LITTLE BROTHER

By Cory Doctorow

One fateful day after Marcus has skipped out of school using a variety of tricks to dodge the school's security system, terrorists blow up the San Fransisco Bay Bridge. Marcus and his friends just happen to be in the wrong part of town when it happens, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers swoop down upon them and carry them off to an undisclosed detention center. There, Marcus, Van, Darryl, and JoLu are bound, interrogated, and generally intimidated and humiliated into disclosing information about their phones, laptops, and other high-tech gadgets in their possession before being released several days later. Darryl had been injured during the initial terrorist attack, and was not released with his three friends. Marcus believes the worst, that Darryl has died in jail. Back at home, his parents have obviously had a bad few days, not knowing where he had been, but Marcus decides it is safer not to tell the truth. Besides, sometime during a torture session at the detention center, he had vowed to himself that he would pay DHS back for everything they had done to him. He can do that more easily if he keeps his parents in the dark. Marcus is one smart, tech-savvy kid, and soon has a virtually untraceable online network set up to spread the word about what had happened to him, and to plan and coordinte acts of sabotage against the DHS. Marcus's new handle, M1k3y, Little Brother, is born, and he becomes the reluctant leader of the free underground world.

This is a post 9-11 story about government gone crazy. The conflict is between two philosophies--the one that says it's OK to trample on people's civil rights if that's what it takes to keep citizens safe, and the one that says that only truly free people can ever be safe. In light of recent disclosures about torture and interrogation practices our government has sanctioned in recent years, this novel couldn't be more timely and thought-provoking. Here's what I don't like about this novel. As fascinating as the technological and political themes of this book are, I struggle to endorse it fully, because of the nonchalant way it treats teenage sex and alcohol use in several scenes in the story. Not a good message in that respect. Little Brother is on next year's Tayshas reading list .

--reviewed by Dail Sams--

Wintergirls

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson has written another heart-wrenching story about a girl sinking into the despair of anorexia. Told in first person, the reader can't help but see this illness through Lia's eyes, as she spirals out of control following the death of her best friend, Cassie, who was also anorexic. Lia inhabits a dark, cold place where self-loathing permeates her being and where every bite of food she takes is really a number of calories, begrudged, because she just doesn't deserve to nourish herself. As her weight drops, she deludes herself into believing that she is a wintergirl, strong and powerful because she hasn't given in to the lure of eating. She is constantly haunted by ghosts, especially Cassie's ghost, and finally it is that haunting, and the love of her younger step-sister that gives her the tiniest desire to live. Wintergirls is a precisely written, accurately researched, and frighteningly realistic work which should be read by every teenaged girl and by those who work or live with them.

~reviewed by Dail Sams

PAPER TOWNS

BY JOHN GREEN

John Green's third novel for young adults is intellegent, witty, fun, and so right on target with his characterizations of senior guys about to escape high school and move on. The entire book is an extended metaphor, comparing the shallowness of high school life to paper towns, fake towns made up and put on maps simply for the purpose of copyright issues. Paper towns only have the illusion of reality, but have no substance. This is how Margo Roth Spiegelman feels about her life, though she gives the appearance of being the sun about whom the whole school revolves. One of those orbiting around Margo, is Quentin Jacobsen, her next-door-neighbor and friend since they were babies. Although they have not been close for a long time, Quentin still loves Margo as he did when they were children. When Margo shows up at Quentin's bedroom window at midnight, insisting he drive her around town for a night of revenge and frolic, he can't say no. After an amazing heart-pounding night of pranks, Margo doesn't show up for school the next day, or for several days afterward. She has done this before, leaving clues as to her whereabouts, but this has a whole different feel to Quentin, who looks for clues everywhere in hopes of tracking her down. In the next few days, Q goes from the agonizing belief that Margo is dead, to the wild assurance that he knows where she is, and must follow and find her. On his high school graduation day, Quentin takes off on a hilarious but deadly serious 21-hour road trip with three friends in hopes of finding Margo Roth Spiegelman in the paper town of Agloe, New York. I couldn't possibly tell you the end of this story, but I can say that this book about striving for the real in life, won't disappoint. Find it in the library. ~reviewed by Dail Sams

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman


In spite of the fact that this year's Newbery Award winner starts with a brutal murder, involves a sinister international brotherhood, has ghouls and ghosts and a poor orphan being raised in a graveyard by the dead, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is a touching coming of age story. I can imagine that the uniqueness of this work can be compared to the uniqueness of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, when it won the Newbery in the 1960's. When a small child escapes the murderer of his family , a man named Jack, in the first chapter of this extraordinary book, he toddles up the hill to an old cemetery, where the inhabitant dead agree to parent and protect him until he can do it for himself. The orphaned child is named Nobody Owens--Nobody, because he is like nobody but himself, and Owens, because a childless couple named Owens who died in the 1700's agrees to be his mom and dad. In addition, a mysterious being known as Silas, agrees to be his guardian. Silas makes sure "Bod" gets fed, educated, and clothed. He also serves as Bod's counselor and protector, a role which is more important than Bod has any idea of. During his childhood, Bod is friends for a short time with a young girl whose parents believe Bod is their daughter's imaginary friend. He also is allowed the run of the graveyard, which gives him the ability to see all the dead, and fade himself when necessary. In early adolescence, he begins to long for the outside world, and wants to avenge his family's murders. While Bod fights the man Jack, Silas and his friends wage an even more intense battle against an evil society on Bod's behalf. A tense and suspense-filled story, The Graveyard Book, surprises with lyrical language and an appealing hero who grows up under the oddest of circumstances. Definitely worth the time. ~Reviewed by Dail Sams

If anyone out there actually reads this blog, I must apologize for neglecting it for so long. Since January, I've been reading a 1000-page historical novel about Cleopatra which has been slow going. I have learned some fascinating things about the Egyptian and Roman world of Cleopatra's day, giving me a new appreciation for historical fiction. I hope to finish this book in the next week or so, at which time I'll finish and report on another book I've also started--The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, this year's Newbery award winner. So stay tuned... more to come!

Alive and Well in Prague, New York

and Kissing the Bee

I've read two novels over the holidays which, though having pretty different plots, still have enough similarities that I thought I'd just review them together. Both have teenage girls as the main character, and both have other people in their lives which seem to control thier circumstances. In Alive and Well..., Matisse Osgood (named for the famous painter), is the daughter of artistic parents and she grew up in New York City. When her dad's Parkinson's Disease progresses to the point that he can no longer function as he always has, Matisse's parents decide to move to a small town in upstate New York. Matisse is angry and convinced that she can never find anything good about living in a rural town. At the same time, she's dealing with the loss of her beloved father, who has withdrawn into his own world of self-pity. She gradually makes friends and is proven wrong about small town life.

In Kissing the Bee, a darker novel than Alive and Well in Prague, New York, Dana is part of threesome including her best friend Avra and Avra's boyfriend Emil. Dana just happens to be crazy about Emil herself, but would never do anything to hurt Avra, so she just keeps her feelings to herself. It seemed obvious to me that Dana and Avra are polar opposites. Dana is thoughtful, selfless. level-headed, and goal-oriented. Avra is a self-centered, abusive, druggie who thinks about nothing but escaping her family and her life. This story is told in context with Dana's science project about honey bee communities, and Avra is definitely the queen bee of her world. Dana finally reaches her limit with Avra and ends the friendship, not a moment too soon, in my opinion. Even then, Avra doesn't betray even a second of sorrow or regret, ever thinking only of herself.

Both stories end on happy notes with satisfying resolutions to those controlling

factors in the lives of their main characters, Matisse and Dana. Quick reads

with appealing characters.

--reviewed by Mrs. Sams

Looking for salvation at the Dairy Queen

by Susan Gregg Gilmore

Now this is my kind of book. Narrated by Catharine Grace, this is a sweet story of a Georgia preacher and his two motherless daughters, in a small town filled with two-named people (Martha Ann, Lena Mae, Emma Sue, Gloria Jean, Ida Belle...) who have just enough meanness and weaknesses mixed in with their goodness to make the story realistic. Catharine Grace has never wanted anything more than getting out of her one-horse town the minute she turned 18, and that's exactly what she did. When she got her own room in Miss Mabie and Flora's house, and a job at the Davison's department store in Atlanta, she felt she was on her way to getting everything she ever wanted. It was harder on her Daddy and her sister than Catharine Grace that she couldn't come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. But when the telegram came on Jan. 3 saying that her Daddy had died, she knew she had broken his heart and been the cause of his death.

When Catharine Grace got home for the funeral , she came face to face with enough shocking situations, that she wasn't sure she could ever have loving thoughts of her Daddy again, but after a good talk with Eddie Franklin at the Dairy Queen, she realizes that nobody is perfect in this life, and it seems like she just had to get away from home for awhile to realize there was nowhere else she'd rather be. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is a great get-away-from-it-all novel with a funny and touching message.

--reviewed by Dail Sams

things that are

by Andrew Clements

The third in the "invisible" series, this installment focuses on the creepy, invisible character William, introduced in Things Hoped For. Alicia, who is blind, is struggling to keep her head straight about her friend Bobby, for whom she has developed more than friendship feelings. Bobby is returning in a couple of days from New York City where he has been doing auditions for music scholarships. While working at the library, Alicia is approached by William who tells her that Bobby is being followed by two men and could be in trouble. Alicia figures out pretty easily that William is invisible and naked, and she doesn't trust him at all. But she's afraid for Bobby, so she can't disregard what William says altogether. When she reaches home, FBI agents come to the door, and suddenly William's story becomes more plausible. Everyone in both Bobby and Alicia's families knows that the whole invisibility thing must be kept from the government, or their lives will never be their own again. When William comes to Alicia's back door freezing, and she lets him in, it becomes obvious to both her and Bobby, that they must do something for him, regardless of the FBI. This is a satisfying continuation of the story begun in Things Not Seen, as Alicia realizes that she can only live as honestly as she can in the here and now, because that's all that's real.

--reviewed by Dail Sams

Princess Ben

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

This third novel by Murdock is a departure from her first two modern day works for young adults. Princess Ben is more of a fairy tale complete with magic mirrors, a flying broom, and somewhat wicked queen. Ben, short for Benevolent, is a princess of a imaginary mountainous kingdom. Since her father is brother to the king, and her mother dislikes the confinement of life at court, Ben has been allowed to grow up with a great deal of freedom--she plays with village children, she wears what she wants, runs where she will, and most of all, eats as much as she wants. Consequently, Ben is rather pudgy. Ben's carefree life comes to a crashing halt when the king and both her parents are murdered while on a short ceremonial journey. The queen takes Ben in hand, forces her to live in the palace, wear beautiful but uncomfortable clothes, take dancing lessons, and eat very little. She is being prepared to become the ruler of her small country and the bride of the prince of a stronger neighboring kingdom. When Ben rebels, the queen moves her into a tower room connected to the queen's own chambers. She is locked in at night and watched every minute of the day. But Ben soon discovers that her cold tower room connects to a magic room. There she learns a number of helpful spells which get her into more trouble than she bargained for. But, this is a fairy tale, and eventually, Ben lives happily ever after! This is a fun read with witty allusions to a number of familiar fairy tales.

Reviewed by Mrs. Sams

Thirteen Reasons Why

I had a student come into the library the other day looking for depressing books. He said he could get into the characters more easily when the story was depressing. That being the case, he shouldn't have too much trouble finding a book to read, because at least half of all young adult novels are depressing, imho. I just finished a really good and depressing novel--Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Hannah Baker makes 13 audio tapes for thirteen classmates who contributed to her decision to commit suicide. After her death, her tapes start circulating among the people for whom she blames her misery. We readers get to listen to her narration with Clay, the one student she doesn't blame for anything. It doesn't really matter, because after listening to the tapes, Clay blames himself for his insensitivity, and especially, for his fear of talking to Hannah and of trying to help her. There's nothing Clay can do to change the situation, because Hannah is already dead by the time he listens to her tapes. But he realizes he can change himself.

This is definitely a depressing book, and an insightful look into the heart and mind of a suicidal teen. But I did find myself getting angry at Hannah sometimes as the story progressed, because she made some bad choices which contributed to her misery. She couldn't legitimately blame all her problems on other people. However, it was obvious that Hannah, and perhaps most teens who think about killing themselves, lose the ability to see themselves and their situation for what it really is, and so they can't find the hope to hang on. Thirteen Reasons Why is a sad and gripping tale of high school at its worst, and a girl who grew too tired to wait for better times.

Reviewed by Dail Sams