SUCH a good story!

I am so glad I became open to westerns.  It was Robert B. Parker who did that for me.  Without Virgil and Everett, I don't think I would have read Some Kind of Courage, and that would have been a shame.  This is a western, for sure.  Full of adventure but also substance.  Dan Gemeinhart is a new-to-me author!

Paulsen. What can I say?

Once again I was wowed by Gary Paulsen.  The Night the White Deer Died is one of those books that adults should read and will be blown away by the simplicity and power of his words.

A short book, that packs a punch about a young Anglo girl falling in love with an old Native American man.

Complex and simple at the same time.  Like poetry.  Pure Paulsen.

Stories

are so powerful.  I guess that is one of the reasons why I am passionate about librarians defining their work as a service. That's why I like language like "patron" instead of "customer."  I just feel like we, those who work in libraries are in a service profession.  A relational profession.  One in which we need to be ready, as I often say, to "open a vein" to serve our community.

Long has my motto been, "It's better to burn out than rust away." And when I read a book like Mara's Stories:  Glimmers in the Darkness, I know I am right.

Here is the remarkable Gary D. Schmidt, although there is no D. on the cover, serving all of us, by sharing tales from the Jewish tradition as if they were told from a concentration camp prisoner to those around her, in the evenings, after another day of hell has passed.

These are beautiful and horrifying and hopeful and heart-breaking.  And the author talks about their origin at the end of the book, which makes it all even more  powerful.  Once again, a must-read for all.

And as a librarian, I need to make sure that as many people as possible have the experience of hearing stories such as these. 

Worst Cover Ever

Man.  I mean I thought that there were some bad Gary Paulsen covers before, but the one for Tiltawhirl John has to be the worst.  Even the font is terrible.  Terrible.  Terrible.
But the book is great.  I have always been fascinated by carnies and the carnival.
I don't know how much of this is true to what Gary Paulsen experienced when he ran away and joined the circus as a teen, but it all reads just like real life.  Fascinating.  Excellent.
HORRIBLE COVER.

How I Love Cars...

And how I loved The Car by Paulsen.  When you know a little bit about Paulsen's life, you can really see it come through in his writing.  Terry has been neglected by his parents and when they both just up and leave, each thinking that the other is at home with Terry, Terry's life really has just begun.  In the garage is a kit car, a Bearcat, which I really didn't know anything about until I read this book and Terry puts it together and heads west, maybe to see an uncle he once met who seemed kinda nice.  On the way he meets an old hippie, who had a bad run in Vietnam and the two of them meet up with another vet and man, Terry really learns about real life now.  Just a great, great, great book.

Waste of Money and Time

Urban Legends didn't cost much, for the audio book, but I still wish I would have skipped it.  It was pretty much a wikipedia entry (a boring one) made into a book but with added pomp and arrogance.  Even the more fun and intriguing urban legends come across as a huge snore-fest in this long winded and ridiculous offering.

Walter Dean Myers

I guess Gary Paulsen, Frances O'Roark Dowell and Walter Dean Myers are for me, the authors I can always count on.  Not just because they write so much, but also because they write so well.  Handbook for Boys was my latest WDM, on audio, read by Peter Francis James.  I kinda think that if Peter Francis James read the phone book, I would listen and enjoy.  He and Eric Conger are amazing.  Handbook for Boys is set in Harlem, like many of WDM's books and takes place mostly in a barbershop, run by Duke, a cool, smart older dude who has allowed Jimmy to work for him instead of going to juvie.  The barbershop is one of those places in the neighborhood where all kinds of folks hang out, get their hair cut and reflect.  Like a third-place kinda thing.  While working for Duke Jimmy learns a lot about life and choices.  It isn't a preachy book, I don't think.  And I just loved it.  Funny in places, too.  Classic WDM.  Recommended.

Hmm...

I am not sure how I feel about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (as it is titled in the US.  It is spelled Pyjamas in the author's native Ireland).  Maybe that is a sign of a good book.  It is praised by many and vilified by many.  It has become a movie.  I just don't know.  It is the story of a young boy who is the son of a Commandant in Hitler's army.  His father is sent to Aushchwitz to take charge of the death camp.  The boy, Bruno, doesn't know anything about Aushchwitz and even calls Hitler, The Fury, rather than Feuhrer, further showing his ignorance of the evils of the Nazis.  The boy is clueless.  He befriends a Jewish boy who is imprisoned in the camp and they meet every day at the fence.
The thing is, the critics of the book say that there is no way that the German people were this ignorant of what was going on in Germany.  I just don't know how I feel about it.  I look at it with the same icky feeling that I had about Life is Beautiful, and it's light treatment of the Holocaust.  And also, The Book Thief, which I just can't finish.  I just don't know.

Janie Grows Up

So kind of like the trip back to Sweet Valley, an old character is back again so that we can find out what happens to her. I think that Hazel Grace would like this book. The Face on the Milk Carton introduced us to Janie Johnson and What Ever Happened to Janie and The Voice on the Radio  and What Janie Found gave us further details of the girl who learns that she was kidnapped at age three by discovering her face on a milk carton when she is a teenager.

I loved this book for a lot of reasons. The ending is a a well paced ride to see if the kidnapper is going to kill Janie or someone else in her family. I also loved it because the families are Christian and while it is no more a "Christian Fiction" book than 13 is a "Jewish Fiction" book or Ask Me No Questions is "Buddhist  Fiction," but it was nice to just to have God and Jesus in a book because it is so rare, unless you are into Christian Fiction specifically.  The thing is that many teens do believe in Christ.  So it is good to see that, you know?  Great book overall!