I am very pleased to present a review for Gail Carriger’s fourth Parasol Protectorate novel. First, because my students love the series and I know they will be happy to see Heartless on display when they return to school in a few short weeks. Second, because I had the pleasure of meeting Gail at a dinner at ALA in New Orleans. She is easy to talk to, and I was charmed by the fact that she is genuinely having fun with her books. She loves making things up and figuring things out. Little wonder they are so enjoyable. She is also enthusiast about romance and comedy, which shines through in her writing. (Take a look at her website FAQs for a taste.)
I also had a chance to ask about her current work. Turns out she is writing a YA series about a finishing school housed in connected dirigibles floating above England, to be published by Little, Brown. The series is set in the same world (though an earlier time) as the Parasol Protectorate. This interview on the Bookyurt blog offers more details.
And now back to today’s review. The first in the Parasol series, Soulless, won a 2010 Alex Award. The fifth and final installment, Timeless, is slated for release on Match 1, 2012.
CARRIGER, Gail. Heartless. Bk. 4. 400p. (The Parasol Protectorate Series). Orbit. 2011. pap. $7.99. ISBN 978-0-3161-2719-6. LC 2010041808.
Adult/High School–In this installment in the series, preternatural Lady Alexia Maccon is heavily pregnant and waddling her way through one adventure after another. This time the impending birth has the entire supernatural world in London on edge because her offspring, the product of her marriage to Lord Maccon, Woolsey pack leader and heart-stoppingly handsome werewolf, may just prove the undoing of the supernatural set. As in the earlier novels, of course someone is trying to kill Lady Alexia and that is where the fun always begins. The fine British wit that sparkles on every page will have readers laughing out loud as Lady Alexia, after a warning from a mad and disintegrating ghost, is off to uncover a plot to kill Queen Victoria. Her comical adventures unearth a plot even bigger and scarier than the one she imagines and the outcome, which will leave readers in stitches and begging for the fifthth and final installment, will turn Lord and Lady Maccon’s world upside-down. Along with their somewhat steamy romance, readers also find out about other love affairs that shape the characters and the plot, including the moving story of Lord Maccon’s beta, Professor Lyall, and the deep and abiding love between Biffy, the newest werewolf cub in the Woolsey Pack, and the tartly fabulous Lord Akeldama, the flamboyant rove vampire for whom Biffy used to be a drone. These books just keep getting better and better.–Caroline Bartels, Horace Mann School, Bronx, NY
Hotwire is the ninth thriller in Alex Kava’s Maggie O’Dell series, comprised of A Perfect Evil, Split Second, The Soul Catcher,At the Stroke of Madness,A Necessary Evil, Exposed and Black Friday. Fortunately, Kava deliberately writes so that each can be enjoyed as a standalone. Hotwire happens to be of particular appeal for our audience, given that it opens with a bang — and two dead teens.
Hotwire was profiled on The Big Thrill. If you are a thriller fan, you have probably already discovered the International Thriller Writers (ITW) website. If you haven’t, take a look. Resources include a debut authors page, an author interview series (Between the Lines), and profiles of the latest thrillers of all types, from espionage to paranormal to legal to young adult.
ITW also organizes a summer conference each year, ThrillerFest, and sponsors the Thriller Awards. The 2011 awards were just announced a couple weeks ago. R.L. Stine was awarded the title of ThrillerMaster for his contributions to the genre. You have to wonder how many writers in the audience grew up reading his books!
KAVA, Alex. Hotwire: A Maggie O’Dell Novel. 305p. Doubleday. 2011. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-385-53201-3. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Dawson Hayes is a teenaged cynic. He knows he’s being used by Johnny and his girlfriend for his technical expertise when he’s invited to a party deep in the woods. It’s another initiation, and Johnny wants the group to try a new way to get high. Dawson is there to make sure everyone’s trip is secretly recorded. Suddenly, in a flurry of piercing lights, the kids are ferociously attacked, leaving two dead, one bitten, and Dawson electrocuted and bleeding, wrapped in a barbed wire fence. FBI Agent Maggie O’Dell is in the area investigating mysterious cattle mutilations and now must piece together what happened–was this a human, an animal, or even alien attack? Maggie soon uncovers secrets that find her fighting for her life. Meanwhile, a seemingly unrelated crisis unfolds across the country when, after eating school lunches, hundreds of elementary students fall violently ill with a super strain of salmonella. An anonymous caller warns the CDC of other outbreaks and the threat of a bioterror attack is evident. There is much for teens to enjoy in this mystery, even if the narration is focused on an adult point of view. The teens are realistic, and the answer to what has happened to them is in question until the end. Area 51 type intrigue is appealing to many, and the explanation of how the government obtains meat for school lunches might have readers brown-bagging it from now on. YAs seeking a well-written mystery will be satisfied.—Priscille Dando, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County, VA
Here’s a graphic novel that has something for everyone without losing any one of its readers along the way or compromising its heavy punches. Venditti and Huddleston aren’t shy with their criticisms of invasive data collection on the part of the government, but in their hands this remains great storytelling rather than screed or dogmatism.
Laura Regan works for the Federal government’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) and it’s because of her specialization and investigatory energy that both the “good” guys and the “bad” would like to have her on their side. Both sides are populated by government officials including, on the side of “bad,” the Secretary of Homeland Security, and on the good, an overweight accountant who can’t quite keep the heroes’ secrets even though he really tries. In short, these characters are rounded in narrative account as well as richly depicted without any of them sinking into stereotypical comicbook physiques or supernatural behaviors. It took brains to develop the plot to undermine citizens’ faith in their ability to respond to the epidemic breaking out across the nation and it takes collective thinking and creativity on the parts of the heroes to both uncover the details of the plot and respond to it effectively.
The multiple art styles Huddleston employs invigorates the already taut pace while amplifying the quickly changing scenes. In short, this graphic novel not only could be a boon in the political science and literature classrooms, but also as a model for creators in the format: style and content are kept in constant balance, demanding the reader to track both without either ever disappointing or disappearing before the eye or mind. Thriller loving teens will eat this like candy, but it’s better for their diet than any Dan Brown.
VENDITTI, Robert. The Homeland Directive. illus. by Mike Huddleston. 148p. Top Shelf Productions. 2011. Tr $14.95. ISBN 978-1-60309-024-7. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–The premise in this genre-blending political commentary/thriller is compelling: the government’s various investigatory agencies have determined that U.S. residents can be more deeply probed for undertaking suspicious activities by mining everyone’s data DNA, the sum of each person’s online transactions and activities. Venditti’s tight plotting and well-developed characters, envisioned by Huddleston’s variegated artistic approaches, are perfectly suited to one another. The federal plot is in the hands of a few geeks depicted on pages with graph-paper backdrops; the heads of the plotting departments are shown in shadowy and fuzzy grays, with the added symbolism of red highlights; while the heroes are instilled with expressive faces and postures. Although kidnapped by the would-be band of whistle blowers, the necessary brains of the counter-insurgence is a female epidemiologist who is treated with respect by the multiethnic team of ethically minded counteragents. Pacing is steady and the story holds enough realism to prompt serious discussion of the differences between government protection and privacy invasion, where the line between inside and outside the law can be drawn, and where to go when you can’t trust the authorities.–Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, CA
Emily Arsenault’s sophomore effort (following The Broken Teaglass, Delacorte, 2009) is a psychological mystery with hints of the supernatural. The publisher description compares Rose Notes to the work of Laura Lippman, Tana French, and Jennifer McMahon. Terrific shoes to fill!
ARSENAULT, Emily. In Search of the Rose Notes. 384p. Morrow. Aug. 2011. Tr $14.99. ISBN 978-0-06-201232-4. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Nora was only 11 in 1990 when she became the last person to see her babysitter alive. Rose left Nora at her house and continued up the road into terrible oblivion. Sixteen years later, Nora finds out from her best friend, Charlotte, that Rose’s bones have finally been found. Pulled back to the small town of her childhood, Nora relives the innocent days before the teen’s disappearance, when Rose, Nora, and Charlotte could spend hours perusing volumes from a Time-Life series on the supernatural. All of the mysterious, hidden elements of the universe seemed revealed in those pages. After Rose vanished, there continued to be an aura of supernatural influences surrounding her absence. Readers discover that something terrible happened during Nora’s high school days that cast doubt on her ability to accurately describe the past or the present. Enigmatic poems (written by whom?) and scribbled entries in Rose’s school notebook both blur and reveal the truth. Teens who like psychological thrillers will enjoy figuring out the puzzle. As the book circles around the events preceding Rose’s disappearance, the high school years of Nora and Charlotte, and the discovery of Rose’s bones in 2006, readers are continually challenged to sift through myriad strands of information, guarded conversations, and misleading perceptions. This is a great book for long summer days; once started, it’s very hard to put down.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Library, FL
The Kid is author Sapphire’s 2nd novel, following Push (Knopf, 1996). Today’s audiences know Push best as Precious, the 2009 film that was nominated for several Oscars. (The 2009 Vintage paperback reprint is actually titled Precious: based on the novel “Push”.)
The Kid is the story of what becomes of Precious’ son after she dies of AIDS. It is a powerful, painful story of sexual abuse, prostitution, rape and other violence leavened by a love of dance. Heavy material for teen readers, and I recommend that you read or skim this book yourself. As with most adult books with teen appeal, appropriateness depends upon its audience.
SAPPHIRE. The Kid. 373p. Penguin. 2011. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-1-59420-304-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This novel, the author’s follow-up to Push (Knopf, 1996), opens when “the kid” is nine years old and attending his mother’s funeral. After Precious dies, he’s put into foster care and immediately suffers physical abuse at the hands of another ward; sexual abuse soon follows as he goes to the Catholic orphanage where he receives an excellent education but is raped by the priests. He is in a dream state when he goes to the other boys at night, a state of power and joy as he repeats with them what has been done to him. JJ – as the kid is called at his point – has no sense of responsibility for or awareness of what he is doing. Completely and horrifically realistic, his voice is stream of consciousness–or unconsciousness as the case may be. It’s a jumble of fantasy, memory, justification, anger, and outrage. He tries to convince himself that his mother died in a car crash and his father in the war. He hates the “faggots” and he’s not one. He didn’t do anything. At 13, he is taken to his great-grandmother’s roach- and grease-filled house. Toosie has little interaction with him until, out of the blue, she tells her gruesome story, including her own rape that produced Mary (Precious’s mother), and Toosie’s subsequent life as a whore. JJ’s only positive outlet is dance, yet it is short lived as he struggles with identity, isolation, abuse and sexuality and finally has a breakdown. This intense and difficult book is for exceptional teens – teens who love reading books such as Dostovesky’s Crime and Punishment or Morrison’s Beloved, and who need to know and understand more of Precious and her family’s world.—Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Juvenile Hall, CA
Judy Dutton’s book is a surprisingly quick and engaging read, all while being inspiring and informative. This one may appeal even more to the teachers and parents among your patrons, but there are definitely teens out there who will enjoy it for the personal stories, the suspense of the competition, and insights into how science fairs work.
Another book that should inspire young scientists is The New Cool: A Visionary Teacher, His FIRST Robotics Team, and the Ultimate Battle of Smarts (Crown, March 2011). I haven’t read this one yet, but I hear through the librarian grapevine that it is an equally good read. Must add it to the ever-growing TBR pile!
DUTTON, Judy. Science Fair Season: Twelve Kids, a Robot Named Scorch… and What It Takes to Win. 271p. Hyperion. 2011. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-1-4013-2379-0. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–In a brief introduction, Dutton entices readers with glimpses of high school science-fair contestants whose research has influenced everything from space travel to a cure for cancer. Each ensuing chapter portrays one contestant and his or her path to success. Six chapters follow the contestants on their way to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2009; other chapters intersperse the stories of five 21st century teen science fair legends. They all culminate in Intel ISEF 2009. Which projects will prove worthy Best in Category, and which will win the ultimate prize, the coveted Young Scientist Award? The contestants come from varied educational, geographic, and economic backgrounds. Their projects are equally varied, from a girl who makes the most of contracting leprosy, to the former child actress whose study of honeybees changes her goals entirely, to the boy growing up on a reservation, inspired by his family’s need for heat and hot water. For several, the prize money is their only chance at college and a career doing what they love. Indeed, the money, acclaim, and patents involved are astonishing. Each story communicates the excitement of studying hands-on science. Dutton’s energetic, inspirational, upbeat tone does not gloss over the personal difficulties each student faces along the way. But ultimately, this is a book of success stories, emphasizing the rewards of participating in science fairs. It reads like a collection of engaging short stories about brilliant kids working toward their dreams against all the odds. For teens who want to know what it takes to succeed on a national scale, it will be an eye-opener.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City
Today we debut a new feature that we hope to make a regular series: teen opinions. Our first post is by guest blogger, Jess deCourcy Hinds:
What does the term “teen appeal” really mean? What is that elusive quality that draws a teenager to a book?
This question may be the Holy Grail that a young adult librarian will ponder for a lifetime, and one blog entry won’t even come close to defining it. However, I thought I might make more progress illuminating this question if I removed my reviewer’s hat and put on my journalist’s hat to interview teens about their impressions of newly published books.
This time, the teens who were most willing to participate in my study all happened to be boys in 9th and 10th grade. Although they aren’t diverse in gender, these ten readers are diverse in ethnicity and reading taste, and I highly value their literary opinion.
So here’s what that they said:
“I loved Vaclav and Lena…” (Dial Press) a story about Russian immigrant children who fall in love, “…but I didn’t think I would.”
The verdict: high teen appeal—even for boys—but librarians need to push it.
The cover art is deceptive: the eloquent third-person narration follows the male character, Vaclav, most closely for more than half of the book, but the cover is pink! One student said he thought the book was a “classic like Jane Austen” based on the vintage-style cover. But the actual writing style felt “new,” and he liked it. I thought he’d like it because he liked Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and How they Met and Other Stories by David Levithan. Indeed, when he opened the first page and read about the magic act by “Vaclav the Magnificent,” he said, “This brings me right in!” He read the entire book overnight and said it made him cry (and he likes to cry, he said).
“Robopocalypse (Doubleday) is a well-written book about the ‘near-future.”
The verdict: discerning science fiction readers gave it a thumbs up.
The boys said the concept of the book—that technology will turn against us—was one that they saw a lot, but never tired of. This particular apocalyptical story seemed “more intelligent” than most, but one teen thought that you had to be familiar with other apocalyptical stories to get this one. Another student—the computer programming guru of the student body—said he appreciated the authenticity in the technological language. One student said this book might appeal to students already well-versed in the genre, such as fans of Tim Bowler’s Frozen Fire. One boy said he would be uncomfortable reading the book on the subway because of the red glaring eyes of the robot on the cover. Another student thought the red eyes looked “cool” and wanted to be seen reading this book on the subway or in public.
“7th Sigma (Tor) is creepy. The beginning is slow…but in a good way.”
The verdict: Ardent sci-fi fans will gravitate towards this one.
This science fiction novel about technological bugs, or “solar-powered, metal-eating machines” will likely find its audience—especially among experienced sci-fi readers. An insightful, voracious sci-fi reader said, “It doesn’t always work when books jump right into the action without introducing characters and actions fully.” The readers I polled respected 7th Sigma because it didn’t use any flashy devices to catch readers’ attention.
“I would pick up Silver Sparrow because I like books with colors in the title, like ‘Silver.’ It just sounds interesting.”
The verdict: librarians will not need to push this book— the raw, emotional first page will appeal instantly to introspective readers.
Tayari Jones’ gorgeously-written Southern novel is about two sisters who share a father who is a bigamist, and tries to keep one family from knowing about the other. Even a student who said he tended to dislike realistic fiction found the drama and lyricism of Tayari’s writing mesmerizing. He particularly liked the sentence in the first paragraph, “Mother said she knew that something wasn’t right between a man and a woman when [a wedding gift] was a blade.” Lovers of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison will adore Tayari Jones.
We librarians spend hours reviewing books and trying to imagine teen reactions. Often we think we can guess what students will think, but after speaking to them, we’ll find ourselves delightfully unsettled to realize how very wrong we are.
–Jess deCourcy Hinds is the library director of Bard High School Early College Queens and a freelance writer. Her essays, stories and reviews have appeared in Newsweek, Ms., Reuters.com, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, School Library Journal and literary journals.
Today we have another memoir that combines research on a topic near and dear to the author’s heart. Yesterday it was superhero comics, today it is food allergies. Poet Sandra Beasley writes about life with severe allergies. And by severe, I mean constantly life-threatening.
We all know teens who struggle with allergies, and those of us who work in schools are encouraged (if not required) to leave the nuts at home. Beasley writes about living with (and surviving) allergies during every stage of her life, including as a teen and college student.
Have you have discovered the new Shelf Awareness for Readers yet? As you might have guessed, it is intended for the general reader, as opposed to Shelf Awareness Pro, written for those in the book trade. Both are informative and plenty of fun. I do have a point here – last Friday’s issue includes a nice list of further reading for Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl.
I should also mention that Beasley’s most recent book of poetry, I Was the Jukebox (Norton, 2010), is a good recommendation for teen readers. It is being released in paperback on August 1.
BEASLEY, Sandra. Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life. 240p. Crown. 2011. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-3075-8811-1. LC 2010043724.
Adult/High School–More than 12 million Americans suffer from allergies, but few of them can possibly be allergic to as many things as Beasley, who chronicles her hyper-allergic life with wry and sometimes disturbing stories. From a childhood in which she could never taste a birthday cake (wheat flour) to adolescence when she couldn’t kiss her boyfriend (who might have eaten peanuts) and into an adulthood where even a secret ingredient in a bar drink (grapefruit juice) might cause a life-threatening reaction, Beasley has lived at risk of death from her allergies. She has survived by being vigilant and acutely attentive to her environment including every ingredient of each thing she ate. Despite living in a world in which just about everything seems to want to kill her, she writes with a sense of humor that sustains her insights and abundant research about allergies. She never whines about her condition or the difficulty of fitting into a culture that for so long was not interested in her affliction or much interested in protecting her (with ingredient listings and epi-pens in the classroom) from danger. Rather, she writes with a gracious invitation to readers to understand her challenges. Teens with allergies will appreciate how Beasley learned to adapt during adolescence when peer pressure was sometimes so powerful that she ate what everyone else was eating, even knowing it would provoke a serious response. High school students engaged in research on allergies will also find it a useful resource.–John Sexton, formerly at Westchester Library System, Tarrytown, NY
Just in time for Comic-Con, Grant Morrison’s Supergods publishes today. Morrison combines a cultural history of superhero comics with memoir. And who better? Morrison is a leading comics creator, perhaps best known for Batman: Arkham Asylum (DC Comics), but a prolific writer of many, many others including JLA, New X-Men, All-Star Superman and The Invisibles.
MORRISON, Grant. Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human. 256p. reprods. Spiegel & Grau. 2011. Tr $28. ISBN 978-14000069125. LC 2010053712.
Adult/High School–Roughly equal parts historical analysis, fanboy celebration, insider exposé, and transcendental memoir, this quirky look at the past, present, and future of the superhero alternately delights and infuriates as Morrison cycles through perspectives faster than a superhero changing costumes. Nevertheless, as the creator of some of the greatest comics of the past few decades, the author has earned these perspectives, and his ability to blend them into a continuous narrative is impressive. He starts as he must with the birth of Superman, and divides his narrative into sections on “The Golden Age,” “The Silver Age,” “The Dark Age,” and “Renaissance,” following the conventional historical markers of the history of superhero comics. His take on each age, though, is anything but conventional–his defense of the high-camp of Silver Age superheroes is particularly heartfelt and persuasive–and though comic books are central to his narrative, he spends considerable energy on other media. A chapter analyzing each of the Batman films, for instance, is a marvel of close reading. Explications like these are, in fact, Morrison’s strongest attribute, especially when analyzing a particular issue or even a single page. His attention to every detail of the comic process is expected, but his ability to so fluidly convey his thoughts to the layperson is extraordinary. The fragmentation of viewpoints can grind the narrative to a halt at times, and it is the rare reader who will be equally interested in everything Morrison has to say, but this is essential reading for fans of superheroes in any medium.– Mark Flowers, John Kennedy Library, Solano County, CA
What do Room, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and Pigeon English have in common? Stephen Kelman joins an Adult Books for Young Adults tradition, using the voice of a young, naive character in peril to narrate terrible happenings that he doesn’t fully understand.
The setting for this book reminds me of another – Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Guène (Mariner, 2006), which is narrated by an Algerian immigrant living in a Parisian project.
Huge hype surrounded the March publication of this title in the UK, and it was shortlisted for the 2011 Desmond Elliott Prize (for a first novel published in the UK).
There is a discussion guide available on the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt website.
KELMAN, Stephen. Pigeon English. 288p. Houghton Harcourt. July 2011. Tr $24. ISBN 978-0-547-50060-7. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This novel opens with 11-year-old Harrison describing the scene as a classmate is found stabbed to death. Harri and his friend Dean know how to be proper detectives from watching CSI, and possess just enough knowledge to get themselves in over their heads. As they attempt to solve the murder by collecting fingerprints, making suspect lists, and conducting surveillance, they are doing what boys do–playing pretend. It’s when they don’t realize exactly how close they’ve come to solving the crime that things escalate to a disturbing end. The strength of this debut novel lies in Harri’s voice. An immigrant from Ghana living in the projects of London with his mother and sister, Harri provides a running monologue punctuated with colloquialisms that lend a distinct cadence to his commentary. As a bright and curious boy, he maintains a sense of innocence even as the crudeness of his environment threatens to become dominant. Some vulgar and sexual language peppered in Harri’s retelling of events is quite jarring as he often misunderstands what he sees and hears, but readers recognize the serious implications. Early on it’s apparent that Harri’s monologue is directed at a pigeon that lives near his building. The device doesn’t quite work, particularly when the bird’s thoughts are expressed, but this is a minor distraction. Overall, teens will appreciate Harri’s winning narration, his child’s-eye view of adult situations, and the rising tension when playing detective becomes a high-stakes matter.–Priscille Dando, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County, VA
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.
