Getting Air by Dan Gutman

Jimmy, David, and Henry are on their way to fame and fortune. They are flying to California where they hope to get sponsorships from skateboard companies. Unfortunately their plane is hijacked by terrorists. Feeling that they are the only people who could save everyone (almost all of the only other passengers on the plane are group of old ladies from a knitting club), the boys spring into action. They use Jimmy’s titanium skateboard and literally beat the terrorists to death. Unfortunately the terrorists have already killed the pilots and before they died, the pilots had jettisoned the majority of the fuel. After they crash into the Canadian wilderness, there are only six people on the plane left alive: Jimmy and his sister Julia, David, Henry, an airline attendant, and an old lady from the knitting club named Mrs. Herschel. Now the survivors must find food, shelter, and water as they struggle to hold on until help arrives. And if the opportunity to use the skateboard arives, so much the better.

There should be a sign on this book that reads: SUSPEND BELIEF. If you do that this is a fun read and certainly will appeal to boys. I cannot tell you the number of boys at my school who love skateboarding but hate to read -- finally I have something to offer them. I will certainly use it in my booktalks and I'm sure it will be popular at my school.

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

“Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And immortality”
--Emily Dickinson

Keturah lives in a small village on the outskirts of the kingdom. She sees a beautiful deer and follows it into the forest. Getting hopelessly lost, she finally settles beneath a tree and waits for Death to come. Come he does, riding on a horse. She tells Death she is not ready to die; Death’s reply is that no one is, but then he makes an offer. He will not take Keturah’s life if she will just name one person to take her place. Although he points out several people who are old or sad or tired of life, Keturah is horrified and refuses the offer. She is even more horrified to discover that the plague will arrive in her village, ensuring the deaths of many. She must find a way to warn the village and stop the plague, but first she must get death to agree to spare her.

She begins to tell Death a story, but like Scheherazade, she does not finish her story; instead promising to tell the ending the next night if he will allow her to live that long. Death agrees, and even agrees to allow to live past the next night if only she can find her one true love. Thus begins Keturah’s quest – to find her one true love and to save her village from the plague.

This is a beautiful, beautiful tale with a surprise ending. I found it magical. It’s not so much that I was eager for Keturah to defeat Death (he is scary, but not in a monster-way) but that I wanted her to be happy because she cared so much about the people of her village.

I thought Leavitt did a magnificant job with the setting. I could see the village and the people as they went about their lives. I could feel the hopelessness of many and then their happiness as Keturah helped lift their sorrows and worries.

This was a National Book Award Finalist in 2006. I have not read the winner of that year (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing) but I can certainly see why this was a finalist. It was delightful.

Behind Again

Yet again I find myself behind in my book reviews. I do have some sort of excuse, however. Last week the hard drive to my precious iBook melted and I've had to do without a computer for several days. Right now I'm using a loaner, but I hope to have my computer back soon. Those who know me are quite aware of my obsession with Macs and my iBook contains 18 years of my life. Fortunately I have a clean backup from this summer, and I think we managed to get most, if not all, of the new stuff off but still . . . I miss my computer.

I don't have time at this point to thoroughly review the three books I've read since last weekend so short blurbs will have to do. I'm still heavily into the new books at my school library, and will be for some time.


Schooled by Gordan Korman

Capricorn Anderson has been raised in a commune by his Grandmother. Everyone else has left the commune so it's actually been just the two of them. When his grandmother breaks her hip, Capricorn (all of thirteen years old) drives her to the hospital. Because his grandmother will be in rehab for some time, Cap is placed in a foster home. Cap has never been to school (he has excelled as a home-schooled student) and he might as well be a creature from outer space when it comes to what he doesn't know about surviving in a middle school. When he is elected eighth grade class president, he doesn't realize that the position has traditionally gone to the biggest geek in the school. He sets off to do his best as president, and ends up transforming the student body.

I cannot begin to say how much I loved this book. It has been compared to Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, but I must say that I liked this one better. It has a great deal of humor and I loved the character of Cap. Sometimes we all need reminders of who we need to be, and Cap does that.


Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney

This is the story of Macbeth told from the point of view of a young attendant to Lady Macbeth. At the beginning of the story Lady Mary's father dies when he rebels against King Duncan of Scotland. Mary is left as witness to what then transpires as Duncan is murdered, and it becomes obvious that Macbeth and his wife are not innocent. As things begin to fall apart for the couple, Mary finds herself betrothed to a monster of a man, and in a fight for her life.

I first read Macbeth in eleventh grade, and while it's not one of my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, I do enjoy rereading it occasionally. Cooney uses many lines from the play, which sometimes seemed jarring but I liked anyway. It certainly doesn't hurt that Shakespeare had many wonderful lines from which to choose. I think this would be a good introduction to the story for young adults and may entice them to read the real thing.


Strays by Ron Koertge

Ted O'Connor is sixteen and an orphan. His parents have been killed in a car wreck, and he's been shuffled off to a foster home to live with two veterans of the system. Ted has always worked in his parents' pet shop, and he has a strange affinity with animals -- he can talk to them and understand them. As Ted begins to adjust to his new life and make friends for the first time, his ability to understand the animals begins to diminish.

I had two beefs with this book. First of all, the review I read recommended it for grades 7 -up and I must disagree. I think it's a better high school book and so I'll be donating my school's copy to the high school (which means there's a book out there that I didn't get because I got this one). It's not just the language -- it's the situations which I think are more appropriate for high school readers than middle school readers. But that's really my problem, and is not the fault of the book.

My second beef is that when Ted loses his ability to talk to animals, it doesn't really seem to bother him. It would bother me. It would bother me a lot. So I don't believe that Koertge develops this part of the story very well. I think the book had an interesting premise, I just don't think it succeeded as well as I wanted.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Reynie Muldoon is an orphan, and a very gifted young man. He has surpassed everyone at his orphanage and now has a special tutor. When he sees an ad in the paper asking “Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?” he jumps at the chance to do something new and different. After two days of very strange tests, he and three other students are the finalists. What have they won? An opportunity to save the world. They are introduced to Mr. Benedict who has determined that indeed the people of the world are in danger.

It seems that a Mr. Curtain runs a school for gifted children and he is using them to send messages subliminally to the world through the television. Mr. Benedict is sending the children to the school to determine the purpose of Mr. Curtain’s plans and, if possible, how to stop him.
The four children come to the school with very different talents. Reynie is able to solve intricate puzzles, Sticky can remember anything he has ever read, and Kate is incredibly athletic and acrobatic. Constance’s abilities have yet to be discovered by the other three who find her quite annoying but Mr. Benedict assures them that she is vital to their success.

After the children reach the island where Mr. Curtain’s school is located, they must discover how to become messengers – the children chosen to send the messages over the televisions. They find out that Mr. Curtain’s plans are indeed nefarious and the prospects for stopping him are not good. They must work together in order to infiltrate Mr. Curtain’s organization stop him.


I had seen The Mysterious Benedict Society on a number of Newbery lists, so when it arrived with my book order, I was eager to read it. I wasn’t, however, very excited by it. There were parts I liked, but I felt overall that Mr. Stewart was trying to be too cute, too clever and, quite frankly, it got on my nerves. I also felt that the book was too long. Now don’t get me wrong – I love long books (after all I just read World Without End and it was over 1,000 pages). I did feel that this book rambled on a bit and it could have benefitted from some tighter editing.

The important question is, of course, what will children think of it? I honestly don't know. I think the size (485 pages) will be off-putting to many. I know that Harry Potter's length didn't deter anyone, but I think he's a special case (and the first couple of books weren't all that long). If they can get beyond the length, I think there will be an audience for this book, but it will be limited.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The best part of coming back to school today after a wonderful Christmas break was finding an ARC of The Dead & The Gone waiting for me. I’ve been dying to read this book and it certainly didn’t disappoint. But on to the review . . .

Life As We Knew It was one of my favorite books that I read in 2007. I found myself thinking about it for days and wondering how I would survive if faced with the same conditions as Miranda and her family (I dare anyone to read it and not want to start hoarding canned food). Miranda lived in rural Pennsylvania and her location definitely assisted in her survival. I did wonder, however, how people in big cities, without access to things like firewood, would be able to live through the long winter that was created by the atmospheric conditions. The Dead & The Gone takes us to one of the largest cities in the United States and attempts to answer that question.

Alex lives in a small apartment in New York City with his parents and his two sisters. His older brother is in the Marines and is stationed in California. When the moon is hit by an asteroid and pushed closer to the Earth, his father is in Puerto Rico and his mother is quickly called in to work at a hospital in Queens. Alex and his sisters are initially not panicked when they don’t hear from their parents (they do get a garbled phone call that might be from their father, but that’s it), but as time goes on, Alex begins to realize that they are on their own.

Life in New York becomes brutal. There is very little food, and many people escape, either to relocation camps or to other places outside the city. Alex’s family has no place to go, and since they have not found their parents’ bodies, they hold on to a sliver of hope that they might still be alive. If they leave the city, their parents and their older brother may never be able to find them.

As people in the city begin to die of starvation and disease, Alex learns that one of the only ways to get food is to strip the bodies of the dead and trade what he gets (watches, coats, shoes, etc) for food. It is a brutal, soul-robbing way to survive but it is what Alex must do if his family is to live. Eventually Alex realizes that the only way to make it through this is to leave New York, but how can he get himself and his sisters out?

There is so much to love about this book. First of all, I loved the fact that it was a completely different story than Life As We Knew It. While I certainly hope that Ms. Pfeffer writes a sequel to Miranda’s story, this book was meant to be an completely different story, and it is that. The entire tone is different – and that is made perfectly clear early in the book when Alex travels to Yankee Stadium to search through hundreds of bodies for his mother.

I also loved the religious aspects to this story. Faith is very important to Alex and his family, and it helps sustain them through some very rough periods. And without the help of the parochial schools that the family attends, the family would have not been able to stretch out their food.

Even though it is only January 2 and I have a lot of books to read before the end of the year, I would be surprised if The Dead & The Gone doesn’t make my list of best books of 2008.

The Sisters Grimm: Magic and Other Misdemeanors by Michael Buckley

In this installment of the series much is happening at Ferryport Landing and none of it is good. Prince Charming has disappeared after losing the mayoral election to the Queen of Hearts. His fiancée, Snow White, gets more and more depressed as the days go by and she hasn’t heard from him. To make matters worse, the Queen of Hearts has imposed impossibly high taxes on all of the humans in the town, forcing all but the Grimms to move away. And then someone is stealing magical items from the Everafters – items that if combined could do much damage. And what’s with all of the storm clouds that suddenly appear, causing tears in time? Sabrina and Daphne are in over their heads as they race to figure out what’s going on before everything falls apart.

While not my favorite of the Sisters Grimm books, I did enjoy this addition to the series. It did have some surprises, and was a fun read. One of the things I liked about earlier books in the series was the attention to strong themes (for example, prejudice was the theme of the 2nd book, addiction to magic was the theme of the 3rd book) – I didn’t get that with this book. I will continue to read this series – I’m eager to find out how it ends.

Reading and Blogging Goals for 2008

Happy New Year!

I’ve been thinking the past few weeks about what I wanted to accomplish with my blog and reading over the next year. I’ve enjoyed keeping this blog and reading close to 50 other blogs each day – I think it’s made me think more about what I’m reading and I’ve certainly become more aware of the new young adult books available. In the past I’ve read simply what’s in my library in school, so most of what I’ve read is more than I year old by the time it arrives (I spend my entire budget in one lump sum because I’m always afraid of losing it if I don’t spend it when it’s allocated to me). This year I’ve bought a number of the books I’ve read about on the blogs. This has not been great for my personal budget, but it has been a lot of fun. Many of those books that I’ve read are more appropriate for high school students, and I’ve really enjoyed reading books at this level. I don’t think I want to teach high school, but now I have some titles to recommend to students who are ready for more mature reading. I have several teachers who also love young adult novels and they have benefited from my recent personal purchases.

Two areas of children’s literature that I see as a weakness in my personal reading are picture books and early chapter books. I haven’t taught at the elementary level in 18 years and I’m really ignorant about what’s out there for this level. I’ve never read Clementine (had never heard of it until this summer), Spiderwick, or many other books that students come into my school talking about. I hope to rectify that this year. I don’t know exactly what to do about the picture book dilemma except to go to my local bookstore and take the time to read several and make notes about them.

All of this said (and it was longer than I planned), here are my reading goals for 2008:

Children’s/ Young Adult books
Last year I read 85 children’s and young adult fiction books and 14 nonfiction books. I think that’s about right number wise. I would like to increase the nonfiction total to about 20 – 25 books. I do think it’s vital for me to have a number of nonfiction books to booktalk. I would like to read at least five biographies this year. I also would like to read Clementine, and a few other early chapter books. Any suggestions?

Adult Fiction
I’ve had The Historian on my to-read shelf for more than two years. It’s time to read it.

Adult Classics
Each summer I read a Jane Austen title. This summer it will be Persuasion. Last summer I also started reading a Shakespearean play. I think this summer’s title will be The Taming of the Shrew. I would also like to read The Man in the Iron Mask and The Age of Innocence some time during the next year.

Adult Nonfiction
I’ve had The Middle East by Bernard Lewis for more than seven years. This will be the year I read it. I also want to read Truman by David McCullough, a book that my mom gave me for Christmas. Finally I want to read another title by Michael Pollan, probably In Defense of Food.

In all I read 125 books this past year. I’d like to increase the total to about 150 books for this year.

Blog Goals
I don’t blog about every book that I read, although I do blog about most of the young adult fiction that I read. I do post both positive and negative reviews, because I appreciate reading all perspectives in the blogs that I read daily. I don’t pretend to be a great analyst of literature but I can tell you whether I liked a book and usually I can tell you why I did or didn’t like it. I would love to have at least 7 posts a month but I don’t know if I’ll make that in my busier months at school.