STACKED

books

Nursery Rhyme Comics

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I’m always wary about short story collections. Most of themusually have some very good stuff, but you have to wade through some verymediocre (or often bad) stuff to get to it. In Nursery Rhyme Comics, FirstSecond has pulled together fifty different artists to interpret fifty differentnursery rhymes, and it’s a treat to see which direction the artists go with theirchosen rhyme.

Some of the contributors re-invent the rhymes inparticularly clever ways, and these are the most successful entries. Lucy Knisley has a funny take on There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and James Sturm’s Jack Be Nimble shows the consequences of jumping over candlesticks. Scott Campbells’s Pop Goes the Weasel brings sense to a previously nonsensical rhyme while retaining its liveliness. I also particularly loved Stephanie Yue’s Hickory Dickory Dock. My favorite, however, is the very first entry, Patrick McDonnell’s The Donkey. It’s just so darn cute and is a perfect example of how something a little extra can add a whole new dimension to a well-known rhyme.
Less successful are artists who merely illustrate the rhymeswithout adding anything new or interpreting them in a surprising way. Many of therhymes are silly or nonsensical, and I would have liked to see a few of theartists attempt to bring some kind of sense or meaning to these (although there is certainly something to be said for embracing silliness). Readers who are drawn to the collection more for theillustrations than the rhymes may be satisfied by these serviceable entries,but the book would have been better served by including more unique takes. Thesestraightforward illustrations may also be more illuminating for readers who arenot as familiar with the rhymes, in particular younger readers. Older readerswill require a bit more.
That said, the art is almost universally good, and that issaying something for a book with fifty different illustrators. There’s no denying the artists know theirstuff. I personally would have preferred a little more creativity with the interpretations, but the art is a treat to pore over, particularly in full color.
Overall, Nursery Rhyme Comics is precisely what I wasexpecting – some real standouts, a few duds, and a lot that falls in themiddle. Even the stuff in the middle is worth a read/look, which speaks tothe high quality of the collection.

Review copy received from the publisher. Nursery Rhyme Comics is available now.

Mini-Reviews: A few of my recent reads

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A few of my recent reads, mini-review style:

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan: No one can deny that Rick Riordan can write. His scenes are humorous, his characters are vivid and flawed, and his research is impeccable. This book even featured the return of Percy Jackson, who finds himself at Camp Jupiter, Camp Half-Blood’s Roman counterpart, strangely without his memory. However, this book just seemed a bit too slow and bloated for me–too long by about 100 pages.

Habibi by Craig Thompson: A gorgeous melding of illustration, story, history, religion, identity, guilt, repentance, and love. Two refugee slaves are separated, then find their way back together, navigating their unique relationship in a world of corruption, desperation, and poverty. Stunning illustrations and a multi-layered tale. I’m looking forward to picking up Thompson’s Blankets soon.

Circle of Fire by Michelle Zink: A lush, beautifully written conclusion to the Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy. Zink has the ability to make both the assumed villains and the supposed heroes multi-layered, and her depiction of the Lia/Alice relationship is brought to a satisfying close. Zink’s prose is gorgeous and her words truly evoke the novel’s Gothic setting.

White Cat by Holly Black (narrated by Jesse Eisenberg): I first picked this up in print last year and couldn’t get into it. Yet Jesse Eisenberg’s narration truly pulled me into this original story of Cassel Sharpe, teenage con-man and the only member of his family who isn’t a curseworker (persecuted and feared members of society who can alter your emotions, luck, or even form with a single touch). Yet he does suffer from the guilt of knowing that he killed his childhood best friend, Lila. He can’t remember anything about the murder, but just recalls looking down at her body, at the blood. But when a white cat shows up, Cassel starts to suspect that he is part of something bigger than himself—that he is the one being conned. Eisenberg’s voice is the perfect mixture of knowing, awkward, and sheepish, and Black’s plot is original and inventive, with plenty of memorable characters, twists, and turns.

Guest Post: Bring Out Your Undead – Carrie Harris’s Favorite Zombie Books

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Continuing our horror Mondays series is a guest post from Carris Harris, author of the zombie comedy Bad Taste in Boys. She’s already told us a bit about why we should read paranormal books, and she’s also told us a little bit about herself, but we thought it was about time she got down and dirty and tell us what we should be reading when it comes to the world of zombies. So, if you’re ready for a little horror of the undead variety, Carrie’s got some ideas for you.

Bring Out Your Undead — My Favorite Zombie Books

My apologies for the gratuitous Monty Python reference. I’ll have you know that I’m reading this entire post in a very atrocious French accent.

Anyway. Zombie books. I’ve heard from a lot of people that they don’t read them because they’re not horror fans, but the reality is that there are so many literary undead hordes these days that I honestly believe you can find a zombie book to suit any taste. It doesn’t matter whether you like silly, thought-provoking, or the kind of book that brings out your inner teenage boy (assuming that, like mine, your inner teenage boy likes anything that reads like a video game). I SHALL FIND YOU A ZOMBIE BOOK OR DIE TRYING AND THEN COME BACK AS A SHAMBLING CORPSE. WHICH WOULD BE IRONIC.

I’d probably be remiss if I didn’t mention my book, BAD TASTE IN BOYS, which is the kind of zombie book you’d like if you’re a fan of Shaun of the Dead. There’s a bit of violence, yes, but it’s mega campy. Another over-the-top silly zombie read is HOLD ME CLOSER, NECROMANCER by Lish McBride. Don’t go into this book taking things seriously. There is potato hockey in it. And, of course, zombies.

For the more thought-provoking zombie read, I have to tote out two of my all time favorites. ROT AND RUIN by Jonathan Maberry made me cry, and I’m not talking a little water in the eyes that you can pass off as a stray eyelash. I’m talking full on horking of snot. Yes, there’s some awesome zombie chills in this one, but it’s also about what makes us human. My second recommendation here is actually an adult title that I think has some crossover potential. FEED by Mira Grant did not make me cry, but at the end, I actually howled the word “NOOOOOOO!” out loud and scared the everloving daylights out of my kids. Ever wonder what the political scene would be like in the zombie wasteland? Read FEED.

If you’re looking for non-stop action, I highly recommend THE WALKING DEAD series of graphic novels by Robert Kirkman. Know how people generally say the book is better than the movie (or in this case, show)? Yeah, that. Also PATIENT ZERO by Jonathan Maberry. This is classic zombie horror. As in, it will scare the crap out of you and then scare the crap out of you again. And then, for a change, it will scare the crap out of you. People keep stealing my copy. It’s that good.

In short, there’s quite a bit more variety in the zombie genre these days. Even non-horror fans can enjoy the right title without shaking in fear, hiding under a blanket, and clutching your crème brûlée torch for comfort. Especially if you read it in an atrocious French accent.

Do you have any zombie book suggestions? We’d love to hear them!

Don’t Stop Now by Julie Halpern

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I love a good road trip book. I’m extremely forgiving of them when it comes to plot, even, because I appreciate the story of movement, of place, and of the importance of getting out and seeing things. There’s always a sense of tension built straight into a good road trip book, and I think that that is part of why I’m forgiving when it comes to a lot of plot challenges. And while I found Julie Halpern’s Don’t Stop Now to be one of the stronger and more enjoyable road trip books I’ve read in a while, I did find myself struggling a little bit with the secondary plot of the book — the motivation for the road trip — and I almost wish that the secondary plot hadn’t happened at all. Even if it killed the motivation, the book would have been stronger as a straight forward road-driven narrative.

It’s the last summer before college, and on that first night of freedom, Lil got a phone call from her friend (which is a loose term, to say the least) Penny. She doesn’t answer it, but when she checks her voice mail, the only thing Penny says is “I did it.” Lil’s keen on the fact Penny has a crummy home life and that she’s been on again and off again with this guy Gavin who she suspects might be a bit abusive. Can’t know for sure, though, since she’s only kind of friends with Penny. But when the police, Lil’s parents, and Lil’s best guy friend Josh start asking Lil more and more questions about what happened to Penny, she decides to take action. Lil believes Penny’s pulled off her own kidnapping, and now Lil wants to get away too to finally come to grips with the freedom in front of her.

More importantly, though, Lil wants to know whether what she has with Josh will always be friendship or of it’s something more.

The strength of Halpern’s book, from the start, is her writing. It’s easy and fun to read, and it’s spot on realistic for teens. These characters have feelings and deep thoughts, for sure, but the fact of the matter is, they act upon impulse. Even when they finish high school, impulse is the cue for action, and Halpern captures that. Her writing is tight, and while the novel spans a lot of distance, her writing doesn’t cheat that part of the story. Part of what worked for me as a reader, I think, is knowing the descriptions of road side attractions are accurate and realistic. Lil and Josh begin their road trip in southern Wisconsin at an iconic Cheese Palace, and being an expert on both southern Wisconsin and the Cheese Palace, I found everything she wrote to be not only honest and non-belittling, I found it funny. Throughout the course of the trip, the characters will constantly refer back to the start of the trip through the t-shirts they purchased at the Palace, and it not only reroots them to the trip, but it reroots them to the crux of their storyline: are they friends or are they more than friends?

While their ultimate goal is to reach Portland, Oregon and find Penny — who they suspect to be there with a new boy — they don’t spare the road side attractions. Anyone who has done this trip knows some of the gems along the way: The House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin; Blue Earth, Minnesota, home of the Jolly Green Giant; Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace; Wall, South Dakota, home of Wall Drug north of the interstate and the Badlands south of it; the whole of what you need to see in Wyoming; and so forth. What I love is how these iconic road stops aren’t belittled in the narrative, but the characters truly enjoy themselves. As they enjoy themselves in these places, as readers, we’re forced to consider the issues bubbling around them. Do we want them to become more than friends? Do we want them to find Penny and come to an end of the story?

Although this plot was richly fleshed, I found the secondary story with the disappearance of Penny to be considerably weaker and what ultimately made the book weaker than it could have been. She is, of course, the reason Lil gives to Josh for the road trip, even if it’s not necessarily what she believes in her heart (and she’ll say as much later in the story). But what bothered me was that there was an opportunity to develop this plot line stronger. Penny had an abusive boyfriend, and she also seemed to have developed a mysterious relationship on a vacation months earlier that led her to meet a boy in Portland after school ended. We get what are her journal entries at the end of each chapter — so as Lil and Josh progress on their trip, we’re sent back to Penny’s world. When Lil is contacted by the police and FBI about her knowledge pertaining to Penny’s disappearance, she is very nonchalant about it. She’s truly not interested in her friend’s well-being. All of this would work fine for me as a reader, as I believed that Lil truly just wanted an excuse to get on the road with Josh, but the inclusion of the journal entries took me out of that mindset. Penny’s story was interesting to me. I wanted to know more. I needed to know more. And Lil was too selfish to give it to me as a reader.

There are moments that required a considerable suspension of belief, particularly when it came to both Lil’s mother and Josh’s father. Neither cared a whole lot that their kids hit the road. But here’s the thing: it didn’t matter. I didn’t find myself worrying about their parents because they didn’t want me to dwell on it. This was their freedom, and they were taking it. I got enough of their family stories throughout the trip, and let me say — I’ve never once found a character I’ve connected with when it comes to a father-daughter relationships than Lil. I was right there with her as she talked about him, and my emotions were wrapped up completely in her words and beliefs about him and the value/impact he had on her as a person. I wanted to know more, but I was also relieved not to know more. It was hers to hold on to. And that made it all the more powerful.

Though the ending is a little tidy and I’m not sure I bought the relationship’s conclusion between Josh and Lil, I’m willing to forgive both because the road trip aspects were so well done. I appreciated the steady pacing of the story and the realistic time frame, as well. Both of those are essential elements in a story that involves movement.

This is the kind of book that will have wide appeal, and teens who loved stories like Morgan Matson’s Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour will want to pick this one up. The story and tone are quirky in the same manner as Natalie Standiford’s books, so pass this off to fans of her books.

Advanced copy received from the publisher. Don’t Stop Now is available now.

Last calls for Cybils nominations & more at The Hub

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This post will look familiar, but I promise it’s the last one on this topic for a long time. I’ve got together another list of books still unnominated for the Cybils in YA Fiction category, many of which haven’t made my previous iterations of the list. Anyone can nominated — you don’t need any accolades to do so — but you can only nominate one book in each category. All you have to do is go here, put in the required information and you’re done. You only have until Saturday to nominate your title in this category and in any of the other ones.

  • If I Tell by Janet Gurtler
  • Mercy Lily by Lisa Albert
  • David by Mary Hoffman
  • Every You, Every Me by David Levithan
  • Going Underground by Sarah Vaught
  • A Plague Year by Edward Bloor
  • You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis
  • All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky by Joe Lansdale
  • Queen of Hearts by Martha Brooks
  • Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles
  • Bestest Ramadan Ever by Medeia Sharif
  • Paradise by Jill Alexander
  • Popular by Alissa Grosso
  • Spinning Out by David Stahler
  • Unlocked by Ryan G Van Cleave
  • Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley
  • Will Work for Prom Dress by Aimee Ferris
  • Choker by Elizabeth Woods
  • Love, Inc. by Yvonne Collins
  • Blank Confession by Pete Hautman


Here’s the part where this post gets even more eerie. I’m also over at Yalsa’s The Hub blog talking about authors with October debut novels. Head over there and leave a comment. I’d appreciate it!