The List of Authors Everyone Loves

Rebecca Stead is on that list!  The List of Things that Will Not Change is her latest.  And I did like it.  But for some reason I just can't really get into Stead.  I loved the love.  I heart-broken about Mission.  I thought the relationship between the two main character and her soon to be sister was very real.  I just thought the whole cousin thing wasn't needed.  I am not sure why it just seemed so out of place for me.  But the big secret surrounding Bea and her cousin...it just didn't fit for me and really did a lot of take away from my experience with the book.  

1/3

One-third Nerd was a great, super sweet read.  Very funny, very real.  Good good stuff!  I loved the 47s! I do love stories in which siblings get a long in a realistic way.  And also I loved that divorce isn't seen as a BIG EVIL.  Much too often it is.  And in reality, it is often a very good thing.  The parents in this book really act like adults.  Good stuff. 

Great TItle

You May Already Be a Winner was a great, great book with a great, great title.  Olivia is a winner, already.  Her parents...well, they have a lot of issues.  Things they are working on and will need to work on, but man, Olivia, she is a great kid.  Great book.  Probably the last one I will finish in 2018.   And a great way to end the year. 

Man...

Sharon M. Draper is one of the BEST.  Truly.  And Blended is just excellent.  I love all of the characters and I think this is a really, really good look at racism and divorce and identity and blended families and love.  And all done with that incredible Draper way.  Not preachy.  Just real.  Real.  Real.

Personally...

I found The Last Time We Say Goodbye to be really well done.  There were some (just a few, reviews for this book from users have been really positive overall) that felt it was predictable and that the main character, Lex, was very unlikable.  I didn't feel this way at all.  I didn't think it was predictable and I liked the element of faith in there, albeit very small, but it was very realistic.  It seems like sometimes authors have an ax to grind when it comes to faith, either way, positive or negative, but the approach to faith and love and science in this was, I thought, very realistic and appropriate to Lex's experiences and age.  I really liked this. 

The Jigsaw Jungle was wonderful.  I was so excited to see another book from Kristin Levine who wrote the exceptional The Paper Cowboy and one of my all time most favorite books The Lions of Little Rock.  This new book is just incredible.  It is really is.  This is the best book I have read so far this year.  What an important and, as far as I know, less talked about subject.  I don't want to give any of it away, but wow.  This is just such a book that everyone should read even if they aren't experiencing this.

REALLY good!

Middle grade fiction is SO good!  You Go First is SO good!  Erin Entrada Kelly won the Newbery for Hello, Universe which I really liked a lot, but I loved this one more!  Very realistic and heart-felt.  Great characters.  The article in the NY Times is what pointed me to it.  Good article.   I wasn't too excited about HU winning the Newbery.  I think last year there were so many better books, even though it was good.  But I am going to keep reading Kelly's books because this one was even better! 

Slump is BROKEN!

Maybe it was my attitude, or maybe it was the books, but I have to tell you, if it was my attitude, The Parker Inheritance is a book I would have loved anyway!  What a wonderfully written, fantastic book.  Just the perfect example of a book that is more than one thing and also another great example of excellent middle-grade fiction.  Varian Johnson has written an excellent mystery book, an excellent "guy" book, an excellent "girl" book, an excellent LBGTQ book, an excellent book about race, an excellent book about friendship, an excellent book about history, an excellent book about divorce.  He has written a wonderful stand-alone book.  He has written a wonderful first book to a series.  He has written my pick for the Newbery, if the Newbery picks a good book this year.

To Lose a Friend

The Chaos of Standing Still was again one of those books written so well that I just think the author, Jessica Brody, had to have had the soul-crushing experience of losing a best friend.  Having had this soul-crushing experience, I feel that way.  The thing is, the main character here lost her best friend in drunk driving accident (the other guy walked away without a scratch-- and I am STILL the only one who thinks Prohibition is a good idea?!?)
There is survivor guilt at play here.  Ryn dealing with the divorce of her parents, and falling in love.  Great, great book.  Also, it was neat to have this set in the Denver Airport.  Which is quite the place!  And Blucifer IS SCARY!  I agree!! 

The BIG Read

In 2019, God willing, one of the libraries in which I work will be participating in The Big Read.  The book will be In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.  She wrote Before We Were Free, which was a remarkable book.  I discovered Tia Lola Stories on a library audio app and listed to both books included in this one download:  How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay and How Tia Lola Came Learned to Teach.  Realistic, funny (especially when Tia Lola is practicing her English by saying everything she knows at once) and touching.  Just great!  I wish that the other books in the series were available on audio!

Rain and Ethan

One of the many things I appreciated about Rules of Rain was Rain's explanation of her name and her brother's name.  Her father named Ethan.  Normal name.  And her mom named her, Rain.
Her mom was a hippie-type and her dad was Mr. Normal.  Well, my name is Ingrid Gaynell.  And my brother is Robert Paul.  And well.   That has always bugged me!  Not just that my name is so terrible, but that my brother's is so NORMAL!
The other thing I appreciated about this book was the brother-sister love and relationship.  And also the proof that no one is all good or all bad.  (thinking about the parents here)
This was a good book, not just about families who have members with exceptional abilities, but also about the pressures that we put on ourselves, how we define ourselves, that kind of thing.  I loved Ethan and Hope, too. 

Being David Levithan

Remember that movie Being John Malkovich?  I liked that movie.  This Impossible Light would be another hard one for David Levithan, I bet.  He would really love parts of it, I bet!  But like The Art of Starving, her goal to be thinner and thinner and thinner is seen as a bad thing!  Oh Mr. Levithan, when will the world understand that completely inclusive acceptance isn't for EVERYONE!
This was a painful read for me in a different way from Crooked Saints.  It was like The Art of Starving.  I could really identify with the thoughts going through this young gal's head.
The problem that I had with it was that it wrapped up so quickly, like when Dorothy had CFS.  But maybe that does happen for some people with eating disorders and we don't know what happened, but it did seem like she made a lot of headway in a little time.  Which is great for her!   But I just wonder how realistic?  I am not sure, but it feels a little fast.  Jason Reyond's books often leave things really out there...MAJOR cliffhangers.  And that is something I LOVE and LOATHE!  And also what makes them so great.  I am not saying that the book had to get all Reyonldsy with the ending, but a little more time?  A little more uncertainty?  I don't know.  But I could recommend it.  Just not a Printz for me.  Lily Myers has a big following and experience with the issue, so maybe I am completely wrong about it needing to take more time?

It Might Be an Art Thing

And We're Off was a decent book.  I mean there was nothing bad about it, you know?  It just wasn't, I don't know really invested in it.  I wonder if maybe I was super into creating art, had the talent for it, I would have been more invested.

Jellyfish

The thing about The Thing about Jellyfish is that the author, Ali Benjamin, MUST know what it is like to lose a best friend.  I don't know what it is like to have lost a best friend in such a devastating way as Suzy, the main character has, but I do know that loss.  The whole "how does the world go on turning" deal.
I also learned a lot about jellyfish!  I remember being a kid and stopping by a beach in North Carolina (I say "stopping by" because we never stayed at a beach, we were just passing through) and seeing a girl who had just been stung on her side by one.  It just seemed terrible!
This was really, really an excellent book.

For Some Reason

I didn't look carefully at the cover of Booked.  I wish I had.  I thought that Booked was a sequel to The Crossover which I loved, loved, loved, so I thought "a sequel, hmm...how can it be as good?" and so I wasn't too excited to read it.  I mean, I knew I would read it, but I was going to wait until I could get it from the library, one of those things.  Then I actually read what it was about and then I looked closely at the cover and I had to have it!  And so I bought it on audible.  And it was well worth it. Well worth it.  So good.  A soccer story time time, but no more a "soccer story" than The Crossover was just a "basketball story."  Mr. Alexander has done it again.  Incredible.

Gifts

Gift of Magic is an old book, written the year I was born by Lois Duncan.  That link takes you to Lois Duncan's home page, but it hasn't been updated in a while.  Neither has her twitter feed.  That's because Duncan died in June.  She is in heaven now and I bet that if there was any need for her to communicate from heaven, Duncan would have done it, because the whole supernatural world was obviously of great interest to her.  I loved her books as a teen.  And I do enjoy reading them now.  This one was very good and creepy.  I think my most favorite is Summer of Fear.  I wonder if that is available to listen to, because I really would like to read it again.  This one only seemed dated in the name of the main character, Nancy.  But I have an Agnes in one of my storytimes, so I am thinking there is a chance Nancy will come back around some day, too.

Quirky and Lovely

Raymie Nightingale was fabulous.  One of those books that bring to mind sappy words like, "heart-felt" and "endearing" and "touching" and all of the rest.  But it is not sappy!  And is REAL.  And funny and I just really loved this funny/sad/touching book.  I do think this could be a Newbery winner, for sure.

St. Joseph's Day

I know I have written this before...my buddy and former roomie, Nancy Lou was Nancy Joseph before she married Dick Jenkins.  A big day for her was St. Joseph's Day.  That is March 19.  And March 19 is also the day when the swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano.   It was on March 19 of this year that I saw the book The Year the Swallows Came Early and decided to give it a listen. I didn't know if it had anything to do with swallows returning to Capistrano, but it turns out, it did.
This was a good book, man.  It really shows you that dualistic thinking doesn't work in the world.
The book begins with Groovy walking her dad to work and her dad getting arrested.
This isn't an action book, it is a thoughtful and thought-provoking one.  And it has a lovely, very subtle, totally non-preachy, pro-church and faith message.  I really liked it.  I just wish maybe it had a wee bit more action, but really, it was a very, very good book.

Different Kinds of Struggles

Better than Perfect and Zane and the Hurricane and Sarny all had struggles. How can one put a value on struggles?
I know that we can't rank pain.
This book tells the story of "perfect" Juliet Newman who is from a "perfect" family that starts to fall apart.
Her mom ODs, her parents divorce, she is struggling with her "perfect" boyfriend" and her pending acceptance?  into Harvard.
There is no "perfect" life.  Facebook and Instagram and Twitter might make us think that others have perfect lives.
I knew a woman who was always complaining about other people have such perfect lives.
I would ask, many times, "How do you know their lives are perfect?  Their children are perfect?"  She would tell me that she sees it on Facebook.
There really isn't much to say to that.
I would sometimes (though not often because she was not a woman of good temper) that her Facebook page also displayed a perfect life.  That just didn't seem to sink in at all.
Juliet would be seen as a "perfect" girl and this ill-tempered acquaintance of mine would compare her to her own daughter, and wonder why her own child couldn't be more like Juliet, I am sure.  But this book just hits home the lesson that no one is perfect.

Dreamers

Nikki Grimes is one of my most favorite authors.  Words with Wings was a wonderful book, written in poetry, from the POV of a young girl who lets words take her away.
I was talking recently with a kindred spirit, a friend who, even more than I, appreciates the power and wonder of words.  She does incredible work with middle schoolers, especially boys and believes in the empowering power of words.
Words with Wings is a book that these middle school boys probably wouldn't like!  But boy, this book is for anyone who has been called a daydreamer, for anyone who can appreciate and fall in love with words.