So, we had our largest turn out in this contest in quite a while. And now I can announce our lucky winner:
Archives for June 2010
The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum
When I saw Jenna Blum, author of the powerful Those Who Save Us, had a new book coming out, I put my name on the holds list for it . . . months ahead of time. And am I ever glad I did. As you recall, one of my favorite books of all time is Ann Patchett’s The Magician’s Assistant, and as I read The Stormchasers, I couldn’t help but see there were many similarities and my experience in reading it was so similar. This has shot to my favorites list, without a doubt.
Karena is a divorcee living near the Twin Cities, and one morning, she receives a phone call from a Wichita mental health clinic saying that her brother had been admitted as a patient, and she had been listed as one of his contact people. Funny, she thought, since they had not seen or talked to one another in 20 years, as Charles fell further and further into the depths of a few different mental illnesses. Karena, though, had always wanted to rekindle that relationship — they were twins after all — so she drops everything and chooses to go to Wichita in order to find her brother.
She was too late. Charles had left before she arrived, but she had a feeling that by following his passion, she’d find him. His passion, as you might guess, was stormchasing. Karena signs up for a storm chasing tour, and quickly finds she and fellow chaser Kevin have a great rapport . . . and Kevin himself might hold the key to helping Karena track down her brother.
The Stormchasers is written in present tense, which at the onset is a bit jarring, but as the story progresses, it is the ideal method for telling this tale of love, family, and passion. Like Those Who Save Us, we are thrust into the depths of family life and challenges with loving and accepting who we are within our families and the ever-changing nature of family dynamics. Set amid the heartland of America, Blum lovingly depicts the people and places that are too often ignored in literature. But it’s not just a loving portrayal: it’s realistic and gritty, giving readers a true sense of life in a small town.
Obviously, the stormchasing is a metaphor for the family and for the relationship between Karena and her brother Charles. But it’s well-done, and it provides further for the setting, which is itself a character in the story.
I’m purposefully leaving out a lot of the plot because I knew very little going in. I will say that this story travels two distinct time periods: the present and 20 years before then. Something horrible happened in the lives of Charles and Karena on their 18th birthday — the time immediately before Charles went off radar. This again is where the stormchasing fits in, but it never felt forced nor too much like the author was trying just a little too hard.
Lest I not forget, there is romance here too, and at times, it gets a little hot. So while there’s drama in the story, there’s also a little love to resettle you. Maybe!
One issue I had with the book was the end: I thought the epilogue was unnecessary and almost condescending to the reader. After 350 fantastic pages of story, the epilogue was tacked on and did more telling than showing. I’m mostly pretending it didn’t exist in the book, since the last chapter ending fine enough for me.
Back to an original assertion I made: this book reminded me a lot of Patchett’s gem The Magician’s Assistant. There is travel among places and family secrets waiting to be revealed page after page. The development of setting is strong, and the characters each have their own quirks that make them evolve from page one to page 350 and beyond. Blum uses metaphor in the same manner as Patchett here, in a simultaneously obvious and brilliant manner. And as for me, I read it in the same way, falling deep into the story and staying up far too late to find out what was going to happen next.
I’m both sad and glad this is only Blum’s second book. Sad because I have to wait for her next one (which could take a few years, the time frame between this and Those Who Save Us) and glad because she spends the time to write something powerful and worthwhile. The Stormchasers will be staying with me for a long time, and I am excited to pass this one off to my adult fiction readers at work.
AudioSynced: Coming up soon!
Don’t forget to join in for this month’s AudioSynced. It’s hosted here at STACKED, and since it’s official audiobook month, it should be a nice, full month around the blogosphere. If you can’t wait till July 1 to see the round up, join audiobook week hosted by Devourer of Books, June 21 – 25.
Haven’t participated in AudioSynced before or are curious what to contribute? Check out all of the new information about the monthly round up right here.
Finally by Wendy Mass
Every time I read a Wendy Mass title, I fall more and more in love with her style and her ability to get into the minds of middle schoolers so perfectly. Finally, her latest release, is no exception: Mass depicts a funny and adorable 11-year-old-turning-the-big-12 in Rory.
“When you’re 12, you can,” is a common phrase Rory’s learned to live with. But she doesn’t just live with it, she takes stock in it. You see, Rory has been keeping a list of all the things she will be able to do when she turns 12, including getting her ears pierced, getting a cell phone, riding a roller coaster, getting an instant messenger screen name, and more.
But things won’t be as easy as she thinks, when she first has to leaf through stacks of pamphlets on different cell phones and cellular plans in order to pick one out. Nor will it be easy when she finds out that the number she gets for her phone actually belongs to an out-of-business pizza place and she begins receiving phone calls for extra large sausage and pepperoni pizzas while she’s sleeping and garlic-topped pizzas in the middle of class. And let’s not get started on what happens when she gets her ears pierced.
There’s good news though! Rory’s school is the site of a movie screening, and the lead actor in the movie is the oh-so-swoon-worthy Jake Harrison. When she and her friends hear the film crew will be casting for scene extras, you better believe she’ll be there…it just might be with some interesting physical issues that have come up as a result of her birthday list.
Finally is a fast-paced, hilarious novel that will take readers back to one of the most exciting ages in their lives, and it will resonate with middle schoolers who are themselves struggling with the challenges of never being old enough or mature enough to do some of the things that their friends do. Mass captures an authentic 12-year-old here that never once feels forced, too old, or too young. This is a page turner in the sense that as a reader, you want to see Rory succeed, but you also get a kick out of the terrible things that happen to her (don’t worry — none are terrible in the sense of bad, but rather in a funny sense).
Here’s a bonus for readers: if you’ve read 11 Birthdays, Leo and Amanda make an appearance in this book, too. In fact, the line when they are introduced is something to the effect of “Something weird happened on their birthdays last year, and it brought them together but they won’t tell anyone what happened.” I was laughing quite hard at this point, and I think that other readers will get a kick out of their reappearance in Finally.
This book would be an ideal readalike to Lisa Greenwald’s My Life in Pink and Green, a title that I’ve talked to middle schoolers a few times and which they report back to me they adore. The main characters in both are driven individuals with a lot of spunk and creativity, but they both have faults. There is a good family surrounding each, which is refreshing to see.
After reading this one, I’m so eager to dive into Mass’s forthcoming The Candymakers and to go back and read through some of her titles I’ve missed. If you haven’t been reading Mass, Finally may be a great place to begin, since it is a quick read and introduces you to her humor and character style quite well. This book is appropriate for middle schoolers and older, and it is a completely clean read.
Non-Fiction: Watch This Space – Designing, Defending, and Sharing Public Spaces
One of the best books I read in my life has been Ray Oldenburg’s The Great Good Place. The book is a treatise on the value of the third place — somewhere people can go that is not centered on consumerism and is neither work or home. Think cafes in Europe, pedestrian malls, libraries, museums, even the internet.
Hadley Dyer and Marc Ngui, a pair of Canadians, have taken this idea and made it accessible to a younger audience. Watch This Space: Defending, Designing, and Sharing Public Spaces is a non-fiction, fast-paced, and engaging read directed at teenagers that seeks to highlight how important it is to have safe spaces in the world where teens can interact with one another and with all members of society. The book is colorful and quick to connect to, and it serves a great purpose in defining what a public space is and why it is important for teenagers to care about these things.
A quick overview of the history and intricacies of designing public spaces was quite interesting: when I was a teenager, there weren’t a lot of mall restrictions, for example, but the authors highlight how many malls have implemented rules meant to keep teenagers out or from congregating. Dyer and Ngui repeat throughout, though, that malls AREN’T public spaces; rather, they serve as an example of what a public space should be for teenagers: appealing, spacious, well-lit, and inviting to partake in any number of safe activities.
In addition to defining and illustrating the history of public spaces, this book gives teenagers a list of HOW to get involved with their communities. There is a do-it-yourself activity in designing a space, as well as a list of places where teenage input is valued (including things like the public library’s teen advisory board).
Be aware, though, there is a definite bias in this book, much like there is in Oldenburg’s book, and that bias is against the American life style. That’s not to say there is a bashing of it in any way, but as a reader I was quick to sense that there was the belief that the American mode was inadequate and there was little work in improving it. I don’t necessarily believe that, though some of the points made were valid — a lot is also overlooked in the progress America has been making in developing public spaces in a suburban-dominated country.
Watch This Space is a book that would be a fantastic book discussion choice. It can be read quickly and discussed in one session. I think teens would get easily fired up about this and could easily become motivated to get involved in their worlds. A good book talker can sell this one without problem. I think there is a real opportunity to pique the interest of socially conscious teens who may be coming back asking for some of the titles of books by well-known sociologists quoted throughout. The book is a worthy title for adults to read, too, especially those who work with teens or think that teens are often forgotten about in our world — you, too, may be motivated to be their advocates.