Please Don't Read This Book

Howl's Moving Castle

Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones

Julie: Four pages into Diana Wynne Jones's HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE, I decided it was genius.  As is so often the case with books that I love, it's the voice that got me.  Jones uses the perfect matter-of-fact, wry voice to introduce her magical world.  It's as if she's saying, "Come on in.  Yes, it's different here, but don't worry.  You'll get the hang of it quickly. And you'll like it!" I did like it in that world, and I didn't want to leave.  I have to admit, though, that the story raised the kinds of questions that usually drive me crazy.  I'm sure we'll get to those a little later.  More importantly, the book casts enough of a spell that I'm willing to overlook those issues.  That's unprecedented for me!  Mia, what do you love about the book?

Marirosa Mia: This is my third time reading HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE, and I'm still charmed by it! Even though I know what's coming, I can't help but smile and chuckle at Calcifer's quips and Sophie's pragmatic attitude, which I love love love. I just can't get enough of Sophie, really. I'm not fond of characters who panic and run around like chickens with their heads cut off, and Sophie is simply refreshing in her "there's far too much work to be done to panic" attitude. Love. And as you mentioned, Julie, Wynne Jones' prose/voice really swoops you right in, to the point that you see each character so clearly.  Right down to Fanny's overly expressive gestures (which in my head are many). What questions did it raise for you, Julie? 

J:  Let me say a little about the book's plot first.  Sophie happily looks after her two sisters until her father dies and her sisters become apprentices in nearby businesses.  Sophie then helps out in her family's hat shop until the day the Witch of the Waste arrives in a nasty temper and turns Sophie into an old woman.  After a few more surprises, Sophie seeks shelter in the moving castle of the supposedly wicked Wizard Howl.  And now for some questions:  Sophie and her sisters are obviously close, and the sisters express concern about Sophie both when she's at the hat shop and later, after she's disappeared.  Yet they never, ever try to come see her and help her (even though one sister fears Sophie is trapped in the castle).  Why?  Also, it's clear from the start that Sophie is far more capable than average.  But SO much time passes without her figuring out the full range of her abilities.  Why?  (I wish I could say more, but I have spoiler concerns.)  I have the feeling I missed something.  It's certainly possible!  I flew through the pages because I so wanted to know what was going to happen.  Do any of these questions nag at you?

M: I can see why Sophie wouldn't come to terms with her abilities. From the beginning we know that she believes her future will...well, amount to nothing. That she won't marry well or have a great fortune like her sisters, because that is the lot of being the eldest daughter. I can see why that colors everything she does. It's been so ingrained in her that she just won't amount to much and her lot is simply her lot. I suppose what I'm saying is that the power of self-doubt is very powerful indeed for Sophie. 

As for her sisters, I'm not bothered by that issue.  They are close, but I don't feel they are terribly close. They are also both so self-absorbed that their being consumed with the--how do I say this--action of being worried and fretting overcame any actual action.  Make sense?  

J:  You make good points.  As a reader, though, I long for a little more from the sisters (I'm a believer in sisters!) and from Sophie.  Anything you wish were different?

M: I'm totally for sisters--I have two of my own--and sadly know that not all sisters are created equal. As for wishing for anything different...there is one thing. At the end (and I find myself wanting this each time I read it) I've always wanted just a bit more time with just Howl and Sophie.  And that’s all I’ll say about that with out giving too much away!

 

Wonder

Wonder – R.J. Palacio

Marirosa Mia: Auggie (August) Pullman was born with a facial deformity and has been in and out of hospitals since he was just a little babe. Even though the operations have helped, Auggie still attracts a lot of attention:

"I know I'm not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go. ... Here's what I think: the only reason I'm not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way."

Now that he's old enough, August is ready - or at least his mom thinks he's ready - to go to school. Life at Beecher Prep starts out more or less like Auggie thought it would. The pointing. The staring. It's nothing new. But then a lovely girl named Summer sits down with him, and he becomes friends with a boy named Jack, and middle school becomes a little more bearable for Auggie. Using spare language to touching effect, WONDER by R.J. Palacio jumps from multiple points of view as it tells the story of Auggie's first year at school and all the good and bad that comes along with it.

Let's hop right in to what we loved about it. Julie?

Julie:  I love the complicated, real relationships.  Auggie's relationship with his mom, for example.  It's her idea that he go to school, and he knows that she hasn't been fully honest with him about it along the way.  He's legitimately mad at her.  But he also sees that she's as nervous as he is--maybe more.  So he sympathizes, too.  And his relationship with his sister, Via.  I love that we get to see the story from her point of view about a quarter of the way into the book.  I love that her reaction to having a severely deformed brother is more complicated than I initially realized, when I had only seen it from Auggie's perspective.  The same is true of Jack Will, a boy in Auggie's school.  Complicated relationship, made clearer and more interesting when we get Jack's point of view.  Did you also love that different characters tell their versions of events we've already seen, all the while moving the story forward?   

M: Very much so. I wasn't really expecting it, either. It was very interesting to jump from character to character, see Auggie through their eyes, and find that Auggie's character and charm could be seen from everyone's POV. Anything you didn't enjoy? I'm sorry to say I wasn't a fan of the little music lyrics at the beginning of each chapter. They simply left me flat.

 J:  I like the idea of quoting from David Bowie and Natalie Merchant.  I'm even a Christina Aguilera fan. (That woman can SING.)  But I agree with you.  The quotes didn't quite work, and ended up a distraction.  What do you think of the book's cover? 

M:  I like the cover, but fancy the UK version a bit more.  It reminds me a bit of the paragraph we quoted below, about standing out in a crowd.

J:  Is it the red one, with Auggie wearing his space helmet?  I love that cover, and like the blue one fine.  Speaking of Auggie's space helmet, the one character in the book who felt a little contrived to me was the friend of Via's who gave Auggie that helmet.  I'd look up her name, but I can't.  My younger daughter (aged 9) has the book with her at school.  She's LOVING it, as did my older daughter (who's now 11).     

M: The red one is actually the "adult" cover of the book. Which is an interesting marketing tactic that's been done before. But I realized that I was talking about the UK cover of the advanced reader copy (see below), which I really loved!

"Adult" cover of WONDER
    United Kingdom ARC of WONDER (image courtesy of Musings from a Bookshop Girl)

J:  Wait a minute--they also marketed this book to adults?  Really?  Huh.  I wonder how that went.  I wouldn't recommend WONDER to someone looking for a book for adults.  But I sure do recommend it to anyone, of any age, who's interested in a great middle-grade novel.  

M: I think 'adult' would be considered anything over 14 probably. Teen and older. Maybe they thought a variant cover would open it to a new audience? I'm not sure. Either way it's a great book. Go out and read it!

 

Sorry!

Sorry, neither of us can be reached right now.

Too engrossed in R J Palacio's terrific middle grade novel, WONDER.

Full review soon...

We have a winner!

Congrats to Miss Elizabeth Dunn-Ruiz, winner of our A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO giveway! YAY!

Elizabeth, we'll be contacting you shortly for your mailing address.

Thanks again for entering the contest everyone!

Pickle Juice News

I've just learned that LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE has won the 2012 Gryphon Award!  I love this award!  And--really and truly--not solely because I just won it!  Here's the official description:  

The Gryphon Award is given annually in recognition of an English language work of fiction or non-fiction for which the primary audience is children in Kindergarten through Grade 4. The title chosen best exemplifies those qualities that successfully bridge the gap in difficulty between books for reading aloud to children and books for practiced readers.

...

The award is sponsored by the Center for Children's Books at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In other news, I think I neglected to report that Pickle Juice is a 2011 Cybils (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Award) Finalist, in the Early Chapter Books category.  Here's a link to the announcement:  http://www.cybils.com/2011-finalists-easy-readersearly-chapter-books.html.  So exciting!

WHY?

WHY? The Best… By Catherine Ripley

Julie:  Why do our fingers get so wrinkled in the tub?  Why does popcorn pop?  Why do onions make us cry?  Why do dandelions turn white and fluffy?  For clear, interesting, and simply worded answers, inquiring minds need look no farther than Catherine Ripley's WHY?  THE BEST EVER QUESTION AND ANSWER BOOK ABOUT NATURE, SCIENCE AND THE WORLD AROUND YOU. It's certainly designed for kids, with full-page, color illustrations and child-friendly language and content.  But I confess:  I feel smarter having read this book.  I always knew the bathroom floor was colder than the bathmat, for example.  But I never thought about why.  Now I know.  I feel quite proud.  Maybe I need to read more non-fiction!  Mia, what do you think?   

Marirosa Mia: I enjoyed it as well. It was quite fun testing my knowledge on questions like: Why do we yawn? and Why do my fingers stick to frozen juice cans? I'm not saying I would win a million on Jeopardy!, but I knew quite a few things; and that made me happy. The book's categories are divided by the location where the question will likely be asked:  Bathtime Questions, Outdoor Questions, Supermarket Questions, and the like. It's an appealing and easy-to-reference structure. This will be an excellent book to have once my niece starts asking "Why?" questions!

A Long Way From Chicago

A Long Way from Chicago – Richard Peck

Marirosa Mia: I wish I had a gun-totting grandma, Julie. Think of all the fun to be had and the people to scare.  Spanning the years 1929 to 1942, Richard Peck's A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO follows Joey and his sister Mary Alice, who come down from Chicago to spend their summers with their "tough as an old boot" Grandma Dowdel. They don't expect to be part of their grandmother's always crazy and often dangerous adventures like illegal catfishing, standing up to the drunk sheriff, and holding a wake for town bum Shotgun Cheatham, but they do! This novel made me want to chase down my mom and dad and grill them about my grandparents' illegal ways (they were also awesome people, so I'm pretty sure they had some). I was surprised by how much I liked this charming and funny novel and how much I kept wanting to go back for more. Julie?

Julie:  In order to convey how beloved A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO is in my family, I need to tell the following story:  Several years ago, I read the book with my older daughter, who is normally perfectly sane.  She loved it, all of it, from the very first sentence:  "You wouldn’t think we’d have to leave Chicago to see a dead body."  She loved it so much that she threw a staggering fit when I agreed to read the book to her younger sister after I'd finished reading it to her.  Grabbing it from me, she shouted, "It's mine!"  Then she ran to the kitchen; wrapped that book tightly in aluminum foil; added about a foot of scotch tape for good measure; and proceeded to hide the book under an avalanche of papers on her desk.  I didn't dare try to take it out from under that heap.  I believe she would have punched me.  And she's never thrown a punch in all her eleven years.  

M: I must say, Julie, that story just made my day. I'm interested in hearing what she would say about that book if she read it recently. A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO has a way of charming (there's that word again!) you right off the bat and not many books can do that, but Grandma Dowdel is hard to resist. Always up to something that broad was, and I was always glad to be along for the ride. 

J:  I bet my daughter would love it all over again, if she re-read it now.  I sure did.  It's the perfect combination of funny and touching.  Grandma Dowdel is so deliciously bad--she packs heat; she lies without compunction; she plays tricks on her neighbors; and she pulls no verbal punches.  What she says is hilarious in its own right; her grandson's asides add to the humor.  Take this tiny example, in which Grandma Dowdel disparages her alleged enemy Effie Wilcox:  "'Was that Effie again?  Never trust an ugly woman.  She's got a grudge against the world,' said Grandma, who was no oil painting herself."  Don't you love the lines throughout the book like that?  There must be a hundred of them. And--even better--don't you love how it always turns out that Grandma's bad behavior is in the service of some good?  She's taking on a pompous banker; or his insufferable, bossy wife; or the family of hooligan brothers; or their successful, inexcusably tolerant (of their children's bad behavior) parents.  Or she's doing something sneakily and unexpectedly nice for one of her grandkids. I so envy the effectiveness of Peck's writing.  All Grandma Dowdel does is wave from her doorway in the final chapter, and I choke up.  Every single time.  A funny book with well-drawn characters and tremendous heart.  Can you beat that? 

M: I must agree that was a wonderful moment at the end. Heart strings were tugged. Also, even more wonderful news, I happen to have an extra copy of this book! And I’m giving it away to one of our wonderful readers who comments on this entry. So make sure to leave a comment (a simple “hey” will do) for a chance to win a copy of Richard Peck’s A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO. Contest ends 1/31!

A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness

 Julie:  I love books, obviously.  But it's rare that I find one I love so much, I want to stand in crowded spaces and shout at strangers passing by, "READ THIS BOOK!  I MEAN IT!  READ IT RIGHT NOW!  YOU WON'T REGRET IT!"  That is exactly how I feel about Patrick Ness's A MONSTER CALLS.  It is beautifully designed and beautifully written, full of heart and wonderfully flawed, fully envisioned characters.  It made me cry.  It kept me guessing.  It has a monster as a main character--I don't typically like books about monsters--I don't care.  This book is marvelous.  I know you loved it too, Mia, and that's a good thing.  Because what if you hadn't?  This blog would've had to take a particularly long hiatus, because surely I would've felt compelled to put you in a reading timeout.  

Marirosa Mia: I. LOVED. IT. (You know it's true because I used all caps and dramatic punctuation, folks.) As soon as I finished it I did three things. I walked into the head of our School & Library department's office, and we both gushed about Patrick Ness for a good 10 minutes. I accosted anyone who walked by my desk with "Did you read this book?" And finally I emailed my sister (who is illustrating my own novel) and told her to buy the book immediately because it’s imperative that we use it as research for our own collaboration. From its quite charming first lines (The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.) I was hooked! I knew I was reading something special. Julie, I'm a huge sucker for stories within stories (darn you, THE PRINCESS BRIDE!).  Did you enjoy how Ness weaved storytelling into his own tale? 

J:  Before I answer that, let me give a little background.  A MONSTER CALLS opens with the first visit to thirteen-year-old Conor by a monster in the shape of yew tree.  It "tower[s] thirty or forty feet above him, breathing heavily in the night air."  "‘Who am I?’" the monster roars.  "‘I am the spine that the mountains hang upon!  I am the tears that the rivers cry!  ... I am everything untamed and untameable!  ... I am this wild earth, come for you, Conor O'Malley.’"  To which Conor skeptically replies, in a perfect illustration of the wry exchanges between the two:  "‘You look like a tree.’"

The monster explains that he will come to Conor on further nights and tell him three stories "‘from when I walked before.’"  Conor responds with disbelief:  "‘How is that a nightmare?’"  And the monster replies, "‘Stories are the wildest things of all.  Stories chase and bite and hunt.’"  Later, in the same vein, the monster says, "‘Stories are wild creatures.  When you set them loose, who knows what havoc they might wreak?’"  

Of course I love that message about the power of stories.  And the monster's stories do end up having an unexpected, slow-boiling, intriguing sort of power.  I love that they surprised me and Conor alike.  I love the choice of stories.  And you?  

M: Very much so. I loved that the stories were old school fairy tales; the kind where happy endings are hard to come by and you aren't quite sure what you're supposed to be learning right off the bat.

Can we talk about secondary characters? I was surprised by how much I was interested in the school bully Harry. In the course of the story he went from being just a one-note bully to a bit more...unsettling as his understanding of Conor grew. How about you, Julie?

J:  The character portrayals are virtually universally fabulous.  The mom, the grandmother, the dad, the monster--everyone feels so real, and they're all struggling in such different and heart-tugging ways.  (Well, nothing about the dad is heart-tugging, exactly; but it's a tribute to Ness that I'm not thoroughly repulsed by the man.)  I like the bully, Harry, as well.  Although by the end it becomes clear that Ness is using Harry to make a point, it doesn’t feel annoyingly didactic--likely because of the weaving in of the monster's stories.  Ness buys himself some moral-making leeway with those stories, I think.  Does that make sense?  Also, we haven't even noted yet that Conor is grappling with his mother's sickness.  Any concern that the book overall feels too heavy?

M: No. I think it's hard not to be heavy when you are talking about cancer, and I think overall the book does a great job of depicting Conor's anger and fear such that we don't feel the topic is overdone in any way. Does that make sense?

J:  Again, I think the fantasy element helps.  The recurring presence of the monster, the mystery surrounding him, the humor in his interactions with Conor, and the puzzles posed by his stories all prevent the weight of the mom storyline from becoming overbearing.  

Can we talk about the book’s design a little?  I think this might be my favorite book design ever.  

M: I see what you mean about the fantasy element, Julie, though I’m not sure if that’s what was keeping the heavy topic well-balanced for me.  Sometimes I think I connect more with fantasy and magical realism elements than actual real life!

What about the illustrations did you particularly like? For some reason I was really drawn to the images that worked with the text itself--the ink creeping into the pages and so on. Not that the separate illustrations weren’t magnificent, but there was something about the way they bled into each other in those particular sections that I really enjoyed.

J:  I also love the margin illustrations and think they intensify the tone of the book.  But I can't say that I prefer them, because some of the full-page illustrations and two-page spreads are so spectacular.  Pages 182-83, for example, and pages 193-94?  Gorgeous.  I love the texture of each illustration, and the shadings.  They all contribute brilliantly to the book's atmosphere, without ever distracting from the text.  I love that virtually every illustration makes me wonder, how did Jim Kay (the illustrator) capture that effect?  I see now, on the book jacket, that he used "everything from beetles to breadboards to create interesting marks and textures."  Beetles and breadboards!  It's all so interesting and beautiful.  

M: I'm not saying I preferred the margins--or maybe I am--but there was something about the ink sneaking in ... like it couldn't be contained. I love that.

Well, I think we could talk about this book for quite some time; but I think we should let our readers go and perhaps...purchase the book! Go!

J:  Yes!  Go!

Everything is Bigger There

Nice news for LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE!  

The Texas Bluebonnet Award has chosen it for their 2012 Master List.  The complete list is only 20 titles, all aimed at students in grades 3-6.  Hurray!!  There will be a winner announced in 2012.  

For more information, check out http://www.txla.org/TBA. 

Smile

Smile – Raina Telgemeier

Julie:  At the beginning of the summer, my younger daughter (who is now 9) asked if we could buy Raina Telgemeier's graphic novel SMILE because a friend of hers had loved it.  I quickly obliged, in part because I'd seen good reviews.  My daughter read it right away--then read it again, and again, and again, and again.  Five times.  She read that book cover-to-cover, five times straight.  I could barely get her to take a break to eat.  Do either Mia or I need to say more?  Probably not.  We will, though, because this would be an awfully short post otherwise.  Mia, do you want to say a little about what SMILE is about and what you like about it?

Mia: SMILE is the story of Raina - a typical pre-teen girl whose time has come for braces. It's not something Raina is happy about, but things could be worse, right? And that's exactly what happens. While running back to her apartment Raina trips and falls, knocking her two front teeth out (she actually knocks one straight up into her dental cavity - ouch). What follows are several years of dental trials, including false teeth, dental surgery and, of course, braces. Through all this Raina finds that often so-called friends can be the cruelest.

Julie, let me take you back. Back to when I was...17, I think. And I had to get braces. As a teenager with a knack for exaggerating and over-dramatizing the stupidest things, I knew my life was over. My life as Queen Bee of high school was dead.

Just kidding. Me, Queen Bee? Not unless there was a zombie apocalypse. Point is, SMILE did manage to take me back - a bit to high school and the drama of friendships, but mostly to the pain. The pain of sitting in an orthodontist chair and having him tighten those braces. The pain of trying to sleep on your side when it feels like someone just punched you in the teeth. The pain of braces rubbing against the inside of your mouth until it's raw.

SMILE brought me back to all of that, and I was surprised I even remembered! Which sounds like I should hate SMILE because it made me remember the pain.  But I felt a strange kingship with Raina and her misfortunes.

J:  Oh, Mia. I'm so sorry about that pain!  I want to hurry over to you with Motrin and cold compresses!  And now I find myself reminiscing about pulled teeth, broken stitches, waking up with a face covered with blood, and that medieval device known as a palate expander, which involved turning a key to spread the bones at the top of my mouth.  Argh!  Why do we do this to ourselves (or, really, to our children)?  What I think SMILE captured even more brilliantly than dental tribulations, though, are the ways that seemingly well-meaning adults and family members can say exactly the wrong thing, and how we can realize over time that friends we've had for years and years are in fact simply wrong for us.  I love the depiction of the promise (and limitations) of a new school and of Raina's growth.  And, yes (I can't believe I'm saying this), the ending made me smile.  What do you think about the art, Mia?    

 

(Image by Raina Telgemeier)

M: I love your comments, Julie. They are so true. I'm fond of the art style. I think it complements the story very well without taking anything away. I think it's accessible to the particular age group, but I don't want that to sound like a backhanded compliment.  I think Telgemeier is a wonderful artist, and the story and artwork go hand in hand.  Does that make sense? 

J:  It does make sense.  I agree that the style of the art perfectly suits the target audience and the story.  And now I have to go return my daughter's book!  I'm under strict orders not to damage a single page.

M: A girl after my own heart.