Something Knitty

A Book a Week continues. 

Me

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

This is the 2010 Newberry Medal Winner.  Sonar X9 read it last summer, having found it in the library.  At the time, when I asked him about it, he had a hard time describing exactly what it was about.  He was clearly engaged with the story, and it obviously left him with a good feeling.  That kid loves an adventure story or a graphic novel that he can rip through quickly, but he has the sensitivity to really appreciate a book like this one as well.  It's a smart book, that doesn't condescend to explain every last detail, that pushes a kid to think about what it happening and puzzle out some meaning.  The book stayed with him and he mentioned things about it here and there.  I've wanted to read it since then, but when it won the Newberry, I knew I couldn't put it off.  I've rarely been disappointed by the Newberry choices.  This one was no exception. 

I liked Stead's first novel, First Light, but there is something distinctly different, bigger, more profound about When You Reach Me.  When You Reach Me is the story of a kid who finds a note, loses one friend, gains others, and along the way puzzles out a notion of time travel, self-sacrifice, and the way in which relationships must grow and change.  The characters have believable depth and flaws.  I particularly love the mother, who is studying for an appearance on the $25,000 Pyramid every day when she returns from her job as a paralegal. It's good to see the portrayal of a parent that is engaged with her child but also struggling to be her own person and achieve her own goals.  I could talk about any of the characters in a similar way.  I believe in them.  They are complex, but that complexity is revealed by degrees, in elegant and simple ways.  

The story also has an elegance, though it seems far from simple until the very end.  The main character, Miranda, refers regularly to her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time, another time traveling tale. I read A Wrinkle in Time in the third grade.  I remember very little about the story itself, but I remember the feeling that I wasn't quite understanding the book.  I remember a feeling of flying.  I remember enough to know that this story is quite different and yet similar.  Enough to know that I want to reread it.  One book leads to another book as this book is passed to another person.  Partner is reading it now.  

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

This book was just fun.  I loved Pride and Prejudice when I read it in college, but with a kind of romantic distance.  I appreciated Elizabeth's wit and marveled at the restraint exercised in a society of manners.  This zombie redaction heightened my appreciation of the original, particularly of the potential for reading humor between the lines.  Grahame-Smith elevates the innuendo even further.  I lost count of the number of 'ball' jokes.  He is able to infuse Austen's work with something else besides zombies, a sense that the characters have actual bodies.  In the novel of manners there is a sense that anything corporal or bodily is just not talked about as if it isn't there.  I don't recall once thinking of Elizabeth's body in any way beyond a holder for a gown or a hand proferred.  There was no sense of her physically.  Graham-Smith though, gives Elizabeth and her sisters bodies that fight and feel.  Oh yes, and they sweat too, though the low word 'sweat' does not appear in the pages of the book.  Elizabeth and Darcy at different points suffer from "exercise moisture."  

Another word that appears rarely in this zombie book is 'zombie.'  Epithets abound, but my favorite is "manky dreadfuls."  That should totally be the name of a punk band.  

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is my favorite book so far this year.  A 2007 nominee for the ALA Printz award, this book wrapped itself around me and wouldn't let go.  Death narrates this story of a German orphan living through World War II with her foster family near Munich.  Leisl is the thief and main character, earning the title when she steals a book from the cemetery at her little brother's funeral.  Heartbreaking.  Rich.  Nuanced.  Leisl's best friend is Rudy.  Together they steal books and other things, both for the thrill and to fill the aching need of hunger and privation of the war.  I find myself wanting more boys in stories to be like Rudy.  Or like Marcus and the other boys in When You Reach Me.  A boy who is both trying hard to be what he thinks a boy should be, which is so much more than any stereotype of masculinity.  These boys are trying to be strong and fast, but they're also full of love, fear, and silliness.  They make mistakes but they know when to do the right thing.  

Death tells us the story of how Leisl--I get hung up on the word here, I want to say 'survived' because she is a survivor, but 'endured' works well too.  How people live, endure, survive.  Death is most troubled by his job when he has to face those who survive.  The way that survivors react to a death is difficult and painful for Death to endure.  But of coures, he does endure.  Death is eternal.  He reminds us that we know how things end.  They always end in death.  Leisl is human, and her life will end, but she and Death are similar in the ways they learn to cope with their survival.  

I'm rambling here.  This book makes me want to outline essays about the theme of survival, the use of words to control and uplift, the notion of nourishment beyond food, the ways in which lives are balanced against one another, or any number of other things that this rich story would support.  

The book is heavy.  Situated in an impoverished neighborhood during WWII, with a labor camp right down the road.  The story itself has few moments of explicit violence, but there is a palpable tension surrounding the story.  We know that people are dying in any number of ways.  We know the fear in which people lived, especially if they're doing something that could lead instantly to their death if discovered.  Zuzak exploits these tensions exquisitely.  He tells us more than once what is going to happen, but rather than deflating what follows, the tension is heightened, the story driven forward.  We are compelled to read in order to understand how that conclusion comes about.  To learn what happens around that conclusion.  

This is one I will read again and hope that you will read.  You will cry, but it will be the kind of sadness that is deeply thoughtful and cathartic and enriching.  

Sonar X9

Things are so busy around here right now that I haven't been able to get even a simple thumbs up or down on any of these. I think he loved most of these, though Johnny Texas was compulsory at school and I have no idea whether he liked it.  He was enjoying the novelty of The Inferno but I think was undone by the complexity and has given it up in favor of other pleasures.  

The Secret of Zoom by Lynne Jonell

Tapestry: The Hound of Rowan by Henry H. Neff

Tapestry: The Second Siege by Henry H. Neff

Fergus Crane by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

Johnny Texas by Carol Hoff and Bob Meyers

The Inferno of Dante by Robert Pinsky

What We're Reading Now

Firmin by Sam Savage

Mossflower by Brian Jacques (out loud)

What We're Thinking about Reading

In Other Rooms Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

My Recent Reads

First Light by Rebecca Stead

This is the first novel by this year's Newberry winner.  The main characters are Peter and Thea, who live in completely different worlds.  They manage to find each other and to reconnect those two worlds separated for generations by snow and ice.  A great middle-grade read.  

A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts: A Collection of Deliciously Frightening Tales by Ying Chang Compestine

A collection of short spooky stories set in China, marked "Young Adult" by our library.  The stories are arranged as a banquet, with a menu for a table of contents, and food and death are important elements in each tale. Some of these were a bit grim, others were thoughtful and creepy.  After each story Compestine has a basic explanation of the cultural significance of some story elements as well as a relevant recipe.   This is a fun collection that might appeal to fans of Goosebumps and other creepy stories.  

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

We've read this book twice, both times out loud.  The inventive and lyrical language of the book lends itself to fun out-loud reading.  Haroun's father is a storyteller, but after a family upheaval dad has lost his gift of gab.  Haroun sets off on a wild fantasy to help restore the flow of his dad's stories as well as saving the source of that flow--the Ocean of the Sea of Stories--from the nefarious plot of a fiction-hating poisoner.  With fairytale elements, imaginative characters (genies, mechanical birds, Plentimaw fishes) emotional honesty, and outright silliness, this book would appeal to middle-grade readers, but is also easy to follow for younger kids.  The glossary includes an explanation of the names in the book, many of which are Hindustani in origin.  I cannot recommend this one enough.  

Sonar X9's List this year

As we progress through our year, I hope to have the Sonars comment on the books they've read.  Mostly I've missed them on these, but I did manage to squeeze out the most basic responses on a couple.  

Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires:  (Sonar X6) This one was very funny.  

Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves

Wolverine by Barry Lyga

Discover Mini Manga! by Christopher Hart: (from me) if the number of tiny manga scribbles around the house is any indication, this one is a worthwhile drawing book.  

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (#1) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (#4) by Jeff Kinney:  (Sonar X6) These books are all very funny and silly.

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd Ed. Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci - Second time through (from me) I'd like to read this one just to see what keeps bringing X9 back to this one.  But I think the repeat showing is enough to recommend it.  I suspect the content might be more suited to middle-grade and higher.  

Dawn (Warriors, the New Prophecy #3) by Erin Hunter - Abandoned: (from me) No straight answers on why he quit this one.  He started it very enthusiastically, devouring the first couple of chapters in one night.  Then, meh, he totally lost interest. 

Sonar X6

This one is turning into a great devourer of books as well, but not on the one per week rate.  He finished this one last night.  

The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff  by Jason Lethcoe:  It was cool.  It's the second book in a series.  I would kind of like to read the first.  

What We're Reading Right Now

The Secret of Zoom by Lynne Jonell

Mossflower by Brian Jacques

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (2010 Newberry Winner)

Sonar X9 and I have each agreed to read at least one book per week this year.  I am taking the assignment literally and reading a book each week.  He's taking an averages approach, sometimes reading two or three books one week, then taking on a longer book over a couple of weeks.  So far our lists have not overlapped, though I bet that won't last, especially since I'm reading some juvenile fiction.  I'll talk more about his list of books in a future post. 

Here's a list to get me caught up on recent reads.  If I can manage to stick a wedge in between Everything Else in life, I have high hopes of writing more comprehensive comments on upcoming books.  

December 2009

Ok, these don't really count for the book a week deal, but I did read a few things over Christmas vacation. 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke

I read both of these out loud to the kids.  A Christmas Carol was an experiment in returning to the original.  I wondered if the kids would find it difficult (a little, but we went slow and looked up words), or boring (again, a little here and there, but they were surprisingly attuned to the drama of Ebeneezer's night with the ghosts).  This is a story that has been diluted and adapted so many different ways, I wanted to see where it all started and to share that with the kids.  I'm glad I did.  

We have read the Funke each December for the past three years.  It has become one of our Christmas traditions.  I find Niklas Goodfellow an irresistibly charming Santa.  The foul-mouthed elves ("steaming reindeer poo!") always produce a few bouts of giggles from the kids.  The story is told from the perspective of ten-year-old Ben, a thoroughly relatable character for the boys.  He befriends Charlotte, a shy but determined new girl at the school, and her dog Mutt, and together they help Niklas fight the forces that have dismantled much of the magic of Christmas.  Rather than epic battle, the story feels more intimate.  The kids and Niklas are victorious, but that victory is private.  No one knows what they've done to save Christmas.  The book leaves you with a cozy feeling about what Christmas can mean for a kid who is growing up, and the hope that the magic can continue to grow.  

Gothic!: Ten Original Dark Tales, edited by Deborah Noyes

This was my night-table reading, snuck in gulps and nibbles in a house full of Christmas guests and excitable children.  This YA collection includes several notable writers working in traditional suspense and mild-horror stories.  There is nothing overtly gruesome in there.  Several stories leave you with the claustrophobic feeling common in classic gothic novels, such as The Monk.  Others have a mood of isolation and confusion more evocative of Sartre.  Though some might call it a book more appropriate to Halloween, the creep-factor was a good antidote to the saccharine side of Christmas.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Apparently I did not read a single thing intended for adults during December.  Suite Scarlett is another YA novel, this one featuring Scarlett, a fifteen-year-old New Yorker whose family lives in and runs a small, historic hotel.  The story is one summer in the life of Scarlett, featuring her first romance and her first job outside the family business (sort of).  The characters are rich, and I loved the snappy dialogue between Scarlett and her siblings, especially her brother Spencer.  You cannot beat a teen novel featuring a smart protagonist, filled with Shakespeare quotes, the hijinks of a mysterious smoking, yoga-doing, veangeful hotel guest, and a family that seems to be going every direction at once without quite seeing each other in the middle.  I liked Scarlett as a protagonist.  Her world seems to swirl confusingly around her, and there are moments where she seems to be pushed powerlessly hither and thither, but when it counts, she makes her own choices (and her own mistakes), is smart and loyal and exerts power she didn't realize she had.  Highly recommended for the preteen and teen out there, or anyone else looking to cleanse their Twilight-palate.  

January 2010

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

When I set out to read a book a week, I thought it would be a good chance to read a few things that I had "missed" but felt like I should have read.  Bless Me, Ultima is one of those.  It is an important work in New Mexico (where yours truly spent her formative years), and it shows up on banned books lists all the time.  I wanted to know what the fuss was about.  This book was very compelling, difficult for me to put down.  The seven-year-old Tony witnesses several frightening deaths in the course of the book, events which parallel his own first awareness of his connection to and role within the world.  So many different cultures and ideas come together in the book and in the character of Tony.  His father is a llanero, from the roaming culture of the vast open spaces of New Mexico.  His mother is from Las Pasturas, a stable farming community, connected directly with their land.  They live on the edge of the llano, on the edge of town.  The home and the town often feel rural and primitive, but the father works building highways across New Mexico.  World War II is raging, with broken men (including Tony's older brothers) returning home all the time.  The bombing of Japan causes fear that the people have taken the power of god into their hands.  The traditions of the Catholic church and of the curanderas, the wise herb-women that some would instead call brujas, or witches, all live in the same house.  Religion, culture, modernity all wage war in Tony's young mind as he makes choices about who he will be and what he will do.  An incredibly rich story that I may read again.  

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite novels.  This was my third time through.  I remember the first time I read it, at around 13, I didn't realize for several chapters that Scout was a girl.  I was thrilled at the discovery.  I can't recall my college reactions to it.  They're subsumed in all the other books I swallowed then.  This time I related most directly to Atticus.  Yeah, I know, I'm a parent now and that makes a kind of sense.  There were moments though where something in me resonated with the grown voice of Scout remembering the events, or perhaps it was the voice of Harper Lee, recounting what it means to be a Southern woman through the formative events of Scout's life.  I lost count of how many times I cried, at the injustices portrayed, at the pain of awareness and discovery, at the beauty of the words.  Several moments stand out for me in the book.  Atticus explaining the courage it took for their mean old neighbor to break her morphine addiction.  Midnight under the jail when Scout helps the mob remember their humanity.  I keep coming back to the scene in the parlor and the kitchen, when the ladies of the town are there with Scout and her aunt and Calpurnia.  The moment when Atticus comes in to ask for Calpurnia's help because Tom Robinson is dead.  The parlor ladies are oblivious to the tragedy, and one has just insulted Atticus, but Scout and her aunt lift up their chins, set their faces, and Scout hefts  a tray to serve the cookies, swallowing her pain and growing in a painful way because of it.  I'm not sure why this particular scene stands out with me but I reread it twice and wondered at the arch-truth displayed and understood by Scout about what it meant to be a "lady."  

I did not intentionally read these books together, but was struck at how well they work together, both beginning with young protagonists just about to start school for the first time, and the discoveries they make about the way their worlds work.  They would work beautifully, I think, taught side-by-side.   

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

I checked this out of the library a few days after the Haiti earthquake.  Weirdly, I didn't think about the quake when I picked it up, only realizing the connection later that day.  Last year I read Murakami's memoir,  What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.  This was the first of his fiction that I've read.  It is a collection of short stories connected by references to the devastating Kobe earthquake of 1986.  Each story has an element of magic or magical realism in.  One story features a giant Frog that needs the help of a mild-mannered loan collection officer to do battle with Worm in order to prevent another earthquake from destroying Tokyo.  Others are more subtle.  My favorite, or at least the one that haunts my thoughts, is the story of the writer who finally makes a choice for love.  What haunts me is the dream of the little girl in the story.  The dream about the "Earthquake Man" who wants them all to come down into the darkness with him.  I'm making the story sound creepier than it is, but the significance of the dream is not addressed, except as a bad dream of a child who has watched too many horrible realities on television.  I feel like there must be more to the dream than that!  The story is an achingly beautiful examination of love deferred and later perhaps regained.  But I want to know more about the earthquake man!

Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This is another one I read out loud to the kids.  This was tough.  It reminded me a little bit of reading Treasure Island to the kids a year or so ago.  We had to stop very frequently to talk about words, though not as often as I would have thought.  There were times that the kids were pretty astutely getting what was happening without knowing what every word meant.  I spent a little time summarizing bits for them here and there, but they were often able to tell me just exactly what was happening, even if they couldn't articulate the tiny nuances of the story.  I pushed this one on them for a couple of reasons.  We have read a lot of fantasy the past couple of years and I was looking for something different.  I wanted to get them to try out a mystery.  I also wanted to revisit the book myself (I was amazed at what I could NOT remember) and see if they could handle something less contemporary.  They liked it on both counts.  Ok, Sonar X5 wasn't crazy about it, but he is very contrary about much of what we read at bedtime, so I take it with a grain of salt.  This was a fun book.  My favorite bit was the incredibly funny arrogance with which Holmes carries himself in all things, and Watson's gushing about how amazing Holmes is in every way.  I chuckled frequently.