stories I'd love to read to a little girl before bed.