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books

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (audiobook)

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When Ted and Kat’s cousin Salim comes to visit them in London, Ted immediately wants to take Salim on his favorite London attraction, the London Eye, a large bicycle wheel-like contraption with tiny pods for people to ride in, towering high over the city of London. Salim and his mother, Ted and Kat’s Aunt Gloria, are visiting briefly, stopping over before their move from Manchester, England, to New York City. Ted, who struggles with a disorder on the autism spectrum (which is never labeled outright but is most likely Asperger’s Syndrome), is excited to share the experience of The London Eye with Salim, as Salim’s interest in him has immediately shot his cousin onto his list of friends, after his mom, dad, and his teacher. However, as the children are waiting in an excruciatingly long line to buy tickets, a man approaches them, claiming a case of claustrophobia and offering Salim his ticket for free. As Ted and Kat watch their cousin enter the London Eye and then track his pod throughout the precise thirty-minute ride, they are flummoxed when Salim doesn’t exit the ride. As the adults contact the police, Ted and Kat team up to investigate what happened. Could their cousin have actually vanished into thin air? Since Ted’s brain works differently than everyone’s around him, he may just have an edge on figuring out the truth of his cousin’s disappearance.

While I’ve been eying The London Eye Mystery ever since it came out in 2007, I often resisted picking it up, due to the recent publishing trend of protagonists with autism and Asperger’s Disease, in which the plots often failed to distinguish themselves from each other for me. However, I am thrilled that I finally picked this book up on audio. Narrator Alex Kalajzic masterfully brings the voice of Ted to life. Ted is a well-rounded character, who is never solely defined by his “syndrome,” as he calls it. He is 100% aware that he is different than other people, and often remarks upon the adjustments and observations that his teacher has instructed him to do: what different facial expressions denote, and when to smile at others. Yet he is still entirely himself, entirely focused on what makes him happy. Ted has an obsessive love for meteorology, listens to the shipping and weather forecast late at night to help him sleep, and thinks of weather patterns when he becomes anxious. Dowd often remarks upon the flapping motion that Ted’s hand makes when he is feeling heavy emotion, a small detail that broke my heart while reading. Yet regardless of Ted’s difficulty with emotions and physical contact, you can tell he still loves his family. He is excited to finally become ‘friends’ with Kat throughout their investigation, and he instantly bonds with Salim.

Besides Ted and Kat’s evolving relationship, the family dynamics in The London Eye Mystery are also stellar, all of which Ted views with a detached eye. Ted’s mom and Kat constantly clash, Aunt Gloria and her ex-husband Rashid have a typically antagonistic yet supportive relationship, and Ted’s father is exasperated with Aunt Gloria. I also have to say that I never guessed exactly how Salim disappeared, although I did predict an aspect that would be involved (yes, I’m being quite vague here!). Dowd’s mystery is compelling and smart, and the resolution is satisfying. It’s incredibly sad that this talented author won’t get the opportunity to provide us with more books.

While I’m sure I would have enjoyed The London Eye Mystery in print, narrator Alex Kalajzic’s matter-of-fact yet warm tone truly drew me in to Ted’s inner life. A wonderful listen!

Unlocked by Ryan G Van Cleave

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Andy is the son of a janitor, and that has given him a reputation and a nickname. Shaking that off isn’t easy, especially when you’re a freshman in high school and everyone seems to know exactly where they belong in the social hierarchy.

While there are a couple other loners in the school — Sue and Nicholas — it’s Blake that captures Andy’s attention and interest, and it’s not because he’s necessarily interested in being friends. No, Blake interests Andy because of a rumor he heard: that Blake had a gun in his locker.

It’s ultimately Becky Ann, the girl Andy has a mega crush on, who convinces Andy to steal the school’s keys from his father and check the situation out for himself. Is Blake a threat to the school? Does Andy get the girl after snooping in Blake’s locker?

Does Andy have an agenda for revenge on the school?

Unlocked, written in verse, is an extremely fast paced but surprising book on a topic that’s been tread quite a bit in recent years: school violence. Andy is an angry character, but because we’re given the story from his perspective, and because he’s kind enough to give us his impressions of other students experiencing social outcast like he is, we understand why he’s angry. We also know deep down he has a spot of goodness, even if he doesn’t want to admit to it himself. Van Cleave gives his main character and his story a strong voice, something that is essential to a story as short as this one, and he is consistent in his execution.

Andy’s got a strong desire to find a way to fit in, and though he is quick to judge the other “losers” in school, it’s obvious he wants a friend and he wants one bad. And despite being set up by Becky Ann to talk with Blake — a guy who scares him — he finds he and Blake have more in common than he could imagine. But as readers, we hope they don’t form a friendship. We know Blake’s problematic, both from Andy’s descriptions and from our own understanding of the situation the two of them are thrown into, and despite our interest in Andy socializing, this is bad news.

Andy won’t listen though. But he will surprise us.

Books in verse are hit and miss for me, since these stories need to have a real purpose for using verse. It can’t be used as a method without serving the story, and I’m a little mixed on whether it was effective in Van Cleave’s book. Andy’s story and perspective don’t have enough pulse behind them to merit a longer book or to merit standard prose, but I’m not entirely sure that the verse heightened or changed the story, either. The caveat to that is that this is the kind of book that will appeal to reluctant readers, particularly reluctant readers of verse novels. It’s a short book, and the fact it’s written as it is makes it read quickly. There’s not a lot of dwelling on unnecessary details, and we get just enough characterization in the story to make it move. Likewise, I think that this book has great guy appeal — besides the main character being male, there is more emphasis on action than on emotion, despite the fact this is a bit of an emotionally-intense book. But the emotion comes more on the reader’s side than on the story’s side. I don’t think there are enough books written in verse with guy appeal, and this one, despite some of the shortcomings of the structure, is a worthy entry into that category.

What I really enjoyed about Van Cleave’s story was it wasn’t entirely predictable. Because I’ve read a number of stories that tackle this topic, I had a prediction of how the story would play out, but Andy completely surprised me in the end. Throughout the story, I saw these glimpses of something different in his character, something that made him different from these other kids, and in the end, he proved this to me. This is the kind of book that almost begs for a rereading, simply because of the surprise ending; the clues are dropped throughout, and a second read would be rewarding in terms of unlocking them.

Unlocked would make a strong read alike to books such as Hate List by Jennifer Brown, as well as Jodi Picoult’s 19 Minutes and even Dave Cullen’s Columbine. In the past, I’ve talked the former three together, and I’ve found kids interested in one story want to read the rest of them as a means of understanding different perspectives. Van Cleave’s story will reach reluctant readers, as mention before, as well as those who enjoy fast-paced, realistic stories. Hand this one, too, to your kids who maybe find themselves in the outside of high school cliques, as it will make them feel they can make a difference and do matter in school.

The Pull of Gravity by Gae Polisner

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At ALA Midwinter, Abby and I were told by a reputable source that we needed to find a copy of Gae Polisner’s debut novel The Pull of Gravity. Turns out, we scored the last two review copies, and when I finally had the chance to dive in, I can say I wasn’t disappointed.

Nick’s family is in a tough position right now, as his father has decided he needs to go for a walk. This walk is a life walk of sorts, one where he hopes he’ll be able to not only find himself, but that he’ll have the added benefit of losing weight. About the time he up and leaves, Nick’s neighbor and best friend Scooter, who has suffered from a life altering disease for years, becomes sicker and sicker. Nick can’t fathom the idea of losing both his father and his best friend.

When Nick meets Jaycee, a strange girl who, too, has ties to Scooter (something Nick never knew), he learns that his best friend not only kept a secret about his friendship with this girl, but he discovers there’s another secret — a dying wish Scooter only shared with Jaycee — that involves Nick. He and Jaycee are to deliver a valuable first edition of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men to Scooter’s father, a man who walked out of Scooter’s life a long time ago and from whom no one had heard from in many years. Jaycee has a plan, and Nick, knowing he wants to make the wishes of his best friend come true, follows along on a road trip that will take them to unexpected places.

Polisner’s book is a steady-paced story that pulls much of its inspiration direct from the source: Steinbeck’s classic Of Mice and Men. This is a huge strength to the book, as it’s something that readers who are familiar with the work will appreciate on many levels, but it’s not so overwhelming as to turn off readers who aren’t familiar with the story. Nick and Jaycee stand on either side of this, too, so readers will immediately relate — Nick is reading the book for the first time and comes to understand why the book and story were so important to Scooter, while Jaycee, who is familiar with Steinbeck’s book, has the opportunity to teach Nick how to understand the tough parts. This set up mirrors, of course, their grieving process over the illness of Scooter, as well as their understanding of one another’s unique relationship to Scooter.

The Pull of Gravity is a quiet book, and it wouldn’t need to be any other way. Nick is your average guy: he’s not the smartest nor the dumbest, and he does enough to get by in school socially. Even though he has a lot going on in his life, and none of it is good, he’s strong and solid, albeit quiet. When he embarks on this trip with Jaycee, he’s hesitant at first, but throughout the course of the story, he begins to embrace the fact that Jaycee is not quiet like he is. She is anything but, and she has an excellent optimistic attitude about life. She reminded me quite a bit of Amber Appleton of Sorta Like a Rockstar in this regard, and I suspect that Polisner’s book would make a fantastic readalike to Quick’s story. By the end of the story — in a bit of a twist from what I was expecting — Nick has really learned to appreciate who he is as a person, as well as learn to love Jaycee. It turns out that Scooter’s dying wish has a far greater impact than Nick believed, even if readers will understand this chapters before Nick does.

Perhaps one of the best parts of the story for me, though, is the writing. It’s quite tight, and the control of the story — which could become unwieldy easily, given the huge number of topics tackled here — is excellent. The story moves smoothly, and there weren’t loose ends at the conclusion. But more than that, despite the heart of this story being about grief and loss, it’s written with wit, thanks to Jaycee. She’s the right balance of serious and insightful, as well as humor and absurdity, to temper the tough elements with which Nick and readers grapple.

That said, I did have a few issues with the plot. Perhaps most challenging for me was how easy it was for Nick and Jaycee to slip away from home to go on a bus trip to a city hours away from home to try to locate Scooter’s father. The clues that led them to the city were thinly developed, and while believable for teens of their age, I think that given the insight we have into Nick’s mind and the understanding we have of Jaycee, neither would really be that willing to go off such loose threads. Moreover, it was strange neither Nick’s mother nor Jaycee’s parents were aware their kids up and left — it’s explained away in the story, but it wasn’t realistic enough to me as a reader. Another minor issue I had as a reader was that when Nick and Jaycee initially arrive in Albany, the pacing dragged a bit. There is an illness involved in their arrival, and for me as a reader, it was one element too many; contextually it makes sense, particularly in relation to the parallels between Polisner’s work and Steinbeck’s, but it was just a little too much going on in such a small time frame, particularly after their time on the road. It slowed too much. And finally, post-trip, I don’t know if I necessarily bought the change in Nick and Jaycee’s relationship, perhaps because I didn’t want what happened to happen. It was almost cliche, especially in the realm of contemporary YA lit as a whole.

This book reminded me quite a bit of John Green in terms of style and execution, which is both a good and a bad thing. Long-time readers know I’m not a huge Green fan because most of his plots are the same concept over and over (geeky guy meets mysterious but quirky girl who takes him on a trip that changes his life). We have that set up here, as well. While for me, this set up is a little overdone, I think that fans of Green’s books will eat this one up. Polisner, of course, does us the favor of not falling into the exact same trope as Green, by offering us a little more in terms of the meaning of this trip and the importance of the friendship of Scooter to Nick and Jaycee.

Pass Polisner’s debut The Pull of Gravity to your fans of slower paced readers, as well as fans of classic literary novels. Though I wouldn’t necessarily call this a literary piece itself, the connections it makes to Of Mice and Men will pique the interest of many classic readers, while capturing the interest of those readers who wouldn’t want to touch a classic novel if they weren’t forced to. Don’t believe that there aren’t tough issues tackled and that there aren’t very heavy moments in the story — there are. But the overall tone of the novel is hopeful and positive, so those who don’t like stories with sad endings will find this to be a satisfying read. Although not necessarily what I’d consider a “guy read,” this book certainly will appeal to both girls and guys, as Nick is a pretty believable male lead. This is the kind of book that would work well, too, for book clubs or reading groups because of its wide potential readership.

Double-Take: Grave Style

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Remember that double (and triple and quadruple and…) take that Kelly posted awhile ago? I couldn’t help thinking of that when I spotted this cover while perusing my library’s young adult fiction collection today.
Dead Connection by Charlie Price was published in 2006 by Roaring Brook Press. It’s a mystery involving a teen who has the ability to converse with the dead when he’s near them in the cemetery – hence the somewhat creepy perspective of this cover.
The cover on the ARC of Susan Vaught’s Going Underground has a similar image with the perspective reversed. Vaught’s book tackles a very current issue: sexting. When Del was 14, a teacher confiscated his phone and found revealing photos of his girlfriend. As a result, he’s now a felon and the only work he can find is as a gravedigger. I snagged a copy of this one at TLA this year. It’s due to be released in September by Bloomsbury.
Having not read either of these, I can’t really say who does it better. I like the creep factor of the first where it appears as if the reader is inside the grave – it seems to match the subject matter of the book very well. While both covers show a similar image, I think they’re still different enough to suit their respective books well.

Your need-to-know guide to BEA

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Kim and I will be heading to Book Expo America again this year. If you aren’t familiar with what this convention is, check out their website. It’s THE place for publishers to talk about their upcoming titles, and it’s THE place to meet and interact with other people in the publishing business (publicists, media, bloggers, and librarians). For Kim and I, this is a great time to both have on our librarian hats and our blogging hats, since we get a sneak peek at what’s coming out.

If you’re going this year, make sure you check out our series last year about the experience here. We’ve offered up our tips and tricks from experience.

The key to this conference is to have a plan, but be willing to deviate completely. Pack well, and make sure you know where the shipping room is in the expo center. Bring plenty of patience and be laid back — you have to wait in long lines some times, but remember, you have books you can read in the mean time.

If you have questions or want more insight, drop a comment and we’d be happy to answer as best we can. And if you’re going to BEA, make sure you say hi to us if you see us.