Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Winner Announced

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is pleased and proud to announce the winner of the inaugural Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction. Established in 2008 to honor the wishes of young adult author, Amelia Elizabeth Walden, the award allows for the sum of $5,000 to be presented annually to the author of a young adult title selected by the ALAN Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Committee as demonstrating a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit.

The winner of the 2009 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award is:
My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park
by Steve Kluger (Dial)

2009 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award finalists are:
After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)
Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
Me, The Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine (HarperCollins)

All Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award titles will be identified by an award sticker—gold for the winner and silver for the four finalists.

This year’s winning title was announced at an open reception and reading on Monday, November 23 during the 2009 ALAN Workshop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Finalists Steve Kluger (My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park) and Jacqueline Woodson (After Tupac and D Foster) were present to read from and sign their nominated titles. Members of the 2009 committee, Jennifer Buehler, Erica Berg, and Mary Arnold, read from the remaining nominated titles.

The 2009 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee would like to thank: NCTE and the ALAN Board of Directors; all of the publishers who nominated books for consideration; Scottie Bowditch and Kimberly Lauber from Penguin Group for making arrangements for their authors to attend the reception and for supplying books for the signing; Daniel Gill for designing the beautiful award seal; Gerard Mendoza, event planner for the Philadelphia Downtown Marriot, for his assistance in planning the reception; and Don Gallo for photographing the reception.

The 2009 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee was comprised of ten members representing the university, K-12 school, and library communities who considered 232 young adult titles over the duration of the process:

Dr. Wendy Glenn, Chair
Associate Professor, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Willington, CT

Mary Arnold
Teen Services Manager, Cuyahoga County Public Library
Cleveland, OH

Erica Berg
Classroom Teacher, Rockville High School
Vernon, CT

Dr. Jean Boreen
Professor, Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ

C.J. Bott
Retired Classroom Teacher and Educational Consultant
Solon, OH

Dr. Jennifer Buehler
Assistant Professor, Saint Louis University
Saint Louis, MO

Bonnie Kunzel
Youth Services and Adolescent Literacy Consultant
Germantown, TN

Dr. Teri Lesesne
Professor, Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX

Daria Plumb
Classroom Teacher, Dundee Alternative High School
Dundee, MI

Dr. Barbara Ward
Assistant Professor, Washington State University, Tri-Cities
Richland, WA

For more information on the award, please visit ALAN Online: The Official Site of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents http://www.alan-ya.org/ .

In preparation for a presentation I'm giving at the Michigan Council of Teachers of English's Fall Assembly titled "We Are a Family of Books: How to Create a Community of Readers" I've been trying to catch up on my "professional" reading.

I just finished Nancie Atwell's THE READING ZONE: HOW TO HELP KIDS BECOME SKILLED, PASSIONATE, HABITUAL, CRITICAL READERS, a wonderful book about Atwell's reading workshop that she conducts at her school.


I just started READICIDE: HOW SCHOOLS ARE KILLING READING AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT by Kelly Gallagher. I'm not very far into it, but so far the title pretty much says it all.


I read these because I like to be able to offer professional resources to the people who attend my sessions, but then I realized that the real experts sit in front of me every day. So, I asked my students to write journal entries today about what they need from teachers in order to become readers. I'm happy to report that they listed much of what I already had in my power point.

Here it is, straight from the students' pens:
* Get to know students and figure out what they like--Give a survey to help them find a genre they like, then help them find more books from that genre.
* Don’t pick boring books—provide books with lots of action and suspense.
* Let students choose their own books and have a selection of books teens actually want to choose from.
* Change up genres and have different authors who use different writing styles.
* Kids need to listen to a good book to get hooked/Read out loud—short, interesting stories.
* Don’t rush students through books/Let us read at our own pace.
* Realize that not everyone has the same interests.
* Don’t make students read a book they don’t like because then they won’t understand it.
* Discuss and share stories that are interesting.
* Ask students more questions about how they feel about the book during a discussion.
* Steer away from required materials.
* Let students read to themselves—in school.
* Allow us to change books.
* Don’t bombard us with work from the book.
* Give them books that are at their reading level.

A few weeks ago I also asked them to add their own rights to Daniel Pennac's Readers Bill of Rights.

Here's Pennac's list

Readers have:
The right to not read.
The right to skip pages.
The right to not finish.
The right to reread.
The right to read anything.
The right to escapism.
The right to read anywhere.
The right to browse.
The right to read out loud.
The right not to defend your tastes.

—Daniel Pennac Better Than Life, Coach House Press, 1996

And, here's what my students would add:

Readers have:
The right to choose a book by its cover.
The right to read quietly; i.e. to not read out loud.
The right to feel emotion—to laugh or cry—during a book.
The right to talk about and discuss your book.
The right to share your book with others.
The right to read all kinds of books.
The right to change books.
The right to enjoy reading.
The right to read a lot of books.
The right to read anytime.
The right to question the writer.

Both of these lists will be appearing in my presentation. Many of these kids never read an entire book before coming to our school and now they're not only reading, but they are reflecting upon their own wants and needs as readers. LOVE IT!!! Now if I could just figure out a way to pack up my students and haul them to Lansing with me, then I could get out of the way and they could give the presentation!

Call for 2010 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Selection Committee Members

Those interested in serving on the ALAN Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee may self-nominate by completing a self-nomination form. Members of the selection committee must be: 1) ALAN members and 2) classroom teachers, university professors, or librarians. To avoid potential conflicts of interest, authors and publishers are not eligible to apply.

To participate in the selection of the 2010 winner, please send completed self-nomination forms to Daria Plumb (dariaplumb@yahoo.com), the 2010 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee Chair, by September 15, 2009. For more information about the award and to download the self-nomination form, please visit ALAN Online (http://www.alan-ya.org).

The Committee Chair, striving for wide representation of members in terms of professional position, grade level of population served, and geographic diversity, will extend an invitation to potential committee members who show an interest in serving. Those selected will serve for one year with the possibility of reappointment for a second.

For the 2010 award, we are seeking nominees from the following communities:
• 1 Classroom Teacher
• 1 University Professor
• 1 Librarian

It's not unusual for parents in YA books to play the role of antagonist. After all, adolescents must break away from their parents in order to define their own identities; it's natural and necessary for them to question and rebel against the authority figures in their lives. It's also not unusual for parents in YA books to be sort of "missing" from the central storyline. Anyone who has regular contact with teens has probably noticed that they think the entire world revolves around them, their friends, and the drama that goes along with being a teenager. If you've ever seen a student outside of your school building who seems surprised to discover that you don't actually LIVE at the school, then you know what I mean. It's not that don't like us or care about us, it's just that we don't inhabit the same plane that they do.

Once in awhile, though, I come across a YA book with a parent in it who is so vile and reprehensible that I'd like to reach right into the pages of the book and give him/her a good shake. Now I'm willing to give a pass to parents like the dad in The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong because he's dealing with his own grief over losing his wife and to the mom in North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley because she's also a victim of her husband's abuse and eventually starts to stand up for herself. I'm talking about the parents who: abandon their children emotionally &/or physically--usually both; look the other way while their child is being victimized by someone else; use, abuse, and otherwise exploit their kids; choose a new spouse/lover who has no regard for their child; don't provide even the most basic needs of food and shelter for their kids; and who place their own wants, needs, and desires above everything else, including their children. These are parents who are (to borrow a line from my librarian friend Mary Arnold) "bitter meanies".

So I decided to make a list of some of the parents from YA books that I'd like to see in a Hunger Games-style contest. "But, wait," you're probably thinking, "the contestant who wins the Hunger Games becomes rich and famous. That doesn't seem fair." You're right, that wouldn't be fair, but don't worry I have a solution to that problem...the winner of THIS Hunger Games gets to be unwound.

Without further ado, here are the 12 moms and 12 dads that I would send into My Hunger Games.

MOTHERS:
1) Addie's "Mommers" from Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor
2) Sam's mom from Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesan
3) Rosie's mother from House of Dance by Beth Kephart
4) Chessy's mom from Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee
5) Ben's and the neighbor kid Billy's moms from Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon (you get 2-for-1 in this book)
6) Kaleigh and Raeanne's mom from Identical by Ellen Hopkins
7) Poe's mom from Brutal by Michael Harmon
8) Kendra's mom from Kendra by Coe Booth
9) Aslaug's mom from Madapple by Christina Meldrum
10) Ratchet's mom from The Canning Season by Polly Horvath
11) Chris Creed's mom from The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci
12) Peeta's mom from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

FATHERS:
1) Lucas's dad from Me, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine
2) Liam's father from King of the Screwups by K.L. Going
3) Danny's dad from Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena
4) Ramiro's and Jake's fathers from He Forgot to Say Goodbye by Benjamin Alire Saenz (another 2-for-1 deal)
5) Terra's dad from North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley
6) Quinn's dad from The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti
7) Marcelo's father from Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
8) Mazzy's dad from Everything is Fine by Ann Dee Ellis
9) Nazia's father from Beneath My Mother's Feet by Amjed Qamar
10) Sarah's dad from Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
11) Brett's dad from Nailed by Patrick Jones
12) Lakshmi's father from Sold by Patricia McCormick

Now this list certainly isn't meant to suggest that these aren't good books; in fact I encourage to read all of these incredibly well-written books. I'm just saying that you might need to take your blood pressure medicine before doing so, because these parents and their antics are really gonna tick you off. Check out for yourself HOW these kids manage to overcome the obstacles their parents have placed in their paths.

Then, let me know: WHICH PARENTS FROM YA BOOKS WOULD YOU SEND TO THE HUNGER GAMES?

Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Finalists Announced

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is pleased and proud to announce the finalists for the inaugural Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction. The honored titles for 2009 (in alphabetical order by title) are:

* After Tupac and D Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)

* Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)

* The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)

* Me, The Missing, and the Dead, by Jenny Valentine (HarperCollins)

* My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park, by Steve Kluger (Dial)


This year’s winning title will be announced at an open reception and reading at the 2009 ALAN Workshop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Established in 2008 to honor the wishes of young adult author, Amelia Elizabeth Walden, the award allows for the sum of $5,000 to be presented annually to the author of a young adult title selected by the ALAN Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Committee as demonstrating a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit.

The 2009 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee was comprised of ten members representing the university, K-12 school, and library communities who considered 232 young adult titles over the duration of the process:

Wendy Glenn, Chair
Associate Professor
University of Connecticut, Storrs

Mary Arnold
Teen Services Manager
Cuyahoga County Public Library, Ohio

Erica Berg
Classroom Teacher
Rockville High School, Vernon, CT

Jean Boreen
Professor
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff

C.J. Bott
Retired Classroom Teacher, Educational Consultant
Solon, OH

Jennifer Buehler
Assistant Professor
Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO

Bonnie Kunzel
Retired Youth Services Consultant, Youth Services Consultant
New Jersey

Teri Lesesne
Professor
Sam Houston State University Department of Library Science, Huntsville, TX

Daria Plumb
Classroom Teacher
Dundee Alternative High School, Dundee, MI

Barbara Ward
Assistant Professor
Washington State University, Tri-Cities

For more information on the award, please contact Wendy Glenn, 2009 AEW Committee Chair, at wendy.glenn@uconn.edu.

In my "grown up" life, I am a mystery fan. My grandma (who was a BIG reader) got me started on Mary Higgins Clark and from there I moved on to Sue Grafton's alphabet series, James Patterson's Alex Cross and Women's Murder Club series, Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series (until she ruined it by switching the narration to 3rd person after 10 books written in 1st person, but I digress...), Kathy Reichs's Tempe Brennan series, and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum (no relation) series. On the rare occasions that I read nonfiction, I also go for books about forensics and criminal profiling. But it seems like when I shift over to YA books I have trouble finding mysteries that appeal to me--until this past year. In my (now extensive) reading of 2008 books, I managed to find some really great mysteries.

BTW, if you're looking for good mysteries, try checking out the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Awards (named after, you guessed it, the man credited with writing the first detective story--Edgar Allan Poe). They have given awards for best YA mystery since 1989 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Edgar_Allan_Poe_Award_for_Best_Young_Adult_Novel_winners -- sorry but this link does not include a list of nominated or honor books) and best juvenile mystery since 1961 ( http://www.cozy-mystery.com/Edgar-Award-Best-Juvenile.html )

You can read my review of the 2009 Edgar Award Winner, John Green's Paper Towns, in the entry from December 3, as well as another mystery that I quite enjoyed, Jenny Valentine's Me, the Missing, and the Dead, in the entry from January 10th.

I also recently finished a book that was a 2009 Edgar Award nominee, Siobhan Dowd's Bog Child.

One of my librarian friends, Sheree, booktalked this for us at our teachers as readers group (The Book Hook-ers) a couple of months ago and I was dubious to say the least. A book set in Northern Ireland in 1981 during "the Troubles" and focused around the discovery of an ancient child's body in a bog and a boy whose brother is in prison and participating in a hunger strike? It didn't sound intriguing to me and, frankly, it sounded like a lot of work. In fact, I had actually checked this book out of the library a number of times, started it, and then put it back down. But, once I actually sat down and gave it a chance, I was sucked in. Fergus McCann and his Uncle Tally are out one morning illegally cutting peat from a bog when Fergus notices something shiny--it's a bangle and, upon further inspection, he notices that it's attached to a body. At Fergus's urging, his Uncle Tally reluctantly leaves to notify the authorities of their finding. As it turns out, the body is not from a recent murder, but rather is the preserved body of a girl from the Iron Age. Fergus teams up with the archaeologist who works on the case, Felicity, and her daughter, Cora, and is given naming rights of the bog child, Mel (short for Melanie), whose life and death he begins having dreams about. During all of this, Fergus is also: preparing for his A Level exams; befriending a Welsh soldier and border guard, Owain; running packets of something across the border for a The Provos; falling in love; making plans for his future; and dealing with his brother Joey's hunger strike in prison. The way Dowd weaves all of these storylines together is truly intruiging. I was particularly interested in the glimpses into Mel's life and family and would have actually liked to have more--her death and the events that lead to it are heartbreaking.

Another of Dowd's books published in 2008 (first U.S. printing) and also a mystery is the middle grade novel The London Eye Mystery.

When Ted and Kat's cousin, Salim, goes missing after a ride on the London Eye, Ted and Kat set out to find out what happened to him. There are a lot of twists and turns in this story and it is made more interesting by the fact that Ted has Aspberger's Syndrome which makes his brain run "on a different operating system"(p. 4). In the end it is Ted's ability to think in a different way that leads to the solution to the mystery. (In many ways this book is similar to the 2003 adult book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.) It saddens me that an author with the range and potential of Siobhan Dowd is no longer with us. Her fourth and final novel, Solace of the Road, is set to be released later this year. You can visit her website for more information about the life of this truly extraordinary author: http://www.siobhandowd.co.uk/ .

Joan Bauer is an author who, in my mind, can do no wrong. I have read everything she has written and she has never let me down. Her characters are always quirky, smart, individuals with some very unique interests who have generally suffered a loss but who push forward with the help from supportive adults in their lives. Her newest book, Peeled, is no exception.

Hildy Biddle lives in Banesville, NY, an apple growing community that has fallen on some hard times. Hildy's first love, though, isn't apples, it's journalism--something that she learned about from her now deceased father. When the town's long-rumored haunted house begins to show new signs of "supernatural activity", the local paper, The Bee, begins to spin the story National Enquirer style. Hildy and the rest of the staff of the school paper, The Core, set out to find the truth behind the "hauntings". This is a story about how fear can be used to manipulate people and the power (and sometimes the danger) of taking a stand and telling the truth.

I want to continue this mystery thread, but I'm getting tired, so it will be continued later with reviews of: Shift by Jennifer Bradbury, Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks, Absolute Brightness by James Lecesne, Alane Ferguson's Cameryn Mahoney series, and a handful of books by Carol Plum-Ucci.

I hate fantasy and science fiction. Just ask me. I'll tell you that I avoid these books like the plague. If I have a stack of 20 "must-read" books, you can guarantee that the fantasy and sci-fi books will be at the bottom. I run screaming from most books featuring magic (except Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia, of course) and I typically can't stand books with maps on the end papers and/or characters with bizarre names. And don't even get me started on science fiction--especially the dark, depressing, dystopian stuff--I don't have the time or patience for all of that detailed "world building" *disdainful sniff*.

So why is it then that lately these are the very books I'm passionately recommending to (forcing on--whatever) my family and friends? Why was I tempted to answer, "Yes!!! And hurry!" when my students asked me if I wanted them to steal the ARC of Catching Fire from someone I know? Why did finding out that a friend has an extra copy of Fire that she's putting aside for me put a gigantic smile on my face and make me bounce up and down in my chair clapping? I give up. I'm coming out of the closet: I LIKE FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION!!!

So without further ado, here they are, the fantasy and sci-fi books that have recently captured my attention (and, yes, my heart):

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

I first read this book back in September 2008 in preparation for introducing Neal Shusterman at the ALAN Workshop. This book is set about 50 years in the future following a second American Civil War fought over abortion. Part of the peace treaty ending the war made abortion illegal but gave parents to option to unwind (or retroactively abort) their children any time between the ages of 13 and 18 (anyone who has parented &/or worked with teens will likely understand this desire). Technically, the kids aren't killed when they are unwound, but what does happen is truly chilling on a variety of levels. The three main characters Connor, Risa, and Lev have all narrowly escaped their unwinding "appointments" and are now on the run. If they can just survive until they turn 18, they will be safe. What will happen to them? This is a fast-paced and gripping book full of social commentary that will make you and your students question what it means to be alive. I read this aloud to my kids at the beginning of the second semester and they were still making references to it at the end of the school year; in fact, one of our running "jokes" this semester was that if a student was misbehaving, I'd have her/him unwound (or put into the Hunger Games). Next year they will be integrating this book into our "regular" high school's curriculum as an example of satire.

Two others that I blogged about on December 17 are Mary Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox and Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games:

Here's a brief update: I recently read The Hunger Games to my students and they really enjoyed it! The students had "scorecards" so they could keep track of who died each day and predict who would be next. I even thought about creating a BINGO card and having them fill in the squares with character names/district numbers for Hunger Games Death Bingo. I also toyed with the idea of giving each student Monopoly money and having them "sponsor" the tributes, but I couldn't quite figure out how to do that--if you can, let me know. Lionsgate has purchased the movie rights for this book and Suzanne Collins will be working on the screenplay, so watch for this one in theaters--it should make a FANTASTIC movie! While you're waiting for book 2, head over to Scholastic's The Hunger Games website http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/games/index.htm where you can play games, watch interviews with Suzanne Collins, discuss the book on message boards, and download posters, bookmarks, and wallpaper.

I was fortunate enough to temporarily score the ARC (advanced reader copy) of the sequel to The Hunger Games titled Catching Fire. How popular is this series? So many of my local teacher and librarian friends want to read this that I thought I might have to go into a witness protection program when I told them that I couldn't let them borrow it because it wasn't my own, personal copy. How DID I manage to get my hands on it? My obviously well-connected friend, Jennifer B., thought it was exciting and cool that my students were desperate to find out what happens after the Hunger Games end. So she read it as quickly as she could and I drove to Ann Arbor to pick it up. My kids were thrilled!!! When I got to school the next day they kept asking, "Did you get it? Did you get it?" Luckily we were able to make arrangements to meet for some extra class time so that the kids who wanted to could hear all 391 pages of it read aloud by moi; we finished on our second to last day of school. The kids who made it all the way through loved it and made some very interesting predictions about the events to come and none of us want to wait for book 3 (which I don't think is going to be available until November 2010!!!).

I don't want to say much about this book because I don't want to spoil the ending of The Hunger Games for those of you who haven't read it yet or the plot of this one. What I will say is if you loved the first book, you will love this book. I thought I had some pretty good guesses about what direction the plot of this book would take and I was wrong, wrong, wrong!!! Collins's ability to build the storyline continued to impress me and I cannot wait to see how she wraps up this story. Look for this one on September 1, 2009.

And now on to fantasy. A book that I recently fell in love with is Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I am currently on my second read through of this one and it's just as good the second time around.

This book was shortlisted for the first ever William C. Morris YA Debut Award and it's easy to see why. Kristin Cashore will no doubt be an author to watch. Katsa and Po live in a world where some people are born with special powers called graces. These Gracelings are identified by their different colored eyes and are both feared and revered; as such they are often forced to live on the fringes of society. Katsa's grace is her ability to kill. Her uncle Randa, the king of the Middluns, forces her to use her grace to punish his enemies and abuse his power--an arrangement Katsa is not terribly happy with. When Katsa teams up with Po (another Graceling from the island kingdom of Lienid) to train and to help find the person responsible for the kidnapping of Po's grandfather, she begins to question her loyalty to her uncle and starts to redefine herself. This book has it all: daring rescues, lots of fight scenes, adventure, and even a love story (but not of the sickeningly sweet variety). Cashore has crafted a fast-paced story that features a strong female protagonist and balances her with an equally strong and interesting male character. Many questions are raised in this book about power and it's abuses and also about marriage and relationships.

Cashore's second book, Fire, is a prequel to Graceling.

I have not had a chance to read it yet, but my ARC fairygodmother Jennifer B. is giving me a copy next week!!! This is all I can tell you right now: Due out on October 6, 2009, this book takes place in the same world as Graceling but 30 years earlier and features a crossover character. On my re-read, I think I picked up some clues as to who the crossover character could be, but I'm not telling... I am SO looking forward to reading this one! Look for a posting about it in the next week or two because as soon as it's in my hot little hands, I'll be parking my tush on the couch (or the deck, if the weather's nice) and reading this one straight through.

Now that school's out for the summer, I'm going to catch up on my book blogging. Stay tuned for: reviews of more fantasy books (like Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and Antonia Michaelis's Tiger Moon); reviews of more science fiction (like Exodus by Julie Bertagna and The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness--and find out why Patrick Ness is on my you-know-what list); and more "themed" booklists (including one featuring parents from YA books that I'd like to send to the Hunger Games).

I've been reading like a crazy woman for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden committee since January so I haven't been keeping up on my posts. It's been a lot of fun and I'm reading books that I would never have picked up otherwise. What an experience!

Because I have yet to process everything I've read since January (something like 35 books so far and about 30 more to go--and that's just Round 1!), I thought I'd make a list today of my all-time favorite YA books. These are books that I've read over and over again only to fall more in love with them with each reading; they are my "comfort food". In fact, just looking at this list gives me the warm-fuzzies and brings a smile to my face!

Here they are in reverse chronological order:


My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger (2008) (This is the MUCH improved cover from the paberback edition)
I discovered this book thanks to the yalsa-bk listserve. Generally I would avoid a book with so many baseball references on the cover like the plague, but this one got so many good reviews that I just couldn't pass it up--and I'm glad I didn't. I'm re-reading this while my kids do SSR and I'm finding myself falling in love with the story and the characters all over again--the plot is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. I blogged about this book on December 21, 2008, so you can read more there.


Unwind by Neal Shusterman (2007)
While not normally a fan of science fiction, this book grabbed me by the throat and has never let go. I originally read it while preparing to introduce Neal Shusterman at the 2008 ALAN Workshop. It is thought provoking, timely, and just plain creepy & disturbing. I recently finished reading this aloud to my students (since it's not available in soft cover yet) and they were mesmerized by it. My favorite scene takes place in Chapter 61. As I read it out loud, I could look around the room and see my kids shivering; in fact just thinking about it right now gives me goosebumps.


Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher (2001)
I love everything about this book, including the swimming references (I was a swimmer in high school and a swim coach for years). This is the first Chris Crutcher book I ever read and it is still my favorite. I have a funny story about this one. First I read it. Then because I didn't remember if I'd read it, I got it on audio. As I was listening to it in my car, I realized that I'd already read it and remembered that the ending had made me extremely emotional. And, even though I thought it was a bad idea to try to listen to it AND drive, I just couldn't stop myself. Since then, I've read it numerous times, including with my Intro to Children's Lit classes. I love T.J.'s sarcastic sense of humor, the relationships he has with the adults in his life, and how he always sticks up for the underdog.


The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci (2000)
This book is still the best YA mystery I've ever read. I've had a tough time selling it to my students, but the ones who have read it all the way through have loved it. One student, Mike (who didn't become a reader until he was 19), told me that he was reading it at home alone one night and when it started talking about ghosts, he had to stop reading because he got scared. What better testament for a book? I love, love, love the ending of it--in fact, it's what makes the whole story. I also love Plum-Ucci's The She.


Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate di Camillo (2000)
In my opinion, this is the perfect book. It is the simple, sweet, and endearing story about a girl, India Opal Buloni, and her dog, Winn-Dixie, who she finds at a grocery store and who helps her to find her place in the world. I even liked the movie (for the most part). The first time I finished this book, I smiled, hugged it to my chest and sighed, and turned back to the first page to read it again. Whenever I need a reminder of what I love in a book, I read this one.


Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999)
This is the book that I would use if I ever had to give an example of the perfect use of "voice" in a book. Melinda's voice comes through loud and clear in this story. It is powerful and her silence through most of the book is gut-wrenching. I also love the way the story is told in Marking Periods with Melinda's "report card" at the end of each section, showing her grades in everything from Art and English to Lunch and Clothes. Whenever I get a new female student, I always ask her if she's read Speak. If she hasn't, it's the first book I hand her. Laurie's new book Wintergirls (2009) may take its place on this list once I get a chance to re-read it, but so far I haven't been able to wrench it away from my girls.


A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck (1998)
I avoided this book for a long time because of the cover--even the fact that it won a Newbery couldn't suck me in. I can't remember why I finally gave it and read it, but it has been one of my favorite books ever since. This book and Because of Winn-Dixie are the two books I can recommend to anyone, regardless of age and can almost guarantee that they'll love them (I say "almost" because I had an Intro to Children's Lit class that proved to be an enigma--many of them hated it). Richard Peck is a master writer. Who else can pen the phrase, "'Never trust an ugly woman. She's got a grudge against the world,' said Grandma who is no oil painting herself." I've read this book so many times I'm surprised I can't tell you what page that line comes from. I'll just say this, Grandma Dowdel is my hero! I've read this aloud to my kids before and every day before we'd start they'd ask, "What is that crazy woman going to do today?" While I also liked A Year Down Yonder and Fair Weather, this is the one that I love the most.


Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer (1998)
One of my local librarians, Eve, handed me Backwater and told me that she thought I'd like it. That was the first Joan Bauer book I ever read...and now I've read every single book she's written. I love Bauer's characters--they are quirky, independent, and smart. And, while I've read all of Bauer's books, Rules of the Road is still my favorite. There's something about the road trip that Jenna Boller and Madeline Gladstone take that I can't resist. The relationship that they develop and the things they learn from one another make this book a can't miss. And if you just can't get enough of Jenna, there is also a sequel titled Best Foot Forward.


The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)
When I first started teaching at alternative ed, it didn't take me long to figure out that I needed to find some really good YA books if I wanted to get my kids to read. One summer (probably 1995), I spent a lot of time perusing my local library's (very limited at that time) YA shelves. The Giver is one of the books I picked up and I have loved it ever since. I have read this book out loud to classes no fewer than 6 times and I am always amazed by Lowry's craftsmanship. The way she reveals the "secrets" in Jonas's society is masterful. I have used this book with my high school students and with college students. Even though it is an older book, I would definitely recommend it to any adult wondering just what YA lit has to offer.


Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson (1977)
Way back, many moons ago (the 1980-81 school year, in fact) my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Davis, read this book aloud to our class. Some people might argue that 3rd graders are way too young for this book and they might be right--I remember all of us sobbing while sitting on our carpet squares--but I have returned to this book almost every year since then. True, it is a sad story, but the friendship that Jess and Leslie form and their time spent in Terabithia is nothing short of magical. My dad used to have this on tape from the PBS show Wonderworks and I watched it again and again, crying my eyes out every time.

I finally decided how to spend the last of my Border's birthday gift card (for some reason I'm always pickier about how to spend a gift card than I am my own money--go figure!). I'm a huge fan of Kadir Nelson's artwork--his use of light is reminiscent of JMW Turner--so when I saw that he was doing a book on Barack Obama's election, there was no question that I had to have it. It arrived yesterday and is a beautiful little gem. Unlike his other books the illustrations are sparse, pencil sketches, but as usual they are stunning and hopeful. The words are Obama's. It is a PERFECT pairing. Take a look:

As Nelson has illustrated &/or written a number of books about subjects and people important to the African American community (Duke Ellington, Coretta Scott King, Abraham Lincoln, Henry "Box" Brown, Harriet Tubman, Michael Jordan, the Negro baseball league, ...) it is no surprise that he would want to commemorate the election of our first African American president. Here's a little bit from Nelson on the making of the book:


The second, big-time, fabulously exciting thing I get to do this year (for #1 see the January 21st entry) is that I have the HUGE honor of sitting on the award selection committee for the brand new Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award presented through ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE). For more information on this award and to view the award criteria, visit http://www.alan-ya.org/awards/ . This is my first time being involved with anything like this. It is absolutely amazing so far and the women who are serving on this committee with me are luminaries in the field of YA lit (if you think I'm kidding, check out this list http://www.alan-ya.org/page/2/ )! Starting in early January the books started rolling in from the publishers--it's like the ALAN workshop all over again except I don't have to cart these books all over creation...they come right to my front door! Needless to say, I've been reading my butt off and enjoying every minute of it. It's also been interesting as there are books on my list that I wouldn't normally pick up on my own and I am finding that I'm not as averse to Sci-Fi and Fantasy as I thought.

I did, however, give myself a break from the 2008 books to check out a brand new book that has been on my "to-read" list since last summer: the third book in Anna Godbersen's Luxe series, Envy. All of the librarian gals in my book group, newly christened "The Book Hook-ers", are in love with this series, so I had to be sure to read it in time for our next meeting.

Is there any question about what first drew me to these books? *sigh* Oh, to have dresses like these and someplace to wear them... *sigh*

As I've mentioned before, this series is just good, trashy fun (and I mean that in the best possible way). This is a turn-of-the century soap opera, complete with back-stabbing debutantes, handsome playboys, love triangles, and lies. Each book so far has ended with a twist that leaves me waiting for more. Unfortunately, it appears that there will be only one more book in the series. The website is gorgeous, as well, and you can even take an online quiz to find out which Luxe girl you are--I am the sweet and demure Elizabeth Holland (first book, pink dress)--and which Luxe Gentleman would be your true love--mine is the ever-suffering Henry Schoonmaker. Check it out for yourself: http://www.harperteen-theluxe.com/luxe.html .

I am safely home from D.C. where I was fortunate enough to bear witness to history. My mind, heart, and soul are still abuzz with all the excitement--can it be true that he's REALLY our president now?--so I will post some quick photos and edit in the gory details in a day or so once I've had time to process everything. (I am also waiting to see what kinds of pics others in our group managed to get.)

Overall, I can say that the air in D.C. was electrified with hope, pride, and excitement about our new Commander-in-Chief. It was so incredible to see people from all walks of life celebrating with one another. And, even with crazy crowd-control situations in some areas, we didn't hear one, single report of violence. Two quotes seemed to sum up the day: "Happy Obama Day!" and "Happy New Year!"

(I was sending text message updates to friends, co-workers, and the journalist who wrote the article about us. I've included the times and the text of the messages to give my real-time reactions to the events of the morning and to provide a timetable.)


8:00 a.m.: 1st & d streets waiting in line to get 2 security gates. We r human sardines but we r excited!
9:01 a.m.: Its chaos here! Not even the police know where we r supposed 2 go. We haven't moved yet & we have tickets!!!
10:37 a.m.: We heard our gate is not even open. We havent moved.

To say that the crowds were huge would be a terrific understatement. This was the crowd at 1st & D Streets at about 7:30 a.m. Three hours later we still hadn't moved, but the crowd was so tight I couldn't even raise my arm to get a picture. It was actually frightening and I was ready to give up and go back to the hotel, but we couldn't even get out.



10:48 a.m.: We just started moving-1 block! There may still b hope!
10:57 a.m.(To my sister, Alyson, who had a ticket in the Silver section): R u in? We r finally moving.
11:10 a.m.: We stil r not in. Our gate was closed until about 10 30. Dont know if we ll get in but we might atleast b able 2 hear.

For some reason (still unknown to us) our gate (the purple gate) was closed. We didn't think we would get in at all and we weren't even close enough to see or hear anything except the crowd cheering. We had resigned ourselves to the fact that this was as close as we were going to get--you can see dome of the Capitol in the distance. We were heartbroken.



12:05 p.m.: WE ARE IN - FINALLY!!

Then finally just before noon some purple ticket holders were allowed in and we raced through security and RAN towards the Capitol (if you know me at all, you know what it means that I ran). We arrived just as Barack Obama was taking the Oath of Office. We cheered and cried at the same time!



This was the view forward from the Purple Section. Tickets were only given to about 240,000 people, so we were closer than about 1.75 million people.


This was the view backwards from the Purple Section. The crowds, who watched and listened via jumbotron screens, extended BEYOND the Washington Monument (can you see it in the distance? Hint: Look under the street sign).

1:04 p.m.: ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! There r no adequate words!



At the Midwest Inaugural Ball with my mom and my sister. That's me in the middle. Because it was one of the "official" balls and the President was scheduled to make an appearance, we had to pull out all the stops and look GOOD!



Cheryl Crow entertained the crowd. She said she couldn't remember the last time she played a gig in a dress and heels but that she was, "doing it for the new President. Just my way of serving my country." She also pulled a Marine out of the crowd for a song and a dance (especially touching for me, as my son is a Marine).



Cheryl Crow got the hook, however, when our new Vice President arrived.


Just before midnight, the President and First Lady arrived. The President addressed the crowd and then, "dance[ed] with the one who brung me. Who does everything that I do except backwards and in heels." It is thrilling to have such a graceful, classy, intelligent, first couple leading our country into the future!


Here's video of the Obamas at the Midwest Inaugural Ball:



Here's the link to our follow-up article in the Monroe Evening News:
http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090121/NEWS01/101219966

I am totally jazzed to share the news that I am leaving on Monday to go to D.C. for the inaugural festivities! My mom (who is awesomer than awesome, as you will soon see) decided over the summer that when Barack Obama won the election, she was going to take my sister and me to D.C. for the inauguration. So, in August she booked hotel rooms and put her name on a list with our congressman to get tickets. Well, now it's official! Not only are we going to be in D.C., but we have 2 tickets to the ACTUAL inauguration, which means there will only be about 200,000 people between our new president and me (way better than 2 million, huh?). And, if you don't already think I have the BEST MOM IN THE WORLD, then check this out: If she has to use one of the tickets because her name was the one on the list, then she and I will go (because I campaigned for Obama--her call, not mine). If she doesn't have to be one of the ticket holders, then she'll give the other ticket to my sister so we can witness history up close and personal and she will watch the inauguration from the mall with some friends who are going with us.

We are also going to attend atleast one and possibly two inaugural balls--one of which is "official". That means that Mr. President and the first lady will actually be making an appearance!!!!!! I don't even know what to say about that (and it's rare that I am rendered speechless). I have only wanted to go to a ball since I first heard the story of Cinderella, so this is a really big deal. It is, however, going to be interesting to see how a cocktail dress looks with a Columbia parka and to see how I cram a party dress and all the accessories that go with it into a carry-on bag.

I'll be blogging about this more when I return and I will post some pictures. Below is the link to a story about our trip that our local paper, The Monroe Evening News, ran today:
http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090117/NEWS01/101179930

I'm deciding to give up on the Fave of '08 list. Why? I just found out that the books that are currently at the top (Unwind) and bottom (Thirteen Reasons Why) of the list were both published in '07. Maybe not a big deal, and I definitely read them during '08 but that just screws thing up my whole thought process. FYI: I'm blaming this on the fact that I'm not a "numbers person"--my sister, the engineer, got ALL of those genes!

One book I forgot to blog about that I ABSOLUTELY loved was Lois Lowry's The Willoughbys!

I started this book while my students were doing sustained silent reading and I had to really fight to keep myself from laughing out loud--if they didn't already think I was a bit crazy, I'm afraid of what they would say! This book was light and funny and (thankfully) had a glossary in the back so I could look up the big words, like lugubrious. The cover makes you imagine a quaint, sweet book about an old-fashioned family, but the Willoughby family is anything but quaint and old-fashioned and that, of course, is the point. This book is a wink and a nod to children's books of the past like The Secret Garden, Little Women, Huckleberry Finn, Anne of Green Gables etc.--you know all of the books in which winsome and/or spunky orphans find a wealthy benefactor or are forced to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

The Willoughby parents certainly won't win any parenting awards; neither the mother or father can be bothered with the care of their four children: Tim, twins Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and Jane. After much discussion the children decide that their lives would be much better off if they were orphans, so they drop a travel brochure from The Reprehensible Travel Company (a company that specializes in trips to dangerous areas) through the mail slot. At about the same time the parents decide they would be better off if they were childless, so when the brochure arrives, they hire an "odious" nanny and take off without the children. They also attempt to sell the house out from under them and the children's clothing right off their backs, all the while sending home postcards about exciting trips down crocodile infested rivers and flying with untrained pilots over active volcanoes and disappointing the kids and Nanny with their survival. Many wonderful adventures ensue. I must say that I haven't read ALL of Lois Lowry's books, but this one was unlike any of the others that I've read and it was purely delightful!

Usually, I'm not a big fan of snow--it's cold and it makes it hard to drive--but since I didn't have to go anywhere today, the 8-10 inches of snow we've had in the last day and a half has provided me with the excuse I need to sit inside and read (as if I need an excuse?). Luckily, I have a gigantic bag of books from the library to keep me occupied--Im pretty sure I have enough food and books to hold me for at least 3 days. After Tuesday, check back here on a regular basis for desperate pleas to air-drop in more food and books. I think I was born to hibernate, so I'm good to just hang here 'til spring (OK, not really. I have some really fun stuff coming up in about a week that I'll share with you soon).

I have devised a new & ingenious way to choose which book I'm going to read next. Some people might resort to academic measures, like reading reviews or asking people they respect for recommendations, but if you've been following this blog for awhile, you KNOW that's not what I do. My previously preferred method was to line them up and look at the covers (see the "Hello, my name is Daria..." post), but I must say that my new method is MUCH less shallow and more objective--plus it gives me a good opportunity to post a really cute pic of my puppydog, Jake. I either hold two books in my hand or lay (is it lay or lie? Why can't I ever remember that rule?) three or more on the floor and then read the one Jake sniffs first.

BTW, Jake is one of the reasons that I cry whenever I read Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (even though I love that book) and why I won't go see Marley and Me (probably ever). And, he's ten now which means that pretty soon I'm going to have to hunt down Jenna Fox's dad (if you don't get this reference, you must immediately read The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson).

I did choose this first book on my own yesterday. How did I choose it? I liked the fact that it looked like a quick read and it had an intriguing title and cover.

Me, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine is the story of Lucas Swain, a boy who becomes intrigued by the cremated ashes of a woman (known only as Violet) who has been waiting in a minicab office in London to be claimed. Lucas feels as if Violet has something to tell him and he devises a plan to get the ashes in the hopes that Violet can help him find out what happened to his dad, Peter, a man who disappeared without a trace five years earlier. I really liked this book, but it took about 6 chapters to really to pull me in. Trust me, though, it's worth the wait--once Lucas starts finding out stuff about Violet and his father it really picks up speed! This is a good, smart read about a boy who has to learn what it really means to be Lucas (not Lucas in Peter's image). He also begins to examine how his dad's disappearance has impacted ALL the members of his family. There were themes in this book that definitely reminded me of John Green's Paper Towns.

Jake's first pick today was Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway.

This was a fun and spirited book about a girl, Audrey, who dumps her musician boyfriend, Evan, only to have him write a hit song about it titled "Audrey, Wait!" Audrey becomes instantly famous for doing absolutely nothing (something we see a lot of in our society today) and it turns her entire world upside down. Suddenly this normal girl who really only wants to listen to music, go to concerts with her best friend Victoria (like the Queen), and possibly date the cute boy, James, that she works with at Scooper Dooper is being stalked by insane paparazzi and even more insane fans. I really loved the dialogue in this book--Audrey and Victoria are sarcastic, smart, and funny! I would warn that the cover makes this look like a book for a younger audience, but the f-bomb does get dropped pretty regularly. Give this to your fans of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. There is also a website www.audreywait.com with a page to generate your own tabloid cover and with links to i-tunes (where you can download the soundtrack) and Robin Benway's page.

Jake's second choice today had him deciding between 3 books. I haven't started it yet, but he picked (drumroll, please):

Who knows, maybe Jake chooses a book by its cover, too? Or maybe whoever had it before me was eating bacon while reading it? Hard to say.

We all know the old adage "Don't judge a book by its cover." Well, I'm sorry, but I just can't help myself. I'm an extremely visual person and there are SO many books out there that I need a way to narrow them down. Some of you might suggest more "academic" ways of selecting books, like reading reviews or asking people I respect for recommendations, but even when I do those things, I still have trouble starting a book if I don't like the cover. I know I'm not the only one out there who does this; while strolling the publishers' booths at NCTE it was obvious that the people who sell and market books recognize the value of having a beautiful or intriguing or fun cover.

I've been thinking a lot about this subject lately because of the number of books I've read recently that have covers that I really don't like. Here are some of the books I LOVE and would have missed if I had only paid attention to the covers:






On the flip side, here are some books I read BECAUSE of the cover that I might not have read otherwise. And, with the exception of Twilight, I really liked all of them.

It's only a few days until Christmas and I should probably be shopping (HA!) or cleaning (HA! HA!) or baking (HA! HA! HA!), but it's cold and blowy outside and I don't feel like doing anything productive just yet.

Friday while enjoying our first snow day of the year I read two books. Two books? Yeah, I know it sounds like a lot, but one of them was Jon Scieszka's Knucklehead and it really wasn't very long (96 pages & it had pictures).

This was a really fun & fast read. Reminiscent of Chris Crutcher's King of the Mild Frontier and Gary Paulsen's How Angel Peterson Got His Name, Scieszka relates stories from his childhood for the audience of his Time Warp Trio books. Of course, right off the top of my head I can name at least 10 "grown-ups" who would relate to some part of this book--Catholic school, Boy Scouts, big families, station wagon car trips, and vacations by the lake--so I'd say this book has wide appeal. The fact that Knuckleheads has large type, photos, short chapters, and looks like a comic book will certainly boost its "boy appeal", something I'm sure Scieszka, founder of www.guysread.com, had in mind.

The second book I read was Steve Kluger's My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park. This is a book I wouldn't have picked up if not for the buzz it's been getting on the yalsa-bk listserve: the cover wouldn't have grabbed me; I don't always like epistolary novels; I'm not a baseball fan; and, while I love Mary Poppins, I know nothing about the Red Socks (& "Frankly, my dear..."). But, once I picked it up, I raced through it like a woman possessed.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I laughed...I cried...and sometimes I even laughed while I was crying (a quote from Steel Magnolias captures my feelings perfectly, "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion."). This book has everything--it's laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreaking, heartwarming, and charming. Plus, it has musical theater references galore and I can never seem to resist those. Welcome to #2 on my Fave of '08 list (sorry, Dylan Fontaine).

As an assignment for their junior English class, three students, T.C., Augie, and Alejandra, relate the stories of their Most Excellent Year, which for all of them was their freshman year of high school. They share excerpts from the diaries they kept that year: T.C.'s written to his dead Mama, Augie's written to assorted movie & theater divas (like Liza and Natalie Wood), and Ale's written to Jackie Kennedy and later Mary Poppins. We also get to see e-mails between their parents and people who are almost family (like Phyllis, a worker at Augie's dad's bookstore, and Lori, T.C.'s advisor), as well as IM messages sent between the trio of friends. There's an awful lot going on in this book, but the way the stories overlap and interwine brings it all together beautifully.

I read some reviews of this on Goodreads, and while most were glowing in their praise (its average rating is a 4.24 out of 5), some criticized this book saying that was unrealistic; the teen characters were "too smart" and "too funny" and their families were "too perfect". I couldn't disagree more. Yes, these kids ARE smart and funny, but I found their intelligence refreshing and I think kids who enjoy books like Paper Towns and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks will too. As a teen I WANTED to sound like these characters, but I was a bit too shy and a bit too afraid to seem smart to actually talk that way and, though it sometimes seems like a hundred years ago (it was the 80's after all), I'm guessing there are still teens out there who feel the same way.

I also don't agree that their lives and families are perfect*. T.C.'s mother dies of cancer when he is six and Ale's diplomat parents expect her to live the life they want her to lead without ever asking what she wants. Yes, Augie's parents and friends accept the fact that he's gay, but why is it SO unrealistic that they would love him for who he is? And, I love the "nontraditional" family that T.C. and his dad, Ted, assemble around them to help them survive the loss of T.C.'s mom, Nikki.

*I think it's important to remember that, just as not every teen lives in the 'burbs with a lawyer mother and a doctor father, not every teen comes from a dysfunctional home with abusive, drug-addicted criminals as parents either. I'm all for gritty, realistic fiction--it's what most of my students want to read--but once in a while it's nice to read something that doesn't make me want to hurl myself off a bridge. And it makes me mad when people label a book that isn't all gloomy and tragic as unrealistic. Is there no middle ground? OK, my rant is over.

So the new & improved Fave of '08 list looks like this:
1) Unwind by Neal Shusterman (something is gonna really have to blow me away to move this one)
2) My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park
3) The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie
4) The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
5) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6) Paper Towns by John Green
7) The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
8) Savvy by Ingrid Law
9) The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
10) Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Honorable mentions: Rumors by Anna Godbersen; The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman; Dramarama by E. Lockhart; & Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott.

Updated Fave Books of '08 (still a work-in-progress)
1) Unwind by Neal Shusterman
2) The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie
3) The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
4) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
5) Paper Towns by John Green
6) The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
7) Savvy by Ingrid Law
8) The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
9) Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
10) Rumors by Anna Godbersen


What got bumped? Unfortunately The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

The Hunger Games is one of the books that has been getting great buzz this year from people I really respect. Despite that fact, I did NOT want to read it and I kept saying, "Yeah, yeah, I'll read it eventually" and moving it back to the bottom of my "to-read" pile. I mean, look at the cover--definitely not my style. Then add to that the fact that it's sci-fi (not usually my favorite genre) and a survival story (also not my fave genre) and I was resigned not to read it. So, what finally made me read it? One of my students, Hailey, said that if I didn't read it next, she'd quit school (not really, of course, but...). Since I've made her try books she didn't want to read, I figured it was only fair to give it a shot...

and, boy am I glad I did! The story is set in a futuristic North America that is divided into 12 districts where the people live hand-to-mouth. Each year to remind (and punish) the citizens for an uprising against the Capitol, the districts use a lottery process to select a boy and girl representative (between the ages of 12-18) to send the Capitol to compete in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is like Survivor meets the Ultimate Fighting Championships meets The Most Dangerous Game. The only way to win the completely televised and manipulated games and to bring honor (and more importantly, food) to your home district is to be the last person alive. Katniss, who has been the sole provider for her family since her father was killed in a mine explosion, volunteers to represent District 12 when her 12 year old sister's name is pulled during the selection process. She is taken to the Capitol along with Peeta, the male representative of her district, to be prepped, fed, and polished up for the games. She must then figure out how to use her skills as a hunter to survive against competitors much bigger and more well-trained than herself. This book was action-packed, dramatic, and gripping! If only the sequel would come out sooner.

The second sci-fi book that I've read in the past week is The Adoration of Jenna Fox, a book I have picked up repeatedly because I like the cover, but put back down after reading the plot synopsis thinking, "Oh no, this is science fiction, it's not for me." But, since I liked The Hunger Games so much, and because another of my girls recommended it, I decided to give it a try.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Seventeen year old Jenna Fox has just awoken from a coma only to find that she remembers nothing about her life. As she watches videos of her early life and snoops around the house, she begins to learn some very disturbing things about her accident and the events that followed. I don't want to give too much away, because I think the way in which the details are revealed in the book are perfect.

I loved the writing--it was lyrical and image-filled--and the plot line was gripping. The ending was not what I expected, but was very satisfying. All the way through this book, I kept thinking how nicely this book would complement (or dare I say replace?) Frankenstein in the high school curriculum.

Now I'm off to reconfigure my Fave of '08 list!

I wanted to make sure I had permission from Drew before I posted the photos of him with his author letters (I am reposting the pics of the letters too). So without further ado, here they are...


Drew with his letter from John Green (which I daresay was his favorite. It's almost as if John Green KNOWS him).


Drew with his letter from Neal Shusterman (because it's on a shiny postcard, the note itself didn't photograph well)


Drew with his letter from Laurie Halse Anderson & autographed copy of Speak

He is currently reading Speak. If you were to ask him, he would tell you, "It sucks", but that is Drew-speak for, "I'm loving it, but I'm never gonna admit that to Mrs. Plumb." This is a sort of game we play. My response is always, "Too bad, keep reading it."

He did, however, finally admit, "If I was gonna write a book, this is how I would write it", which is very high praise for Ms. Anderson indeed.

My copy of Impossible by Nancy Werlin finally arrived on Tuesday, and though I was bound and determined to finish it before my Teachers As Readers meeting yesterday afternoon, I did not finish it until last night.

I really had high expectations (maybe too high and therefore unrealistic) for this book. Many, many people had told me how wonderful it was, which was the reason I finally decided to read it. Unfortunately, I liked it, but I didn't LOVE it, so it's not making my Top 10 List.

The women in Lucy Scarborough's family have been cursed by an Elfin Knight. The curse, the reason for the curse, and the means to break the curse are described in the medieval ballad "Scarborough Fair" or "The Elfin Knight". So when Lucy ends up pregnant after her junior prom, she, her family, and her former-next-door-neighbor-turned-boyfriend, Zach, must figure out how to interpret the ballad in order to break the curse. If they cannot, Lucy will be doomed to madness and will never get the opportunity to know her daughter.

I must say that I did love the concept. And, I was really curious to learn if and how they would go about completing the tasks from the ballad. So what was it about the story that didn't quite do it for me? I think it was largely Lucy's relationship with Zach, which was a bit too perfect and syrupy sweet for my taste. Don't get me wrong, I do love a great romance, but parts of this one were too rushed and too perfect. Again, I realize that as an adult, I am not the target audience for this book, but that isn't something that is usually a problem for me when I read YA books. I just gave this book to one of my girls who LOVED the Twilight series (another romance that I just didn't get into), so I'm curious to hear her response.

So, what are my Favorite Books of '08* so far (I have ranked them here)?
1) Unwind by Neal Shusterman
2) The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie
3) The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
4) Paper Towns by John Green
5) The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
6) Savvy by Ingrid Law
7) Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
8) Rumors by Anna Godbersen
9) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
10) ??

* This is not to suggest that these are THE BEST books written in 2008--I haven't read everything that's out there, and even if I had, I wouldn't feel qualified to make that pronouncement. I also have no idea who will be taking home shiny gold and silver medals in January. These are quite simply the books I have enjoyed the most this year.

As I still have a couple of weeks left in the year, I will continue to read. Up next? Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, which I started last night, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, a book I don't want to read but that I've heard too many good things about to skip just because I don't like the cover and I'm not a big sci-fi fan (says the girl whose fave book of the year so far IS science fiction).

In my quest to race through as many books as I can before our Thursday TAR meeting, I've been reading like a fiend this last week (yeah, I'm a procrastinator, so what?). I just finished Kathi Appelt's 2008 National Book Award Finalist The Underneath.

I'll be honest, I did NOT want to read this book! I'm always hesitant to read a book that has a dog on the cover (and if that book has an award sticker, well you know what Wallace Wallace would say...). I hated the movie Old Yeller, I won't read Where the Red Fern Grows, I still haven't read The Art of Racing the Rain, and I peeked at the ending before starting Marley and Me. I don't know what it is--an author can kill off as many human characters as s/he wants in a book, but if the dog ends up dying, I'm gonna be ticked! I knew going into this book that I would cry (but since I cry at happy AND sad stories, I didn't know if it'd be a happy cry or a sad cry or maybe both)--plenty of people had confirmed that I would definitely need a box of tissues nearby. Despite all of that, once I picked it up this afternoon, I could not put it down. This is a beautifully written book. I don't really know how to summarize this plot, so I'll just say that Appelt intertwines the stories of her main animal characters (Ranger, the calico cat, Puck, and Sabine) together masterfully with a plot line that begins over 1,000 years ago in the same bayou. It is making my Fave of '08 list (#9--the numbers do not imply a ranking, yet). My guess is that this book will give Savvy a run for its money in January when that other silver medal gets handed out.

There was some talk at the ALAN Workshop about whether this book was too sad for kids (apparently it had been a topic of much discussion on some list serve or other). I was a pretty sensitive kid--I still won't watch Bambi, Dumbo, Pinnochio, or The Fox and the Hound--so I don't know if this would have been a good book for me when I was under, say, 10 years of age. That said, I don't think this book is going to damage any kids irreparably. Yes, there are some pretty dark parts--Gar Face is an angry and terribly unhappy man-- but there are some bright, shining spots as well--the power of love to bind us together--just like in life.

The other book I finished earlier today was Bliss by Lauren Myracle.

I thought this book might be a contender for my Fave Books of '08 list, but while I liked it, I didn't LOVE it. For me it was a little predictable and reminded me quite a bit of Stephen King's Carrie. Of course, this book wasn't written for a (ahem) 30-something audience. I think that teens who have no idea who Carrie is are going to LOVE it and I predict that it will quickly make the rounds with my girls. Plus, I think the cover is super appealing with all of those icky blood splatters.

Bliss Inthemorningdew is the daughter of hippies (obviously). In 1969 her parents drop her off to live with her mother's mother--a prim and well-mannered society woman--in Atlanta. After years of living on a commune and being home schooled, Bliss begins her freshman year at a swanky prep school. She is excited to be around other people her own age, but almost immediately she begins to hear a sinister voice whenever she's near Hamilton Hall and she soon learns that many years earlier a girl died on campus. As Bliss tries to figure out how to navigate high school society, she struggles to stay true to her own values and also has to determine which of her friends she can really rely on. All the while she is being pulled deeper and deeper into the mystery of Liliana, the long dead girl whose voice keeps beckoning her to an abandoned wing of Hamilton Hall.

Up next? Impossible by Nancy Werlin, which is scheduled to arrive on Monday.