The Art of Detection - Laurie R. King

This author one of my favorite adult mystery writers, and in this new novel she actually sort of combines two of her series. One series she writes is about a smart female San Francisco police detective, and one series is about Sherlock Holmes in his later years. This book is a modern day mystery set in San Francisco with the female detective, and the person who's been murdered is a Sherlock Holmes fanatic (dare I say freak!?). This guy's whole first floor of his house has been re-created to look like Sherlock Holmes' house, and he belongs to a club of other Holmes aficionados who get together monthly for Holmes dinners. His job is, well I guess was, to buy and sell Holmes memorabilia for other collectors. And just before he dies he finds something he thinks might be very special. It's a manuscript that just might be an actual Holmes piece. If so, it's worth a LOT of money.

King includes the whole Holmes story , in a different font so as not to confuse the reader, in this novel, and it's very well done

I really enjoyed this mystery and would definitely recommend it.

This looks like fun

Lovers of mysteries, check out this site!

http://echoshawmystery.com/

This brand-new series for teens chronicles the adventures of Echo Shaw, a modern Nancy Drew who uses her love of riddles to solve some very puzzling mysteries. Fun, intelligent storytelling from author Amy Alexander.

Who is Echo Shaw?

Sixteen-year-old Echo Shaw lives in Denver, Colorado. She's like any other teenager, with a few exceptions: 1) Her dad's an Intelligence Research Specialist for the DEA, 2) Her new stepmom used to be a Vegas showgirl, and 3) She's just been roped into working as a counselor at a Canadian summer camp. Oh, and her life might be in danger...


Take a look!

Good Masters, Sweet Ladies - Schlitz

This is the Newbery winner for this year and what a delight to read! It is a very quick read, almost like a picture book even. Many people actually were discussing this book before the awards were given out as a possibility, but most people thought it had too many illustrations, so the committee wouldn't pick it. But they did, and I think it is a really great choice.

The story is a series of short vignettes written to be performed, actually, but certainly they don't need to be performed. Each little vignette takes one character from a fictional medieval town and tells a little piece of his or her story. The stories are interwoven a little bit, but can certainly stand alone. The author also intersperses lots of footnotes - sidenotes in this case, really - explaining medieval terms and roles, which I found to be very helpful. And she has four or five short sections that are non-fiction interwoven into the text as well. Plus there are the awesome illustrations done by Robert Byrd.

This book was written by a school librarian who had students who were really into their study of the Middle Ages. She wanted to write a play for them, but non one wanted a small part so this was what she came up with! SO much fun!

I've ordered it for the WOMS library, but in the meantime, it's available at Multnomah County Libraries. Happy reading!

Award Winners Announced :)

This is a long one, but it has all the awesome new award books listed - the awards were just given out on Monday! Happy Reading - I know I have a lot of new titles on my TO-READ list, that's for sure. :)

The following is a list of all ALA Youth Media Awards for 2008:

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature.
“Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village,” written by Laura Amy Schlitz, is the 2008 Newbery Medal winner.

Three Newbery Honor Books were named:
“Elijah of Buxton,” by Christopher Paul Curtis
“The Wednesday Wars,” by Gary D. Schmidt
“Feathers,” by Jacqueline Woodson, published by Putnam.

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children.
“The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” illustrated by Brian Selznick

Four Caldecott Honor Books were named:
“Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad,” illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine
“First the Egg,” illustrated and written by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
“The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain,” illustrated and written by Peter Sís
“Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity,” illustrated and written by Mo Willems

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults.
“The White Darkness,” by Geraldine McCaughrean

Four Printz Honor Books were named:
“Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet,” by Elizabeth Knox
“One Whole and Perfect Day,” by Judith Clarke
“Repossessed,” by A. M. Jenkins
“Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath,” by Stephanie Hemphill

Coretta Scott King Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults.
“Elijah of Buxton,” written by Christopher Paul Curtis, is the King Author Book winner.

Two King Author Honor Books were selected:
“November Blues,” by Sharon M. Draper
“Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali,” written by Charles R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Bryan Collier

“Let it Shine,” illustrated and written by Ashley Bryan, is the King Illustrator Book winner.

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award;
“Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It,” written by Sundee T. Frazier
Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.
“Kami and the Yaks,” written by Andrea Stenn Stryer, illustrated by Bert Dodson wins the award for young children (age 0 to 10).
“Reaching for Sun,” by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer is the winner in the middle grades category (age 11-13).
“Hurt Go Happy,” written by Ginny Rorby is the winner in the teen category (age 13-18).

Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.

Orson Scott Card is the recipient of the 2008 Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring his outstanding lifetime contribution to writing for teens for his novels “Ender's Game” and “Ender's Shadow.”

The Pura Belpré Award honoring Latino authors and illustrators whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children's books.
Yuyi Morales, illustrator of “Los Gatos Black on Halloween,” written by Marisa is the winner of the 2008 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award.
Margarita Engle, author of “The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano,” illustrated by Sean Qualls is the 2008 Pura Belpré Author Award recipient.


Three Pura Belpré Author Honor Books were named:
“Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life!” by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
“Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale,” retold by Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Michael
“Los Gatos Black on Halloween,” written by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Yuyi Morales and published by Holt.

Robert F. Sibert Medal for most distinguished informational book for children.
“The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain,” written and illustrated by Peter Sís, is the 2008 Sibert Award winner.

Two Sibert Honor Books were named:
“Lightship,” written and illustrated by Brian Floca
“Nic Bishop Spiders,” written and illustrated by Nic Bishop

Mildred L. Batchelder Award for the most outstanding children's book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the United States.
“Brave Story” is the winner of the 2008 Mildred L. Batchelder Award. Originally published in Japanese in 2003 as “Bureibu Sutori,” the book was written by Miyuki Miyabe and translated by Alexander O. Smith.

Two Batchelder Honor Books also were selected:
“The Cat: Or, How I Lost Eternity,” originally published in German as “Die Katze,” “Nicholas and the Gang,” originally published in French as “Le petit Nicolas et les copains.”

The first-ever Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production is Live Oak Media for “Jazz.”

Five Odyssey honor titles were named:
“Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy”
“Dooby Dooby Mo,”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”
“Skulduggery Pleasant”
“Treasure Island”

Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences
“American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China,” by Matthew Polly,
“Bad Monkeys,” by Matt Ruff
“Essex County Volume 1: Tales from the Farm,” by Jeff Lemire,
“Genghis: Birth of an Empire,” by Conn Iggulden
“The God of Animals,” by Aryn Kyle
“A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” by Ishmael Beah, “Mister Pip,” by Lloyd Jones
“The Name of the Wind,” by Patrick Rothfuss
“The Night Birds,” by Thomas Maltman
“The Spellman Files,” by Lisa Lutz

ALA awards being announced next week!

Wow, the ALA awards, the big ones like the Newbery, the Caldecott, the Printz, the Pura Belpré, and many more sort of snuck up on me this year. they're already being announced next week. I'm pretty excited about it, but I went trolling through all kinds of blogs tonight looking to see what people have predicted will win, and I've hardly read ANY of them. It's a little frightening. I mean, I'm supposed to be on the forefront of children's and YA lit, and I haven't even read the top candidates of the year? I haven't even HEARD of some of them. Yikes. Needless to say, my hold list at the public library got pretty huge tonight. 28 requests currently...

The good news is, many of the favorites I read about won't win either. The hubbub after the awards is actually usually a lot of fun to read, too. All these librarians and book people going, WHAT??? Who picked THAT book??? They should have picked THIS book!!!! It's pretty funny. Anyway, I'll post all the award books as soon as I hear what they are, and I'll be ordering them for our library, too, so you can be on the forefront of children's and YA lit even if your librarian is a little behind :)

I'm off to read something before I go to sleep. I've got a lot of things to get through...

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy - Ally Carter

The good news is, this is an awesome series. The bad news is, I came to it a little too early. I'm the kind of person who reads a LOT of books (in case you hadn't noticed) and when I find a great series I like to zoom through the whole lot of them. But that's a little tricky to do when the author HASN'T ACTUALLY WRITTEN THEM YET....

Anyway, this is the sequel to I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You, and both of these books are loads of fun. Cami, the main character, goes to spy school, which is pretty much like going to West Orient Middle School, minus all the top secret spy gadgets and wild situations, of course.

Cami and her friends have a lot of exciting adventures, particularly when the boys arrive this year...see it's an ALL GIRLS spy school Cami attends, and when the boys arrive, things change just a teensy bit.

Both stories in the series are hilarious and all around great reads for both boys and girls because while the main character is a girl, all the cool spy stuff will appeal to boys and girls. I highly recommend them and I can't wait for the third one to come out!

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac - Gabrielle Zevin

Sounds like it would be a pretty short book, doesn't it? Get it? MEMOIRS of someone with no memory? Quite an interesting pretense for a book, and one that I really enjoyed. Naomi, resident amensiac, takes a fall down the stairs of her school, and when she comes to she doesn't remember anything for about the past four years, including her boyfriend, her best friend, the fact that her parents are divorced, her very young baby sister....Things before then she remembers, but after that, nothing. I think that would be a pretty strange and disconcerting thing to have happen. It would seem like all the safety you sort of take for granted just in knowing who you are would be stripped away and that would be pretty hard to deal with.

Which is pretty much how it turns out. Naomi faces a lot of struggles in her re-engagement with life. Some things work out really well for her, and others not so great.

I found this book to be funny, surprising but also sometimes predictable, heartbreaking, and really thought provoking. Who would you become if you had it do all over again starting today?

I listened to this on my iPod and I really liked the reading of this novel. I got it at the Multnomah County Library.

Reading can be dangerous...

"I never read without making sure I am in a secure position. I have been like this ever since the age of seven when, sitting on a high wall and reading The Water Babies, I was so seduced by the descriptions of underwater life that I unconsciously relaxed my muscles. Instead of being held buoyant by the water that so vividly surrounded me in my mind, I plummeted to the ground and knocked myself out. I can still feel the scar under my fringe now. Reading can be dangerous."

The Thirteenth Tale
Diane Setterfield
P. 4

I just finished this novel which I LOVED. It is definitely a novel for lovers of reading, mainly grown-up ones. It's a beautifully written piece.

Spud - John Van de Ruit

This book was recommended to me by another library friend who I really respect, but I have to say, when I first started it, I was really struggling getting through it. I'm not sure if it was because the main character was an adolescent boy or if it was the writer's style, or what, but it was just a really slow start. I actually almost gave up on it, which I hardly ever do, but as I kept reading, I got the hang of it, and now I'm even thinking of reading the sequel...although I think it's only out in South Africa at this point, so that's going to be bit of a journey to get it. I'm willing, though, if I can just convince my husband.

On the back of the book a reviewer described it as the Catcher in the Rye of our time, but I think it's much more like A Separate Peace than Catcher. It's set in a boys' boarding school in South Africa and has a lot of references to things more prevalent in South African culture than in ours, but I don't think that will get in the way for most readers. It's another story about the power of friendship, and this is not a topic often deeply explored in boy books, so I really like that aspect of this book.

The book is written in diary form, so it's easy to read little bits at a time, or it's hard to stop reading because you don't have definite chapter ends, whichever way you look at it. You really get a good look inside the mind of an adolescent boy in this book because it's a diary. For me, that was a little TOO much at times, but it seemed pretty realistic.

I probably won't get this book for our library because I don't think many middle schoolers would be drawn to it, but I think it's a great book for high schoolers, particularly boys.

WOMS Giving Tree tags still available

There are still some needs that need to be filled for some of our students. If you're able to help, please take a look at the list of items we still need at the library homepage:

http://westorient.gresham.k12.or.us/~fitzpatrick/

Thank you, and happy holidays!

Extras - Scott Westerfeld

Special thanks to Lauren W. for loaning me her copy of the book so I could have a chance to read it because we haven't gotten it here yet. We will, though, never fear.

This is the EXTRA book in the series by Scott Westerfeld that was meant to be a trilogy, but fans clamored so loudly (or the publishers saw such a good chance to make a huge profit?) that he wrote a fourth book. It's set farther into the future and has a brand new character, Aya, which some fans will enjoy and others won't (aka Mrs. Van der Meer). Gaining social status is the big thing in this book, and people are so fickle you can basically be wildly popular one day and drop off the face of the planet the next. Aya is decidedly low in the popularity rankings, and she is determined to change that. The Sly-Girls clique is her road to fame.

In the process of "kicking" the story of the Sly Girls and their Mag-Lev flying, yep, lots of strange new words and gizmos in this book just like the other three, Aya discovers there may be more to life than just getting famous, but just in case there's not, she decides to go with the fame thing and turns the whole world upside down. Unfortunately, there are some other people (??) who aren't too happy with this choice of hers....

It's a suspenseful story with lots of action and excitement, even a visit from Tally Youngblood. If you liked the rest of the series, you should definitely read this, but I thought some of the language (sense-missing and the like) got a little annoying. For sure it's no Uglies.

Cures for Heartbreak - Margo Rabb

This was a box of kleenex type of book, but really well done. The novel centers around 9th grade girl Mia whose mother was diagnosed with cancer and died just twelve days later. (It's somewhat autobiographical, as the author had a similar experience with her own mother.) This is, of course, heartbreaking and world re-defining, and just as Mia, her sister and her father are beginning to find their way through this new landscape, Mia's father has a heart attack and has to undergo triple bypass surgery. You can imagine how frightening this must be - to have just lost one parent and now to be in danger of losing the other. Poor Mia. Yet this book doesn't make you pity Mia and her sister, you just feel sympathetic. I think this is an important distinction.

Throughout the story Mia is trying to find someone with whom she can share her thoughts and experiences. The things that seem to matter to other girls her age just don't seem to fit, and it is only when she befriends a cancer survivor, who is "kind of cute... despite the baldness and pale skin," that she begins to have someone with whom she truly feels she connects.

This is a sadly sweet story. Lurlene McDaniels fans might branch out here.

Duchessina : A Novel of Catherine De'Medici - Carolyn Meyer

Carolyn Meyer has written another of her great YA historical fiction pieces, this one focusing on Catherine De'Medici. I have to say that while it was well done, it didn't have the appeal for me of Mary, Bloody Mary or Beware, Princess Elizabeth. Set in the 16th century, this story takes us through the young life and marriage of Catherine. It tells the story of the political turmoil of the time which forced Catherine to go from being a pampered duchess to having to live in a convent where not everyone was nice to her and times were certainly difficult. I thought the most interesting parts of this story dealt with Catherine and her cousins, one of whom was her first true love, quashed, of course, by the Pope who had political and famly ambitions, not love, in mind. A well done piece of historical fiction for fans of the genre.

Adult mysteries - Seventh Sacrament & Heartsick

Recently I read two adult mysteries, a new one from a great series I've been reading, and the other for my book club.

The Seventh Sacrament by David Hewson. This novel is part of the Nic Costa series that I got hooked on a few years ago. They're all set in Italy, which I love, and the plots are sufficiently detailed and complicated to keep adult readers engaged. This wasn't actually my favorite of the series, however. There was too much flashback for my taste. It seemed like they were really catering to people who hadn't read the previous book because this was a follow-up to it. I had read the previous book, and I really didn't want to re-read it. That might have just been the time I was reading it though. My dad was in the hospital and so I was a bit distracted.

Heart Sick by Chelsea Cain. This is my book club pick for the month, and it is quite a story. For sure an adults only story because it's a serial killer mystery. It is not horribly graphic, but enough that it's not for kids. This was written by a local author who I'll get to meet this week and it's set in Portland which is fun! Well, it's kinda fun, but now I'm kinda creeped out driving by some of the places she talks about...Apparently she did a lot of research before writing this book, so I'm very interested to hear about that process. She got a contract for three books in this series, so I'm eager to hear about the plans for the future as well. If you like a suspenseful read and you're a grown up, I'd recommend this title.

Lush - Natasha Friend

I thought this was a really good book, but it deals with the difficult topic of an alcoholic parent, so it's not for every reader.

Sam's father is a good guy...when he's sober. But when he's not, it's no fun, and 13 year-old Sam has to deal with him. She's getting pretty desperate to talk to someone, but she doesn't really want to share this part of her life with her friends, so she reaches out to an older girl by leaving notes for her in a library book where she's sure the girl will find them. This begins an interesting exchange back and forth of letters between the two, with a bit of a surprise when the author of the letters comes clean.

Sam's family is forced to make changes when her father's drinking leads to a dangerous situation at home, and Sam needs to figure out how to deal with her anger, both towards her father and towards her mother, who was in heavy denial about the problems her dad's drinking was causing.

Luckily, I was never in Sam's shoes, but I know some people who were, and growing up in an alcoholic family can be very difficult. I think Natasha Friend does an admirable job of presenting the issues sensitively but accurately and will open some great discussions.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.

This book is by the same author as Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy which if you haven't read, you really must.

Anyway, I really, really loved this book. I think I liked it more than some other people will because I used to be an English teacher before I became a librarian and there are many funny references to English teachers in there. There are really so many funny things in this book, and the English teacher jokes are just one part. You've got to figure that if the main character is named Holling Hoodhood, the author has some kind of sense of humor.

This is poor Holling's story, who since he's not Catholic and not Jewish, like EVERY OTHER kid in his class, has to stay at school on Wednesdays when everyone else goes to Catechism or Hebrew school. And if that's not enough, he has to stay with Mrs. Baker who he assumes hates him. He's actually really quie sure of it when she makes him start reading Shakespeare, but it turns out Shakespeare isn't half bad, actually. In fact, when it comes right down to it, Shakespeare's pretty cool. Imagine! Playing a part in a play where he has to wear yellow tights with feathers on his bum, however, not so cool.

This book also has a serious side, as it's set during the Vietnam war and deals with a variety of war-related issues.

This is one of the top books I've read in a while! We'll be getting this title soon.

Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah.

I liked this book a lot. It's a book about an Australian-Palestinian-Muslim girl who decides, at age 16, that she wants to wear the traditional hijab, the Muslim headdress, as a symbol of her faith. This may have some serious repercussions for her in the form of prejudice, and Amal, who's very concerned with all the typical teenage issues, is worried. It's a serious book on the one hand, because Amal is making a big decision, but it's also pretty funny a lot of the time.

It's not often you find a young adult book where the main character is talking about his or her faith, and I liked finding a book about something new. It also provided some good background understanding of Islam, which I don't know too much about. I always think it's good to learn more about other religions and cultures because it helps to promote understanding.

I highly recommend this book and will be buying it for our library soon. Right now it's available at Multnomah County libraries.

What my Girlfriend Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones.

This was a quick read because it's written in poetry form! It's a sequel to Sonya Sones's What My Mother Doesn't Know. Sonya Sones is really great at getting inside the head of an adolescent, and she does it pretty well here, too.

The narrator of this novel is Robin Murphy, social outcast and boyfriend of the beautiful Sophie. As a grown-up, I found this novel to be sort of sad. I felt really bad for Robin and for Sophie because they are treated really badly by pretty much everyone. But there were many, many funny things, and many sweet things in the novel as well. I loved that Robin had a whole different persona at his art class where his reputation didn't precede him, and that he could see beyond his present situation.

If you liked Sonya Sones' other books, this one will not disappoint.

The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.

This book is the sequel to the very fun Dairy Queen which I read last year. DJ Schwenk is, if you can believe it, a girl on her high school football team! And she's really good, too. I would so have loved to play football in high school. It's one of my favorite sports. Anyway, she's got a lot to deal with, as you can imagine, being a girl on the football team and all. And not only that, but her boyfriend is the star quarterback of the rival high school's team, so that's another big problem. Well, in some ways it's a problem, and in some ways it's the best thing ever.

DJ also lives on a farm and has to help her father out with the farm a lot. Farm life is difficult and non-stop, so there's always something that needs doing, and her father's health isn't the greatest, so DJ's had to pick up a lot of the slack. And then the world sort of comes crashing down when DJ gets hurt on the football field jeopardizing her chance at a basketball scholarship - something her parents say she's really going to need if she wants to have any chance of going to college - and her brother gets hurt really badly playing college football and DJ's the only one who can really go take care of him.

It's a book with a lot of heartbreak in it, but a lot of hilarity and love in it as well. As usual, not as good as the first in the series, but well worth the read.

Some grown up books

I've been interspersing my kid books with some grown up books, and here are a couple I read recently.

The Kabul Beauty School : an American woman goes behind the veil by Deborah Rodr is a non-fiction work that chronicles the story of a woman who went to Afghanistan to do some aid work and ended up opening a beauty school to help Afghani women gain some independence through a career. It's a fascinating story of life from a view Americans rarely see. Highly recommended.

Cane River by Lalita Tademy is a historical fiction work that examines the lives of five generations of women of African heritage from their days as slaves through the Civil War and into the period when they were (supposedly) free. It's quite interesting. I can't even imagine how those women could go on some days. The fear and despair must have been incredible. Either that or they were just so numb they couldn't even (or didn't even) allow themselves to feel. It was also an excellent read that historical fiction fans would enjoy.

Accidentally Engaged by Mary Carter. This was a fluffy grown-up book. I wasn't looking for something deep, just something I didn't have to think much about when I was reading, and this one fit the bill. I can't say it was all that good, but it did have some very funny parts in it and at the end I wasn't sure which way the main character was going to go, so that's a good thing.
This book was an ok read, but I don't really recommend it.

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. This was a total bubble gum book that I picked up in the airport when my plane was delayed recently and I just wasn't into the other book I brought with me. I have to say I was a little nervous about it because I really didn't like the one Shopaholic book I read of hers. This one was typically predictable, but a perfect airplane read. If you just want a funny, quick read, this is a decent choice.