Such a great book

The 57 Bus:  A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives is SO well done.  Wow.  Just such a fantastic book about this case.  It is a real-life example of living in the grey.  I can't recommend this book enough. 
It is VERY hard for me to believe that this book was the winner of the YALSA Non-fiction Award and The 57 Bus was a finalist.  1954 all over again.  For sure. 

Third One, Still Fantastic

First came One Crazy Summer then P.S.:  Be Eleven and now Gone Crazy in Alabama and the third was just as "I want to read this all now!" as the first and the second.  Delphine and her sisters Fern and Vonetta are spending the summer in Alabama with their grandma, Big Ma and their great-grandma, Ma Charles.  This is so insightful.  There is a lot about sisters here,.  Delphine and hers and also Ma Charles and her sister.  There is a lot about racial identity and civil rights and there is a lot of love.  Wonderful, wonderful addition.  It was a Coretta Scott King winner, to me, it should have also been a Newbery Honor.  But that's 1954 for you.  Should be read by all ages, it's another one of those kind.  And it would be enjoyed by all ages as well.

Very Cute

The Tale of Despereaux was a very quick listen and lovely story. I see that it won the Newbery in 2004.  That is fine.  It is a lovely story.  About a mouse, but more than a mouse.  It's about when bad things happen to you, it can either turn you into a vengeful, bitter person and then it will lead to even worse things.
I get that.  But this is what I don't get.  However, Locomotion was published that year.
So.
I don't really know what to say.
I just ask you to read both and then decide for yourself.
1954?  I think so.

Hard to Understand...

I listened to Across Five Aprils shortly after reading Nightjohn and so listening to AFA was more difficult than it might have been otherwise. I had heard that Irene Hunt was a great author and this is only book that I have read of hers.  This was a Newbery Honor Book. Nightjohn was not.  Huh.  Strange?  Surprising?  Not really, given the 1954 quality of the Newbery.  
Across Five Aprils was a good book.  It was.  But the thing is...while there are definitely anti-slavery messages in this book, there are also characters who are pro-slavery.  Or people who at the very least, argue that the South should have been allowed to make its own decisions regarding slavery.  Now I know this is realistic.  Of course there were mixed emotions, strong emotions.  I know that...but, but I just don't get it.  I just don't.  I found myself feeling the same way as I listened to Revolution.  In that book there were characters who were trying to find their way, get their heads around racial relations.  I just don't get it...it just makes no sense to me.  How, how, how can separate but not equal make any sense?  How can one be judged by the color of one's skin?  How does that work?  How does what one looks like on the outside make any difference at all when it comes to, well, anything?  How?   I don't know.  I just don't know.

Christopher Paul Curtis

has become an author that I love, love, love.  Elijah of Buxton was incredible.  Christopher Paul Curtis had my heart with The Mighty Miss Malone and now I am just reading everything I can that he has written.  Elijah of Buxton had me quoting and reading out-loud to my mom.  It had me in tears.  I didn't know anything about Buxton, I am ashamed to say. 
The thing is, I have an aunt who won't read fiction at all because she says that she doesn't want to waste her time.  She only reads nonfiction because she can learn from it.  Well, I have learned so much from fiction. 
Oh man...this is a book that I want everyone to read because I just want to talk about it.  Incredible.  Everyone.  Everyone should read this beautiful book. 
As I look at the Newbery Award for that year, I am just sickened.  If this isn't 1954, then I don't know what is. 

How much misery has there been? Is there still?

Before We Were Free taught me a lot.  It is the story of Anita, living in the Dominican Republic near the end of the reign of Rafael Trujillo, whom I had never heard of, I am embarrassed to say.  This book won the Pura Belpré Award in 2004, instead of the Newbery, of course, no shock there.  That went to The Tale of Despereaux, which I have not read...but come on, not even a Newbery Honor to BWWF?  Olive's Ocean got an Honor that year....really?   And this didn't?  Feels like 1954 to me.  This was the first book I've ever read by Julia Álveraz but it won't be my last.  Incredible.

I Survived the 1954 Oscars

I didn't.  But anyway...I Survived is a pretty popular series right now.  The author, Lauren Tarshis is coming to Sewickley in early March and I am pretty excited!  I have only read I Survived...the Attacks of September 11, 2001 and I thought it was okay, I only gave it three of five stars, but I think that was because I remember 9/11 so well and well, any book about it, written for kids that weren't even born is going to seem to not do the horror of it justice.  How can you do the horror of it justice?  Is that even an appropriate way to word it?  It was just such a horrible, scary, unreal day.  It was just beyond words.  And I know that this was a kids' book and so it couldn't even come close to capturing the horror of it all.  So for me, because of personal stuff, I just didn't love it.  I am going to read more in the series though.  I am going to do that right now.  It is interesting because at the end of the book, Tarshis says that she didn't plan to write about 9/11, but her readers asked over and over again for her to do it.

Underwhelming

Well I can't say I am suprised.  The Youth Media Award winners are here. 
I was happy with some. 
Year of Billy Miller and Doll Bones getting Newbery Honors.  Good deal.  I haven't read Flora and Ulysses, but I am looking forward to it after my magical experience with Edward Tulane.   No mention at all of The Boy on the Porch and what really should have won, if we are all honest, P.S. Be Eleven, if not on its own merit, just because of the horrible 1954-like tragedy that was Moon Over Manifest.   P.S. did win the Coretta Scott King, which is wonderful, but man...man...man...it really should have gotten the Newbery.  Or maybe time has shown us that the Coretta Scott King award is a more prestigious, educated award.  Why hope for a Newbery if it is just going to keep overlooking books that are clearly outstanding.  Look at who won the Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the VERY VERY VERY deserving Patricia and Fredrick McKissack.  LOVE LOVE LOVE Patricia McKissack.  Especially The Honest to Goodness Truth.  Mr. McKissack died last year, but we know he is celebrating now! 
As for the Caldecott Award.  Nothing I had hoped for even got an honor.  But I can't deny that Locomotive isn't very, very deserving. 
Very excited to see Watermelon Seed get the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award and to see Tim Federle get a Stonewall honor for Better Nate Than Ever!  And how cool that Help for the Haunted got an Alex! 
I am super excited to read Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass!  And I was happy to see Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote:  a migrant's tale get both author and illustrator Belpré honors. 
The Printz Award was the biggest shock for me.  I really thought that Eleanor and Park would win.  Ah I just can't even go on anymore.  Underwhelmed, indeed. 

Award time!

Yes it is award season!  No, I am not talking about the Golden Globes, or the SAG Awards or the Grammy's, I am talking about the ALA Book and Media Awards!  I've been to ALA Midwinter before, but not last year and not this year.  Maybe next year.  The Book and Media awards are always exciting.  But you know how I feel about awards in general.  We'll see what happens this year.  My predictions are always wrong, but that won't stop me.  I think that The Boy on the Porch will win and deserves the Newbery.  And I think that The Dark deserves, but won't win the Caldecott.  I think that Eleanor and Park should win and deserves the Printz.  I like this article from School Library journal and I have to say that The Year of Billy Miller and Doll Bones were awesome.  Read what she has to say about One Crazy Summer.  That was 1954 for sure.  As the author says, the fact that it didn't get the gold still makes me angry!  So when I reflect back on One Crazy Summer,  and After Tupac and D Foster, all of these predictions seem pointless!
Wait!  Wait!  Wait!  There is only one book that really deserves the Caldecott and that is Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson.  I forgot that it came out in 2013.  It came out right in January.  There is no way it will win though.  But it should.

A Surprise Sequel...Surely Was....

I never expected a sequel to One Crazy Summer!  I bought the audio as soon as I saw it.  Especially after I saw that Sisi Aisha Johnson was the reader.  She is amazing.  And so was OCS and so is P.S. Be Eleven.  OCS should have won the Newbery but of course, it didn't.  Another 1954.  PS begins right where OCS left off.  The girls are back from visiting their Black Panther mother in California and facing some new challenges and changes back home in Bed-Stuy.  Pa has a new lady friend, Uncle Darnell is back from Vietnam, the Jackson Five debute on the Hollywood Palace.   This is a great historical fiction book and just a great book overall.

Obviously...

Really?  

I am not a mind-reader or a good predictor of how Newbery will go!  I didn't get anything right on my predictions!  It is amazing to me that Wonder and Lions were completely overlooked.  And now, having finished The Mighty Miss Malone, I can't believe that was missed, too.  What can I say?  Nothing can be said, just a number.  1954.

My Prediction for the 2013 Newbery Winner

I will be very surprised if May B. is not chosen as this year's Newbery winner.  Historical fiction.  Little popular appeal.  And the girl lives in a house made of sod.  These are the kind of books that seem to win.  Do I think it should win?  No.  But remember 1954.  This story is told in verse and it is zzzz.  Oh sorry.  I fell asleep.
But it is Kansas!!!

Man...

Even though I felt that last year's Newbery was a good choice, now that I have read Inside Out and Back Again, I feel like maybe it should have won.  But Dead End in Norvelt was awesome...so I don't know.  It is close.  It is def not like 1954.  For sure.  But wow, Inside Out and Back Again was incredible and heartbreaking and eye-opening, well, eye-opening to a dummy like me who didn't know much about Vietnamese refugees, after the Fall of Saigon.  What a beautiful story about ignorance and understanding and human folly and the human heart.  I loved this book. 

Could win the Printz!

If you ask me, anyway.  Not that I know much.  Or have faith in awards.  As we remember 1954.  But man, Ask the Passengers has what it takes to win.  It is truly wonderfully written.  It is such a real story with real characters.  It is perfect for LGTB or non-LGTB or BTLs or AFS, or NTSB folk.  Seriously, this book is beautiful.  I mean it has nasty parts, for sure.  There are dirtbag Holocaust-deniers and gossip-mongers, and all you would expect in a small town, or big town for that matter, but the book is set in a small town.  And I would imagine, it would be a lot harder to be a gay teen in a small town rather than a big one. 
This is the story of Astrid Jones, high school teen, who has fallen in love with a girl.  She doesn't feel that she can tell anyone, even though she has a best friend who is gay.  Her family isn't horrific.  She has a sister who is a year younger, a pretty cool dad and a mom who is pretty self-obsessed, but she loves them and all. 
She also feels though, that she has no one to truly love her, because they a. don't know the real her because of her secret  and b.  well she can't love her girlfriend because that just wouldn't cut it in a small town, especially when her mom is so concerned with what others think.
The thing is, this is about more than Astrid's sexuality though.  It is about coming of age and being your own person and being okay with the unknown.  It is also about sexuality as being fluid, too.  Like "loving hearts, not parts."
Great book.  So much to talk about.  Great for anyone and everyone! 

As I Watch the Oscars

I am reminded, of course of 1954 and so the winners and losers are meaningless. I watch because it's fun and interesting, but not because the awards have meaning. How can they, after 1954, after all!

I am also remembering my dear friend Joanie while they announce the winner of Best Foreign Film, A Separation. I have no doubt that, if it had been playing in Pittsburgh, we'd have seen it. Sadly I don't even know if it was playing here. That part of my life, going to see foreign movies, doing things that don't fit into my pretty predictable, utterly suburban, mall-going world, is over. It makes me sad. But I don't want to do those things anymore. It's just not part of who I am now. I save those memories and I cherish those times. That was then, this is now.

Dusty

I was glad to have read The Worst Hard Time before reading Out of the Dust.  I don't know if I would have understood the magnitude of the suffering that people underwent during the Dust Bowl.  Hesse does a wonderful job describing the grasshoppers and the storms, the landscape, the drought, but maybe I wouldn't have believed it was as bad as all that.  Maybe I would have thought it was poetic license (as the book is written in poems) or maybe just the exaggeration because the story is told through the eyes of fifteen year old Billie Jo.  She was  teenager.  Maybe it just seemed to her that the sky was filled with grasshoppers, that the dust choked the very life out of people.  Knowing something about the Dust Bowl really helped me to understand the pain of this girl and her family.
Let me admit though, that this was another "I need a book on CD choice" and when I finished listening to it, my first reaction was that the book was way too long and unrealistic in it's portrayal of a teenage girl facing these horrible experiences.  Then I talked to my dear friend Kara and she helped me to see the book in a different light.  She suggested I read it instead of listening to it and she was right.  The audio book just don't work with this book.  It is choppy and difficult to follow.  I couldn't even tell if it was poetry or not.  But the book was a very different experience and I ended up really liking it.  Even though it is so completely heart-breaking at times.  Completely.  At one point I took an involuntary deep breath, just stricken by what happened.
The other issue that I had with the book that, once again, Kara helped me to understand, was the portrayal of Billie Jo.  This girl goes through just so so much.  So much.  And her reaction just seems so controlled.  I started thinking about other girls of that age, myself at that age, girls of that age in other books.  I thought, man I don't know ANYONE else who would react this way to this kind of horrible stuff.  But then Kara pointed out that it probably wasn't Hesse's intention to get into the psyche of Billie Jo.  I understood that and it helped me to appreciate the book so much more.
Out of the Dust was a Newbery Winner but I haven't read the Honor Books for that year, and the only one that appeals to me is Wringer, so I can't go on about it being 1954.  It wasn't a five-star, but I am really glad that I read it.
MORE THOUGHTS!  SPOILERS!
Okay.  So now it is a few days after reading Out of the Dust.  Usually if I take a little break and reflect upon a book I end up liking it more than I did after I first read it.  The exact opposite has happened with OOTD.  I just can't seem to accept Billie Jo's low level of emotion surrounding the injury and subsequent death of her mother.  Her reaction just floors me.  I must think about it more.  Just had to say that!

One Amazing Book

One Crazy Summer has nothing to do with One Crazy Summer.  I haven't seen the movie, but it sounds really horrible.  Regardless, the two are not related at all.
I have the sinking feeling that this is 1954 all over again.   OCS was a Newbery Honor book, you see.  An HONOR book, which means that it didn't win the Newbery.  However I haven't read the Newbery, Moon Over Manifest, but I can't imagine it is better than OCS.  This book is fantastic.  Unreal fantastic.  Hilarious.  Heart-breaking at times.  Real.  Amazing. 
I knew very little about the Black Panthers, I am ashamed to admit.  I do know some about Malcolm X and how his ideals helped to shape those of the Panthers.  This is one of the best books that I read during my seminary education and, sadly, pretty much all I know about Malcolm X.  If that's all I know about Malcolm X, and I know more about him than the Black Panthers, then you know the serious limits of my knowledge.  I read articles and little things here and there, the World Book entries, the wikipedia, that kind of thing, but I haven't studied the Civil Rights Movement in depth and I am truly sorry that I haven't done that yet. 
OCS isn't an in-your-face history lesson, though.  Yes, it is about the Black Panthers, primarily set in Oakland, CA and the main characters attend the Free Breakfast Program.  We learn about what happened to Lil Bobby Hutton.  But it's not text book and it isn't the story of OCS.  The story belongs to Delphine.  Twelve years old, she and her little sisters are sent to Oakland for twenty-eight days, to stay with their mother, a poet with marginal ties to the Panthers, who left them when the littlest girl, Fern was just a baby in her arms.  The sisters' father and grandmother are back home in NYC.   This is a beautiful story of family and love.  Delphine is the kind of daughter you would love to have, sadly, her mom really needs to learn more about being a mother, but you get the sense that she may be trying.  There is a lot of hope in this book.  Fantastic.

It won an award...and it's really, really good!

I admit that I am cynical about awards.  1954.  Never.  Forget. and Tupac and D Foster.  So when I saw that Ship Breaker won the Printz Award (which is different from a Freddie Prinze Sr. Award or Freddie Prinze Jr. Award, which don't exist, but should because both men were (in Sr's case) are (in Jr's case) incredibly cool, talented and good looking guys - oh wait, in Sr's case it's "lookin' good") and when I heard them announce it, I thought what?  What is this book?  What?  And I was mad because I thought Will Grayson, Will Grayson or Nothing would win.  Nothing ended up getting an Honor nod and Will got a nod for the Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Award Honor.  The book I couldn't finish but loved won that award.

So I was really ready to not like this book at all and run around ranting about 1954 all over again.  I downloaded it right away from itunes and listened to it as I drove from Las Cruces eastward.  I knew nothing about it and so at first I couldn't figure out if it was taking place now in some really poor part of the world or what.  Then I realized that it is another post-apocalyptic books that are so popular now.  Popular with me, too!  But this book wasn't just another PAB.  There is something really different, and better about this book than the average.  It isn't as good as The Hunger Games trilogy or The Moon Books.  Which makes me wonder why This World We Live In and Mockingjay didn't win, but maybe it was because they were both the last in a series?  I am not sure if that is supposed to make them, somehow less award-worthy.    That seems kinda unfair if it is true, because there's a Ship Breaker #2 on the way.  

Anyway, I really did enjoy Ship Breaker.  I enjoyed it so much!  The characters are wonderful and even though there's a little bit of romance, that didn't bother me too much.  Listening to how the world might be in the future, it was scary.  There were a lot of scary parts.  There were a lot of parts where I thought...man what is going to happen!?!?!?!  And also I loved the questions that this book raises about family and what it means.  I would love to see this book made into a movie, if it is done right.  Does the book deserve the Printz?  Oh man...it is so hard to answer that, when I loved those other books so so so much...man.  I don't know.  I am glad I wasn't on the committee.  But man, definitely read this book.  It is truly awesome.  So no, this is no 1954.  This book is no Grace Kelly, for sure.  

Not quite 1954...but almost

A Single Shard isn't as in love with itself as Reach Me. So we aren't talking the Travesty of 54 status here.  It isn't as ridiculous as Wintergirls either. Ming the Potter is perhaps as unlikable as Margaret's gang, but at least he has a reason (he's grieving the loss of his only son) and he redeem himself. But SS is predictable in a major way. As soon as you find out that Ming the Potter is hoping to get a royal commisson to make pots you KNOW what's gonna happen. The title gives it away. No big deal though. That happens, right? Murder on the Orient Express, Killing Mr. Griffin, etc. SS is a nice little story. It's just that it probably could have been done better as a picture book for older readers. Some thing along the lines of My Rows and Piles of Coins or Demi's The Empty Pot and The Hungry Coat. I could see SS done like one of  these with no complaints. But to drag out such a predictable story, no matter how "cute" it is...I just don't think that's Newbery Neighborhood. Ok sure, I'm the one who can't wait for the next LA Candy to come out, but I am also the one who picked up on the shear ridiculousness of After Tupac only getting Honor status.  I won't do a summary of SS, it would end up being longer than the book should have been if I try. I'm just terrible at that, as you know. Then again, nobody's giving me a Newbery, are they?  Still if you have to pick one to read, go with Everything on a Waffle.  It is a much better book.  

1954 all over again

We all know what happened in 1954. It was the year that the Academy Awards became a complete joke. I won't even dignify them with a hyperlink. That year Judy was nominated for Best Actress for A Star is Born. For some unknown reason, one that still puzzles even the most brilliant minds of today, Grace Kelly won for The Country Girl. Have you ever seen The Country Girl? All I can say is what I always say, the blow-up doll in Lars and the Real Girl showed more emotion. I am not kidding.
After reading After Tupac and D Foster the whole 1954 disgrace came back to me. After Tupac was named a Newbery Honor Book in 2009. Yeah. An HONOR book which means it didn't with the Newbery. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman won. Yeah. That's right. Now don't get me wrong, I like the Graveyard but how could anyone, anyone, anyone in their right mind could pick Graveyard over After.
This book is simply beautiful.
I will admit upfront that I love Tupac Shakur. When I Get Free, Changes (which is part of the Vatican's official playlist), Picture Me Rollin....man I could go on and on...his music is pure poetry. To me, Pac and Judy are music. But before you haters start saying that I like After just because it's about Tupac, I dare you to read this book. I dare you to say it didn't deserve the Newbery.