One of the BookExpo experiences I haven’t written about yet was a program titled YA-to-Adult: An Author Perspective, featuring authors Melissa de la Cruz, Ellen Hopkins and Melissa Marr, moderated by Cathy Berner of Blue Willow Bookshop.
All three popular YA authors have an adult book coming out this year. Graveminder by Melissa Marr was released on May 17th and is the subject of today’s review. Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz (Hyperion) comes out on June 21st, and Triangles by Ellen Hopkins (Atria) on October 18th. I will post reviews of both closer to their publication dates.
The discussion was launched with the inevitable question: Why write an adult novel?
Melissa Marr made it clear that she didn’t make a decision to write an adult novel. She simply wrote the story that came to her. As for what made this one adult, it definitely wasn’t sex or language – staying true to the characters, she found that her adults swore less than her teens. It’s all in the nature of the protagonist’s journey. In this case, it wasn’t a coming of age or about finding oneself.
Marr has noticed how many adults cross over and read her YA books, especially romance readers. She is hoping that her youngest YA readers don’t pick up Graveminder, but otherwise is sure that teens will want to read it. (I’m sure she’s right!) She also revealed that her writing process was very different for this book. This was the first time she wrote from beginning to end in a linear fashion – because it is a mystery, and she wanted to maintain the suspense.
I will save my notes about the other two authors for posts about their novels. Something to look forward to!
By the way, Melissa Marr fans have a lot to look forward to as well. She has a few books in the works, including a middle grade series.
Adult/High School–Three elements drive Marr’s narrative: a small town that isn’t quite normal, a tangled romance, and a dead girl roaming the streets. The novel begins with Byron finding the body of Bek’s grandmother, Maylene, in a pool of blood. This murder brings Bek back to Claysville where Byron and Bek unravel family and town secrets and rekindle their intense relationship. As they try to get the roaming dead girl where she belongs, they find they have inherited a world of the dead that defines the town. Bek is the next in line for the job of Graveminder: the person who keeps the dead in their graves and takes those that haven’t been properly minded to the underworld; and Byron is the Undertaker, the only one who can open the door to the land underneath. While the underworld is expertly imagined, and there is wonderful tension between Byron and Bek, ultimately there’s not much here that’s new and completely engaging. In the underworld, Bek’s senses are heightened dramatically; it’s vibrant and alluring. Even so, when Mr. D, their main contact in the underworld, tries to seduce Bek, it’s unclear why he’d be competition for Byron’s steadfast love and protection. Twilight has more gasps, bites, and smoldering tension. Teen fans of the “Wicked Lovely” series (HarperCollins) will enjoy the creepy gothic vibe yet may be disappointed. There’s little for them to sink their teeth into, and there’s not enough drama to draw uninitiated teen readers to this author.–Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, CA
Laura Harrington’s debut novel makes a powerful anti-war statement, while being entirely supportive of the families personally involved. Alice Bliss is a teenager whose world is turned upside down when her father’s army reserve unit is called up for active duty in Iraq.
I will admit that there came a point when I had to put this book down for a day or two when it became too painful. But Alice called me back. She is so wonderfully vibrant and real, I had to finish her story. I admire the author for her ability to bring the reader so deeply into one girl’s world.
To further tempt you, I thought I would share an excerpt from an interview I did with Harrington, to be published in the June 15th SLJ Teen Newsletter:
What was your inspiration for the story?
My father was a navigator/ bombardier in WWII, flying missions into Germany from his air base just north of Paris. Both my brothers enlisted in the Air Force in 1966. So, while I don’t have a family member serving in the current war, my family has been deeply impacted by war. My father suffered from what they called battle fatigue (now known as PTSD) following the war, a time he would never talk about directly. Nor would he talk about the experiences during the war that had so devastated him. The silence surrounding my father’s war experiences has probably been the single greatest mystery and inspiration in my life. I believe that my fascination with war grows out of my need to understand these experiences and to bear witness to this silent suffering.
Was it your goal to increase awareness of the plight of military families?
Absolutely. And, in particular, to increase awareness of the children who are left behind. Especially the children of Reservists who often feel that not only does no one know their story, no one even knows they exist.
Harrington is a playwright, but this is her first novel. In fact, Alice Bliss was originally a one-woman musical titled Alice Unwrapped, in which Alice was quite different than the small town girl we come to know and love in the novel. It’s a fascinating genesis, and one that the author discusses further in the interview.
HARRINGTON, Laura. Alice Bliss: A Novel. 320p. Viking. June 2011. Tr $25.65. ISBN 978-0-670-02278-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Alice Bliss, 14, lives in an idyllic small American town with her parents and younger sister, Ellie. Matt, her father, loves his work, coaches Little League, joins the army reserve, and is still passionately in love with his wife, Angie. Alice and Matt plan, plant and cultivate a vegetable garden every year, giving them precious time to themselves. Alice’s very best friend since birth is the boy next door, Henry. In January, Matt’s unit is called up for active duty. He is excited; but Angie, Alice and Ellie are horrified, terrified of the unthinkable. While Matt spends six weeks training at Fort Dix, they wait for his phone calls. After he is deployed to Iraq, Angie is paralyzed. She stops shopping, cooking, or cleaning. Alice takes to wearing her father’s blue shirt every day for weeks, but also manages to get her little sister fed and into bed each night, as well as walked to school each morning, with Henry’s help. Their relationship is changing. Henry feels it first, how much he wants to kiss her. Alice turns to him for comfort after Matt is declared missing in action, most likely taken prisoner. The idea that Matt could leave on a bus one day and never come home again seems impossible. But all it takes is a glance at a newspaper to know that this is a tragedy all too many families are experiencing. Harrington turns what could have been sentimental and cloying into a powerful, wrenching story that reads as simple, unadorned truth–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City
BookExpo can be an overwhelming experience. This year was no exception. In summarizing it here, my plan is to limit myself to adult books with potential teen appeal and their authors. Apologies to all of the wonderful YA and Adult authors and titles that will not be mentioned here.
Overall, I was impressed by how many of the adult books being promoted this year have potential appeal to younger readers. Consensus seems to be that there were fewer advanced reader copies available at BookExpo this year, and some attendees were disappointed. Maybe, but the quality of the books being promoted was exceptional. I came away very excited about the coming months, and having enjoyed three wonderful days in the company of passionate fellow booklovers.
It all started first thing Monday morning with Library Journal’s Day of Dialog, and an Editor’s Picks panel. These are always a treat; it is a rare experience to hear directly from the editors. Here are the titles I starred for potential teen appeal:
From Henry Holt: And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: a life by Charles J. Shields (November). This biography may be a stretch, but Vonnegut is popular with many teen readers.
From Atria: The Map of Time by Felix J Palma (June). First in a trilogy set in Victorian London that may appeal to steampunk fans; includes characters such as H.G. Wells.
The Dog Who Knew too Much by Spencer Quinn (September). The fourth Chet and Bernie mystery. These funny and charming mysteries told from the dog’s point of view have natural appeal for teen readers.
Triangles by Ellen Hopkins (October). The first adult novel from the very, very popular YA author certainly sounds adult (three friends face midlife crises). She will be releasing a 2012 novel for YAs telling the same story from the teen point-of-view. (Click here for a glimpse of the cover.)
From Bloomsbury: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (August). A pregnant 14-year-old takes the reader through 12 days in Mississippi, culminating with the arrival of Hurricane Katrina.
Day of Dialog continued with an author panel titled “Truth or Dare: Presenting the Past in History and Fiction.”
I especially look forward to reading The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (Knopf, August), the author of When the Emperor was Divine (Knopf, 2002). Picture brides come to the U.S. to marry Japanese men they have only met through letters and photographs. Most are 13-15 when they set sail, and the novel is written in the “choral we” voice of the young women.
Tony Horwitz, author of Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War (Holt, October) is married to Geraldine Brooks, one of my favorite authors (The People of the Book, March, Year of Wonders, and currently Caleb’s Crossing). He was very funny describing all of the strenuous historical research he must go through, while his wife sits across the room in their attic office, happily “just making stuff up.” (If you’ve read her books, you know that’s simply not true!) Midnight Rising sounds like a fascinating read.
As does Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America by David S. Reynolds (Norton, June), which the author described as a cultural biography – Uncle Tom’s Cabin was both shaped by the culture of the time, and has ever since itself shaped the culture of those who read it. Sounds like a shoe-in for school library collections.
Amy Waldman, author of The Submission (Farrar, August), was a journalist with the New York Times for years. She talked about how freeing it was to write fiction after writing articles. Her novel is about a Muslim architect who submits a plan for the World Trade Center memorial. Waldman had to change some of her novel when it came too close to reality after the story broke about the Mosque being planned within blocks of the site.
Late Monday afternoon I headed over to the Javits Center to attend the Adult Buzz Panel. This is another chance to hear editors talk about their picks for fall. In this case there are six editors, and each talks for 10 minutes about one book. Of the six, five (!) had possible teen potential:
Running the Rift by Naomi Bernaron (January 2012). Once again, Algonquin will publish the Bellwether Prize for Fiction winner (following Mudbound and The Girl Who Fell from the Sky). This is the story of a Rwandan boy whose goal is to win an Olympic medal for track. But the genocide gets in his way. The editor emphasized the beauty of the country and its culture.
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (Little Brown, September). Two college kids in the Midwest and their love of playing baseball. I admit to little interest in baseball, but the description had me dying to read this book. I’ll let you know!
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jabar (Norton, September). Set in Miami, and described as both deep and frivolous, this is the story of a girl who ran away from home at 13, then returns at 18 and the issues that ensue.
We the Animals by Justin Torres (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, August). This slim book is about three young brothers, coming out, and violence in the home. Guaranteed to make the reader “see the world in a new way.” I also saw the author interviewed on Tuesday, but will save that for a later post. We will be reviewing this one here.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, September). No doubt this will be a huge hit with teens. In fact, the presenter was quite right to say that this is for everyone, for all ages. You will be hearing a lot more about it; movie rights have already been sold.
Tuesday started off with a Random House Book & Author breakfast. Such a starry line-up! Each author was introduced by their editor, and then spoke for 10-15 minutes.
First up was Craig Thompson, who spoke about his upcoming graphic novel, Habibi (Pantheon, September). He began by talking about how sick he was of drawing himself in Blankets, so he was looking for something completely different. He found it. Habibi is an Arabian Nights fairy tale that manages to be timely, broaching issues such as the water crisis and the intersection of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
Vanessa Diffenbaugh, author of The Language of Flowers (Ballantine, August), could not have been more engaging. Her novel centers on a young woman aging out of the foster care system. Vanessa has been fostering children and teens since she was 23. She has established a nonprofit in conjunction with the book, the Camellia Network. Its mission is to “combat the tragic outcomes of the foster care system by providing a safe, simple, personal way for individuals to contribute material and emotional support to young people transitioning from foster care to independent adulthood.”
Ready Player One(Crown, August) follows an orphan caught up in a gaming universe called The Oasis. It is described as a quest novel, inspired by Willy Wonka. Author Ernest Cline spoke about his years as a screenwriter, how soul-crushing it is to write a story only to have it changed until it is nearly unrecognizable. He decided to write a book because there is nothing between author and audience. Of course, the day after he sold the book, he sold the film rights. Back to writing a screenplay!
Erin Morgenstern, the author of The Night Circus (Doubleday, September), read from one of my favorite parts of her book – a boy discovers a circus tent full of bottles and pots. Opening each container unleashes a full sensory experience.
And finally, Esmeralda Santiago (author of When I was Puerto Rican, a memoir which I’m sure most of us have in our library collections) spoke about her upcoming historical fiction novel, Conquistadora (Knopf, July). She presented it as her recreation of the ancestors she has never been able to track down entirely.
After breakfast it was time to hit the exhibits. The first ARC I came across was a book I have been looking forward to for months – When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (Algonquin, October). Jordan’s debut novel, Mudbound, won an Alex Award. This novel’s subject matter is completely different – a woman wakes up in prison and her skin is bright red. That is her punishment – it indicates to the world that she is a murderer. I am about 60 pages in, and it is fascinating.
The other ARC that I was thrilled to find was The Magician King by Lev Grossman (Viking, August), the sequel to last year’s Alex-Award-winning The Magicians. I started it on my way home that evening. Love!
The AAP Librarian’s Lunch boasted another all-star lineup:
Chuck Palahniuk, author of Damned (Doubleday)
Spencer Quinn, author of To Fetch A Thief (Atria)
Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Birds of Paradise: A Novel (W.W. Norton)
Julie Kagawa, author of The Iron Queen (Harlequin Teen)
Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers (St. Martin’s Press)
David Baldacci, author of One Summer (Grand Central Publishing)
I am especially interested to read Damned — about a 13-year-old girl in hell who is trying to work out how to damn her entire family. She misses them.
The lunch was followed immediately by the AAP Librarian’s Book Buzz. Too many books to go into detail, but a few stood out for teen appeal: The Little Bride by Anna Solomon (Riverhead, September) The Kid by Sapphire (Penguin, July) If Jack’s in Love by Stephen Wetta (Putnam, September)
The remainder of Tuesday and all of Wednesday I spent on the exhibits floor, talking with librarians, authors and publishers. It was great fun. A few more books to highlight:
Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow (Algonquin, May) was signing and I was thrilled to meet her. I posted about her novel last week.
Christie Watson, author of Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away (Other Press, May), was also signing her novel about a girl growing up in rural Nigeria.
Pure by Julianna Baggott (Grand Central, February 2012) – The first in a postapocalyptic trilogy, which the publisher blurb compares to The Passage, The Road and 1984. Big shoes to fill. Being one of my favorite genres, I’m willing to give it a try.
The Maid by Kimberly Cutter (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October) – a novel about Joan of Arc.
Child Wonder by Roy Jacobsen (Graywolf, September) — a coming of age novel set in Norway.
Hopefully, you will be seeing reviews of most of these titles here over the coming months. A huge thank you to all of the authors, editors, marketers, fellow librarians and reading enthusiasts who made this year’s event one to remember.
John Prendergast and Michael Mattocks relate their very different, but connected, experiences in this joint memoir.
Prendergast wrote a Huffington Post article to explain his hopes for the book, including increased awareness of the issues around which he co-founded the Enough Project, which works to “end genocide and crimes against humanity” in Sudan, eastern Congo, northern Uganda, Somalia, Chad and Zimbabwe.
The book trailer gives readers a chance to meet both authors and includes blurbs from Wes Moore, whose book The Other Wes Moore (now out in paperback) was reviewed here last year, and Dave Eggers.
For a preview of the text itself, click over to Scribd.
PRENDERGAST, John & Michael Mattocks. Unlikely Brothers: Our Story of Adventure, Loss and Redemption. 272p. photos. Crown. 2011. Tr $24. ISBN 978-0-307464842. LC 2010042790.
Adult/High School–A memoir in duet, Unlikely Brothers chronicles both sides of a relationship that began in a homeless shelter in Washington D.C. where, in 1983, a 20-year-old college student showed up for his first visit to Michael and James Mattocks as part of the “Big Brother” program. Michael and James thrived under the kind of attention they had never before experienced. Prendergast would take the brothers fishing, to the library, and for visits with his own family in Philadelphia. As the boys became adolescents, they began to grow apart from Prendergast, whose attention was now more focused on their younger brother. Michael and James began to sell drugs and became kingpins of the streets of D.C., while John began travels to Africa and eventually became an expert in African affairs working in the Clinton White House. As tragedy and loss changed the course of their separate lives, Michael and Prendergast began to evaluate how they were each living and moved toward healing themselves and their relationship. In alternating contributions, they reflect on the forces in their own families that shaped their experiences and choices. Each young man is a survivor–of gun battles and street wars and family challenges. Each one has made a remarkable journey of transformation, one that Mattocks describes as a journey from rags to respect. Teens will find his voice true, his descriptions of survival on the streets riveting, and the impact of his brotherhood with Prendergast inspiring.–John Sexton, formerly at Westchester Library System, Tarrytown, NY
Today’s guest blogger is Karlan Sick. Karlan and I served together on the Alex Awards committee for four years, and Karlan was always determined to find a book of poetry for the list. She introduced me to Poets House. At least once a summer, we would meet there and spend hours reading through potential collections, most hand-picked for us by the knowledgeable staff. Almost two years ago, Poets House moved from Soho to an incredible location in Battery Park City. Open to the public, and available for school visits, this is a beautiful, inspiring place for poetry. From Karlan:
With some 50,000 volumes of mostly contemporary American poetry on open stacks, Poets House is a wonderful place to visit here in NYC. The new site faces the park and Hudson River with beautiful wide windows to please those who want to read or write. Every year a special party is held to introduce the Showcase, a collection of virtually every poetry book published that year. Star struck readers can enjoy refreshments and meet some of their favorite poets. Programs and writing workshops are held for children, teens and adults. When the weather is nice, there are special events in the adjacent park, too. An annual fundraiser, a walk across Brooklyn Bridge in June, is a highlight of the year. Poetry is read before the walk, at the half way point, and on arrival. A fine dinner is served along with more poetry. The creative leadership of Poets House has made this wonderful space exciting and welcoming. Come for a visit when you are in New York City.
COLLINS, Billy. Horoscopes for the Dead. 106p. Random. 2011. Tr $24. ISBN 978-1-4000-6492-2. LC 2010018621.
Adult/High School–Collins served as Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003, and his sense of humor and storytelling style appeal to most readers. Boys should appreciate “The Snag.” “The only time I found myself at all interested/in the concept of a time machine/was when I first heard that baldness in a man/was traceable to his maternal grandfather./I pictured myself stepping in the odd craft/ with a vial of poison tucked into a pocket/and, just in case, a newly sharpened kitchen knife./Of course, I had not thought this through very carefully./But even after I realized the drawback/of eradicating my own existence/not to mention the possible existence of my mother,/I came up with a better reason to travel back in time.” The poet then imagines being a child and meeting his grandfather in a touching conclusion. The title poem describes an activity to which many people do not admit. And why read the horoscope relating to someone who is gone? “Every morning since you disappeared for good,/ I read about you in the daily paper/ along with the box scores, the weather, and all the bad news./ Some days I am reminded that today/ will not be a wildly romantic time for you,/ nor will you be challenged by educational goals,/ nor will you need to be circumspect at the workplace.” It is refreshing to read a poet who uses direct, elegant language. The humorous, wistful tone of the poems and the incidents poignantly presented should make this a welcome addition to all collections.–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library
Today a review of Jennifer McMahon’s new paperback original.
I quite enjoyed her 2007 coming-of-age novel, Promise Not to Tell (Harper), so I was happy to see that this one also has teen potential. Both novels will appeal to teens who enjoy a good, creepy mystery.
MCMAHON, Jennifer. Don’t Breathe a Word. 464p. Harper. 2011. Tr $14.99. ISBN 978-0-06-168937-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Twelve-year-old Lisa wants to meet the King of the Fairies and has been exchanging gifts with him in the woods near her Vermont home. Her subsequent disappearance rocks her small town. Did she cross over to the land of the fairies and become Queen as she wished, or did she meet a more realistic, horrible fate? Fifteen years later, Sam, Lisa’s brother, a dedicated realist, thinks she is dead. Phoebe, his girlfriend, isn’t as sure. When they get a message from someone purporting to be Lisa, they embark on a crazy journey that turns their worlds upside down. Dual first-person points-of-view from both Lisa (15 years ago) and Phoebe (in the present day) draw together complex, parallel stories that seem to come to a conclusion only to open the possibility, once again, that things are not what they seem; that there’s something quite off-kilter in the world. This dark, psychological thriller has a conspiracy theme reminiscent of Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby (Random, 1967) and layers of red herrings, each one spiraling back on itself. Recommended for teens who enjoy dark fantasy and mysteries.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI
Tayari Jones’ new coming-of-age novel is a natural for teen readers. Although Silver Sparrow releases tomorrow, it has already garnered lots of attention, including an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered and the top spot on the June Indie Next List. Greenlight Books in Brooklyn is holding a launch party on Wednesday evening, in the middle of BookExpo and New York Book Week.
There is another excellent interview by Roxane Gay on the Bookslut blog.
I was also interested to learn about Tayari Jones’ involvement with Girls Write Now, an organization that pairs teen writers attending New York City public schools with adult writing mentors.
JONES, Tayari. Silver Sparrow. 352p. Algonquin. 2011. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-56512-990-0. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Dana and Chaurisse, born four months apart, live unusually connected lives in middle-class African American neighborhoods in 1970s and ‘80s Atlanta. Dana Lynn Yarboro narrates Part I. She lives with her mother, Gwendolyn. Her father, James Witherspoon, visits for dinner once a week. Dana has always known about his other family, but it isn’t until kindergarten that he sits her down and tells her that she is a secret. Gwen and Dana drive around watching his other wife and daughter, the family he acknowledges in public, live their easy lives. In Part II, Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon tells her story, all the way to its inevitably sad conclusion. Chaurisse and her mother Laverne have no idea that James is a bigamist until the daughters near graduation from high school, and Dana’s curiosity and resentment get the better of her. She befriends Chaurisse in a drug store where they are both shoplifting. Dana even visits Laverne’s beauty salon for a hair treatment. As one might imagine, no one in this story is very happy, and men, both husbands and boyfriends, get a particularly bad rap. Each daughter includes the story of how her mother came to marry James; Laverne’s teen experiences are particularly affecting. The dovetailing narratives of Dana and Chaurisse add considerable appeal to the novel, and their teen voices ring true.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City
For me, BookExpo signals the nearing end of the school year, and the approach of ALA Annual. Unlike ALA, BEA is all about books, all the time.
I thought it would be fun to share my personal preview of the week.First, the books I have my eye on with Adult for YA potential, in no particular order.(These authors are all appearing at BEA.)
The End of Everything by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown, July). I had the chance to meet the author at a Hachette preview event a few weeks ago. She read from The End of Everything and signed. Abbott is completely charming and a wonderful reader. I predict this book will be huge (it certainly starts off with a bang) for teens and for adults.
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Ballantine, August). Erica Melnichok at Random turned me onto this book a while back, and I am finally getting a chance to read it. 60 pages in, I love it. Definitely has appeal for teens.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, September). I’ve already read this one. This is going to be a huge book when it lands in September, mark my words. Brilliant!
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Crown, August). A geek’s paradise.
Habibi by Craig Thompson (Pantheon, September). Blankets is among my favorite graphic novels of all time. Hard not to be excited about this one!
We the Animals by Justin Torres (Houghton Mifflin, September). There is a great deal of buzz about this novel, and the description is intriguing. Hoping to score a copy and find out for myself.
The Leftovers by Tom Perotta (St. Martin’s, August). I will admit that his brand of satire is a little too edgy for me. But the description of his new novel caught my eye.
The Magician King by Lev Grossman (Viking, August). I am willing to stand in line for quite a while for this one. Both to have a copy of the book (sequel to The Magicians) and to say hello to its author. I’m a fan, what can I say.
Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones (Algonquin, May). You will be seeing a blog review of this one on Monday. A natural for teens.
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber (Norton, September). About a teen runaway.
A More Perfect Heaven by Dava Sobel (Walker, September) — Sobel’s new book about Copernicus will certainly end up on my library shelves.
YA to Adult panel , Wednesday afternoon, featuring Melissa Marr, Ellen Hopkins and Melissa de la Cruz.
I am also looking forward to meeting:
Michael Kortya — I just finished So Cold the River andlike his approach to suspense and horror. Looking forward to The Ridge.
Pam Lewis – A Young Wife has been compared to Robert Goolrick’s A Reliable Wife (Algonquin, 2009). If it’s anywhere near as good, I’m in.
Francisco Goldman – Say her Name is too gorgeous for words.
Lauren Oliver – I loved Before I Fall and it was my student bookgroup’s favorite read of the year by far.
Ally Condie – Looking forward to reading the follow-up to Matched.
Laini Taylor – Her new novel, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, is getting great advanced reviews.
Jennifer Haigh — I enjoyed Baker Towers a few years ago. Faith is getting such raves, I hope to have time to check it out.
And one recommendation — If you attend the SLJ Day of Dialog, keep an eye on Paul Griffin, who will be participating in the morning Diversity panel. I just finished his new novel Stay with Me (Dial, September) and it is a tour-de-force. (Loved his first two novels also.)
I will report back here at the end of the week. In the meantime, feel free to follow me on Twitter at AngeReads. Often, it is the surprises that are most memorable about any conference. Can’t wait to share the books I discover this week!
Here on the AB4T blog, we provide timely reviews of new books. But I have also opened up the blog to the reviewers to write about a relevant topic or book outside those guidelines. Amy Cheney is a librarian at the Alameda County Library Juvenile Justice Center in California. She is particularly interested in marginalized books and authors that are relevant to her population. Recently, she asked if she could review a book that made a huge impact on her, but was published in 2009. I said, well, not officially. But why not write a blog post about it? From Amy:
There are books and authors that defy categorization. Jarid Manos is an ex-drug dealing gay black person of Moorish descent who is currently an environmental activist. Or, as he says in his memoir Ghetto Plainsman (Temba Press, 2009), “….here I was, an inner-city urban tattooed muscled ex-drug dealer homeboy thug hypersensitive vegetarian animist homosexual cyclist rural outback plainsman who could sleep on a subway train while keeping his outer “Watchman” self on alert, who also knew the curls of buffalo grass and the smell of an active prairie dog burrow from ten feet away and was able to return cross-country through the blackest night eight miles back to the nearest road.” (page 404).
Where does this belong? Who is the audience? I was faced with these questions when I found out Jarid Manos was going to be in the Bay Area speaking at a nearby bookstore and, after reading his book, was compelled to find other venues for him. As an African American and an ex-drug dealer, he is a prime example of a writer I would bring in to speak with my teens in detention. Would my teens want to read this book? Who else would want to read it? In some ways – in many ways – we all do.
The book does not appear to have been reviewed in the mainstream press, and yes, at times I thought it could use better editing. But then again, the book is allowed its range, and Jarid’s voice is like that of the canary in the coal mine gently lighting and touching upon a great many vital topics; the build up of tension and overall impact is immense and profound. I can’t stop thinking or feeling about it, and other blurbs say the same.
The first 100 or so pages contains sordid and horrific details of self hatred along with equally horrific details of the madness and destruction of earth and animals. Stalked by predators — the principal at his school, riding his bike, trying to use a public restroom — Manos struggles with his alientation and homosexuality, trying to ignore his feelings for other men. Deeper into the book, desperate for survival as well as connection, he has unsafe sex as well as prostitutes himself. Within a few pages one reads about the details of his ghetto apartment — roaches running onto his naked legs, no hot water, a neighbor who buys live chickens to eat, the sounds of drug dealers and beer cans rolling in the street, his hatred and rage at people, the Exxon Valdez spill, the uprising in Tiananmen Square, his job at a restaurant, and a beach he is on in Greece. It’s not linear, until it is, until the narrative becomes absolutely crystal clear: this is about a lost soul. Someone who feels SO DEEPLY what is happening on the planet and is so impacted by its destruction that he is caught in the destruction himself and desperately seeking a way out of it.
The reader becomes engaged in his narrative because we are all alienated and adrift. We are all desperate, we are all lonely, we all feel the destruction of the earth and we are all participating in it — our own destruction — on one level or another. Once the reader is involved in the story it is almost impossible to put down. Manos is able to convey these feelings of longing and despair in such a visceral and immediate way it keeps us reading, brings tears to the eyes and nightmares of the murdering of prairie dogs at night.
Managing drug deals from afar, he travels to Europe, he travels West, wandering on the destroyed landscape with little to eat or drink, sleeping under trees, trying to find a place of refuge, wilderness, of wildness left on the Great Plains – anywhere – somewhere. We keep reading because we need to find out if he makes it, if there is any hope, if there is any redemption – on the personal or global level.
Fortunately, he did indeed make it out from the streets to found and direct the Great Plains Restoration Council “Serving our Youth, Protecting our Prairie Earth.”
Manos visited my youngsters yesterday, and they were able to relate to his story even while having few answers or information about his questions such as: What is an ecosystem? What does sacred mean? Why should we care about prairie dogs? What is the similarity between invading species of plants and invading other people’s lands? What would it feel like if the police helicopters in the ghetto are actually shooting at you like is happening to the coyote in the Great Plains, the wolves in Alaska, the buffalo right outside our National Parks? While I know my reluctant readers aren’t going to make it through the book, a few of them asked if they could go to Texas to help. Many devastated, angry, fed up and pissed off youth are going to love this book and even carry it around as their Bible for change.
As I said, the book defies categorization, mirroring how the violence and destruction of the earth is about connecting us all — through all of our “categories” to caring about ourselves and the planet. The closest readalikes might be a cross between a depressing and/or introverted version of the Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey (Harper Perennial, 2006) and a classic such as Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown. Find out more about Manos’ work at http://www.gprc.org/
Catherynne Valente is well-known among fantasy fans as a true storyteller. In Deathless, she borrows generously from Russian folklore, and especially the figures of Baba Yaga and Koschei the Deathless.
This is the way Valente describes the book in her blog post of March 29, the day it was published: “There is so much love in it, and so much hope. In brief terms, it is a retelling of Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless set during the Stalinist era and the siege of Leningrad. It is a return to fairy tales and the retellings of them. But it is also probably the funniest book I’ve ever written, (if you like dark humor), and plot/structurewise the most straightforward outside Fairyland.”
A substantial excerpt (the first several chapters) is available on the Tor site.
VALENTE, Catherynne M. Deathless. 352p. Tor. 2011. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0-7653-2630-0. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This lyrical fantasy is a reimagining of the traditional Russian fairy tale featuring Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless. Set in early to mid 20th century, Deathless weaves tsars (gods) of the spirit worlds, goblins, and other mystical creatures into the genuine harshness of life in Russia during the Stalinist regime and World War II. Famine, war, and death ride side by side with the difficult love story of Marya, torn between Koschei the Deathless (Tsar of the Living), and her human love, Ivan Nikolayevich. Readers follow her as she travels back and forth between worlds, mystical creatures on one side, humans on the other. Though a challenging read at times, the poetic crafting of this tale will appeal to fantasy enthusiasts who are seeking fresh stories. Other than Baba Yaga, many of the characters and elements of this story will probably be new to most readers. Valente’s approach to fairy tales is to take the fairy out. She shakes off the traditional gossamer and instead focuses on the power in the story, thinking more about the fire, blood, and resurrection that already exist there, the things that make them memorable. Fans of Bill Willingham’s “Fables” graphic novels (Vertigo, 2002) will enjoy this updated fairy tale, similarly retold with traditional characters placed in contemporary, trying situations –Carla Riemer, Berkeley High School, CA
Angela Carstensen is Head Librarian and an Upper School Librarian at Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City. Angela served on the Alex Awards committee for four years, chairing the 2008 committee, and chaired the first YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adult committee in 2009. Recently, she edited Outstanding Books for the College Bound: Titles and Programs for a New Generation (ALA Editions, 2011). Contact her via Twitter @AngeReads.
