The Book Search

This week, I've stepped off the middle grade merry-go-round and I'm reading things my friends are recommending to me.  As you see the list, you'll see I have a pretty eclectic group of friends (lucky, lucky me!). The first one came from one of my best friends.  She and I have been friends for a LONG time, former co-workers, carpoolers, and neighbors.  We have many books in common and this latest one, "The Nightingale"by Kristin Hannah  I COULD NOT IT PUT DOWN.  It's a World War 2 book and just when I think I'm never going to read another book about World War 2, someone nags me into reading one and this one was worth the nag!  It's about two young women who have grown up in France in the 1930s.  They are sisters but they are not close.  Their mother died before the story starts and their father did not feel that he could properly care for them.  The girls are fairly far apart in age, so the older one is basically left to care for the younger one.  The

In case you didn't know, the Caldecott award is given each year to the best picture book of the year.  I dipped into that list this week and found one I missed from last year and two that look good for this year's award. The one from last year is called "The Farmer and the Clown" by Marla Frazee.  It's a wordless picture book and I don't understand how I missed this one.  But ok.  I have it now and it's really great.  It's about a farmer who lives and works out on a barren plain.  The perspective on these pictures is so broad it gives this very visceral sense of loneliness.  The facial expressions on the farmer (at first) lead to you believe he is a crotchety old man but as the story progress, you start thinking differently.  As he's working out in the fields one day, a train goes past in the distance.  Something falls off the train and the farmer goes to investigate.  He finds a small clown and without a lot of options, he brings the clown home.

This week, my group voted for the titles in middle grade fiction that we wanted to move on to the next round of voting.  Five titles made it into the next round and while I'm pleased with all of the titles that got through, I AM sworn to secrecy.  All will be revealed VERY SOON.  In the meantime, I am staying FAR, FAR away from realistic fiction at the moment.  I think all of us in the group had read ENOUGH about dead parents, dead siblings, dead best friends to last for awhile. So I'm back to Netgalley and there are some really terrific titles there that aren't out yet but will be soon.  The first one is called "The Goblin's Puzzle" by Andrew S. Chilton.  It's about three kids, a boy and two girls named Alice.  The boy doesn't have a name because he is a slave and who would bother to name a slave.  He leads a slavish existence (no pun intended but he is a slave to some not very nice people) until one day, fate intervenes.  The boy is a big believer

So after WEEKS of reading middle grade fiction for the CYBILS award (which I totally loved doing), I was REALLY ready for something different.  I looked on Netgalley and picked one that I had downloaded quite some time ago and dove in.  It's a young adult book called "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner and I timed it sort of badly.  I wanted to read a bit before I went to bed so I got into bed and started reading with about 150 pages to go and no ambition to finish it.  And then I couldn't stop reading it.  Once I got done reading it, I couldn't sleep for thinking about the characters.  It was totally worth feeling sleep deprived today! It's about three kids who are seniors in high school in a small town in Tennessee.  They all feel like outcasts for various reasons but only Lydia has a plan to get out.  As she continues to plan and talk about her plans, the boys, Dill and Travis, start to think maybe they should get out too.  There are themes of bullying (and

I'm getting down the end of the list (and sadly, the end of the time frame!).  We are supposed to come to consensus this week about which books made the short list.  Fortunately, the other people on the committee are WAY more decisive than I am so it sounds like the process shouldn't be too painful, I hope!  I did read a few this week that I really loved. The first one is historical fiction.  It's called "I Don't Know How the Story Ends" by J. B. Cheaney.  It's set in Hollywood during the first World War, which, in my opinion, is an underserved era of historical fiction.  What's great about this book is that the war serves as a backdrop to the story, it really isn't THE story.  THE story is about the beginning of the film industry and telling a story and it is terrific.  Isobel's dad has gone off to serve in the war and rather than stay in their home town of Seattle during the summer vacation, Isobel's mom decides to take her and her sist