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books

Cybils short list

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New Year’s Day brings relaxation, renewal, goal setting, and the Cybils short list! Here’s the link to check them all out.

I’m absolutely thrilled about the short list for Young Adult Fiction. There is recognition going out to titles that deserve it. We’ll know in a little over a month who will win the award in each category.

What do you think of the short lists? Any surprises? Any disappointments?

Frankly, I think the YA list is one of the most diverse lists I’ve seen of many awards contenders.

What to Buy Your Boy

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So now that you know why boys don’t read (and how they do), here’s a quick list of some titles that would be knockout choices for holiday gifts for boys in middle through high school:

Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide is a work of non-fiction by Nawuth Keat about his time as a child in war-town Cambodia. It sounds reminiscent of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, which is another work of non-fiction about growing up in war torn Sierra Leone. What’s appealing about these titles? In both cases, the main character — a real person — sees a problem and acts upon it (or is acted upon, as the case may be). There’s war, there’s action, and there’s a gripping story.


Guardian Of The Spirit (Moribito)by Nahoko Uehashi is a graphic novel but is part of a series that’s laden with mythology and thus more similar to manga. There’s swords, action, and great graphics that’ll keep boys plowing through. And hey, when they finish this one, there are more in the series.

I’ll admit this is a riskier choice, simply because it’s not your standard Gordon Korman book. But either way, it was one of my favorite reads lately. Pop is a story about Marcus, a football player who’s just transferred schools and is having a hard time having the new team give him respect. He decides to take up practicing at the local park, where he meets an old man who is quite a prankster. Turns out that guy is the father of Troy Popovich, football team quarterback and he has a major mental health issue — so Marcus takes it upon himself to connect Charlie with his past and his present. This book has sports and has a character who sees a problem and tackles it full on. Oh, and it’s funny!


Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman is all fantasy. In this story, 12-year-old boys have the opportunity to become an apprentice of the Dragoneyes — men who harness the power of the 12 energy dragons. But there’s a twist this time, with a girl perhaps being chosen instead of a boy. This one’s got a lot of myth and action and a proposed sequel in the works.

I’ve mentioned both of these series before, but it’s not going to hurt to repeat them. Darren Shan is a wildly popular horror writer for both the middle and high school grade boys.

Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare will appeal to the younger set. This book series was just made into a film, too, which will come out after the holidays. But you know, there is also Cirque Du Freak: The Manga . So if they read the books, maybe the manga will appeal to them, too.

Of if they’ve finished that series or are more in the high school set, you should give them The Demonata #1: Lord Loss: Book 1 in the Demonata series. The ninth book in this series just came out, so there is plenty of reading here.

And lastly, here’s something you probably won’t see from me again simply because I am a Very Biased Person and as a librarian, I am willing to admit it. But here it is. I’m going to recommend James Patterson’s Maximum Ride Series. This is a book with adventure and science fiction, both of which have mega boy appeal. But here’s my other reason for recommending Patterson’s teen series — it’s a gateway. Maximum Ride also is a graphic novel series. Two ways to read it.

Oh did I say he was a gateway? Well, he is. He also has another popular teen series called Daniel X. Finished that one already? Well, there’s a new series coming out sure to appeal to boys, too, as well as those who are obsessed with the paranormal: Witch & Wizard. The first book came out this last Tuesday. When those books are finished, Patterson’s got an entire world of adult fiction that more sophisticated readers can dive into (some are a little more risque than others, and some are perfectly suitable). Know why else Patterson’s a gateway? He’ll get kids interested in reading books like Patterson’s, which will open up their worlds to new authors and adventures. As much as he annoys me as a librarian (he’s a shelf hog), he does something for readers and for reading.

There you have it — a short list of books sure to please the boys you are still looking to buy for. Remember to check out Michael Sullivan’s website, too, for more recommendations.

And as promised, here’s a quick bibliography of the research for this series of posts based on Sullivan’s program:

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

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The Vietnam war is something I am pretty underinformed about, aside from what I learned in a few history classes and those classes, as any student of history knows, are biased. But perhaps what is more a disservice than some of the bias is the fact that the Vietnam war lessons come at the end of a long semester (unless one takes a whole class) and gets short changed. A lot of what happened goes unlearned.

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg is a novel about the Vietnam war without being about the physical war itself. This quick novel, written entirely in verse, takes place in the aftermath of the war. More specifically, it is set when Americans had the opportunity to save Vietnamese children Vietnamese children of war and give them homes in America.

Burg’s book opens with Matt, one of the rescued children, recalling something that happened in his life — but as readers, we’re left blind to what experiences he had as a child in the war-torn nation. His mom was Vietnamese and his father was an American soldier who raped her and left her. When his mother sends him with Americans, he is adopted into a family that loves him dearly and gives him every opportunity they can. He’s got a natural baseball talent, but even great talent doesn’t stop members of the team he made from making fun of him and his heritage. Tensions were high after the war, as it touched the lives of so many. Rob, one of his teammates, really dislikes him and goes out of his way to make Matt’s life difficult.

As the novel moves forward — and it moves VERY fast — we watch as Matt makes decisions about what he shares and doesn’t share about his experiences. At the same time he is involved in truly American pastimes, including baseball and music lessons, his mind reminds him of his uniquely non-American life. This comes to a head when he and Rob are paired for an exercise on the baseball field that causes them to come to total understandings of one another and of themselves. It is at this moment we as readers develop a total understanding of Matt and his life both in Vietnam and America. At this same time, Matt learns about how the war impacted other people he interacts with daily in America and he relates with them in a new way because he, too, is able to share his experiences on the other side. All the Broken Pieces is a novel that highlights cultural understanding in a way that readers of all ages can relate.

I found this to be quite a moving book; Matt is an exceptionally drawn main character with a great voice that left me wanting to know more. I felt like his adoptive family in hoping he would share his story with me and I felt great satisfaction when he did. Along with that satisfaction, as a reader I felt utter sympathy for him and his experiences. Moreover, this is the sort of book that left me as a reader wanting to know more about the Vietnam war’s outcomes and effects on civilians both American and made-American.

All the Broken Pieces is a Cybils nominee in the middle grade category, and while I don’t disagree with that age appropriateness, I think it might be better appreciated by those who are a little older. This is a story that has less in the way of action and more in character development, and the verse use is spot-on. Berg could not have picked a better way to share her story, and I am excited to see what she does in the future. I think this is a title that’s been under the radar this season, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it get its due come awards time. At least I hope so!

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

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If you haven’t heard of this book before, you might believe that it’s a teen romance from the title. Do not let the title fool you. It has a very small romance in it, but it is mostly peripheral, and this story is about something entirely different.

There is so much involved in this 197-page book that it’s hard to know what to mention in this review and what to leave out. Miranda lives in New York City with her mom. It’s 1979, Miranda is twelve years old, and she’s been receiving mysterious notes from a stranger that discuss things that will happen in Miranda’s future. And then those things come to pass, like the fact that Miranda’s mom becomes a contestant on the game show $20,000 Pyramid. Within this time-travel mystery, the book also touches upon class, race, friendship, bullying, homelessness, and so many other issues. Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is a recurrent theme, and any kid who loves that book (as so many did in 1979 and so many do now) will also love the many references to it here.

When You Reach Me starts a bit slow. Miranda doesn’t receive the first note until page 60, and before that happens, I wasn’t sure where the book was heading. Once the first note hit, however, I was hooked.

The book benefits from short, snappy chapters (2-3 pages each) with interesting titles deliberately mimicking the game show (Things That Go Missing; Things That Sneak Up on You; Things That Turn Pink). (For those of us who haven’t ever watched the $20,000 Pyramid, the second round involves one contestant trying to get her partner to guess the category of the words she recites. For example, she might say “Lever, Handle, Hair,” and the answer would be “Things you pull.”)

I think young fans of genre fiction, particularly mysteries and science fiction, will find a lot to like in this book. It has those mystery and sci-fi elements, but it really is something unique that makes it stand out from these genres. At times Miranda’s voice seems a bit too mature, but for the most part she is engaging and seems like a twelve year old. If a young reader makes it to page 60, he or she will not be able to stop until reaching the end. The end is really spectacular, perhaps not as surprising to an adult as it might be to a child, but beautifully written and just challenging enough to require some thought after the last page is turned but also be understandable for its intended audience.

The biggest thing that will prevent this book from moving off the shelves, or at least the copy that I read, is the cover. Not the front cover, which isn’t too bad, but the back. There is no book blurb. Instead, it’s a litany of praise for Stead’s earlier book, First Light. That isn’t terribly unusual, but the book doesn’t have an inside flap. There’s no way for a tween browsing the shelves to find out what this book is about. Something like that is vital, and I’m sad that it’s missing from this copy, because I really think this book could have a fairly large audience. I can think of a half-dozen ways to pitch it: how Miranda’s friend Sal gets punched in the face for no apparent reason on the street one day, the time travel enigma, the mysterious notes…the blurb could easily grab someone.

Despite that (or because of that, really), I encourage you to give this one a try. It’s refreshing and interesting, and you could read it in an afternoon.

Kid-Friendly Graphic Novels & Knights of the Lunch Table by Frank Cammuso

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Every two months, all of the children’s librarians from my entire system (73 libraries!) gather downtown for an information order meeting. One of the presentations at a recent session? You guessed it – graphic novels for kids. Our fearless leaders in Children’s Services have been trying to broaden the world of graphic novels in the Los Angeles Public Library. The battlecry? No longer will the Young Adult area hold a monopoly over the graphic novels! Publishers, children’s librarians, and patrons are demanding more content for younger kids.

I managed to coerse the graphic novel committee into letting me post their great powerpoint overview of the graphic novel genre and how Los Angeles Public Library is incorporating these books into the children’s collections… and programming around it! As a verified non-expert in this genre, I appreciated the synthesis of a huge amount of information into a simplified format. I only wish I could’ve grabbed some snapshots of the cute insanely cute crafts that were demonstrated. I hope you enjoy the efforts of Marc Horton, Eva Mitnick, Carey Vance, Joanna Fabicon, and Maddy Kerr – I know I did.

The September issue of School Library Journal reflects this trend. Peter Gutiérrez wrote an article entitled “Good & Plenty: It used to be hard to find good graphic novels for the K–4 crowd. My, how times have changed.” Okay, the title is a bit of a clunker, but the article itself offers a great primer to some of the awesome material for children. And I decided to challenge myself to read a few of the novels mentioned.

My favorite of the bunch? Frank Cammuso’s Knight’s of the Lunch Table series, without a doubt.

I accidentally ordered the second volume of the series, the Dragon Players, instead of the first volume, the Dodgeball Chronicles. No matter – the story was easily picked up without needing an introduction.

King Arthur and the Round Table seemlessly fits into this modern day story about middle school. Artie attends Camelot Middle School with his evil sister Morgan. Of course, there’s a Mr. Merlyn, a science wiz with a mysterious raven as a classroom pet. And Percy and Guen show up as Artie’s best friend and love interest respectively. That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to references to the Camelot legend. At times, I really want to go back and grab my copy of the Once and Future King, just to catch more obscure allusions in the text.

In the Dragon Players, Artie finds himself in a competition of dueling dragons – robot dragons, that is. The bullies of the school, appropriately named “The Horde,” have forced Percy to build them a fearsome dragon competitor. Cammuso weaves the theme of duality from the beginning of the story to the narrative climax. I particularly loved the scene where “the ladies of the lunch” dispense a warning.

Arthur, King of Middle School,
Within thy heart, two dragons duel.
One is warm and one is cook,
In thy life just one shall rule.

All pretty standard stuff, right? Of course the mystic lunch ladies would speak in cryptic gibberish. But Cammuso continues the exchange… with an appropriate food-related sense of humor. This, of course, totally confuses Artie.

French fries… or veggie sticks?
Who knows which dragon you shall pick?
Chef salad… or pizza cheesy?
One is right and one is easy.

I couldn’t stop laughing, and then I forced several co-workers to listen to the dialogue.

A shadowy figure in the guise of a dorky kid named Evo shows up with an easy answer to Artie’s dueling robots dilemma. And of course, Artie and his friends have to go through harrowing hijinx before they must make a decision. Kids will definitely identify with Artie; he’s savvy, street-wise, but a little uncertain at the same time. Like most kids, he looks to his friends and his mentors for advice… but Artie can also look to his magic locker (a middle school version of Excalibur) for a more unique form of guidance.

The art is fantastic – the characters are drawn with deft, broad strokes. The coloring is vibrant, appealing to both younger kids and their parents. I’m not extremely visually oriented; I read text too fast. But I found myself going back through the pages a second (and even a third) time to absorb all of the small details in the background of the panels. The stories pertain to middle schoolers, but younger elementary school readers will eat up this series.