the best friends lie just beyond our imagination

So, I got this lovely picture book the other day: The Adventures of Beekle by Dan Santat. Dan Santat is one of those awesome authors who is also an amazing illustrator. You should follow him on twitter @dsantat

The art is as magical as the story.

If you were an imaginary friend waiting to be imagined… would you have the courage to do the unimaginable? Could you venture forth on your own?

"Sometimes the best friends lie just beyond our imagination."

Beekle, is a beautiful story of friendship, and an affirmation that you need to be a friend to have a friend.

Be sure to watch the book trailer on YouTube.

I'm willing to do the unimaginable and give away my copy of Beekle. Leave a note in the comments, and I'll pick a winner on Monday, April 14th.

a spirit of resistance

Yesterday I read Hidden by Loïc Dauvillier,  with art by Marc Lizano and Greg Salsedo.

It's a difficult subject covered in a way that only a graphic novel can do… amazing.

Get this book for the children you know.

A grandmother tells her granddaughter the story of how, as a young Jewish girl in Paris, she was hidden away from the Nazis.

It's a child's story of the Holocaust.

It includes best friends…

And unfairness…

And confusion…

But it also shows the good in people. It shows how brave people rejected racism and hatred, and formed networks of resistance that saved eighty-four percent of the Jewish children living in France. 

Be sure to read the 'Afterword'. It ends with:

We hope that Dounia's story will inspire young people to fight against injustice and abuse of power and keep alive a spirit of resistance, so that our world will never again see a holocaust like the one that lead to the murder of 11,400 French children during the Second World War.

the beauty of narration

I just read Half Bad by Sally Green. It is the first book in a three book series.

It's a book that a lot of young adult readers will love. Here's the jacket summary:

In modern-day England, witches live alongside humans: White witches, who are good; Black witches, who are evil; and fifteen-year-old Nathan, who is both. Nathan’s father is the world’s most powerful and cruel Black witch, and his mother is dead. He is hunted from all sides. Trapped in a cage, beaten and handcuffed, Nathan must escape before his sixteenth birthday, at which point he will receive three gifts from his father and come into his own as a witch—or else he will die. But how can Nathan find his father when his every action is tracked, when there is no one safe to trust—not even family, not even the girl he loves?

It was an exciting story, filled with action. But the part I found most fascinating was the narration. Part One of the story is told in second person narration (You), and Part Two of the story is told in first person. From there it alternates. Part One, in second person narration, was a great way to grab the reader. Very clever!

The story leads us down the path of fear and prejudice, showing us that violence does not always have a point. That even though the White witches believe themselves to be good, they are still capable of horrible acts.

Young adults will love the coming-of-age story of Nathan, a boy who must grow up as an outsider and learn to survive the best way he can. And despite what Nathan has been told his whole life, there is never anything as simple as "good" and "evil".

Unstoppable

On a long flight over spring break I read 

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith.

It's an amazing book on so many levels. On the one level, it starts off like most teen novels: there's adolescent angst and coming of age drama, bullying, and sexual confusion. But then, on another level, there's this whole end of the world, science fiction, metaphor that will knock you over part.

And, I loved it!

The story is creepy and violent and hilarious and sexual and rude and dramatic and heartbreaking and so completely clever.

It's the story of sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba and how he and his best friend, Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in Ealing, Iowa.

Here's the beginning from Part One: Ealing

I read somewhere that human beings are genetically predisposed to record history.

We believe it will prevent us from doing stupid things in the future.

But even though we dutifully archived elaborate records of everything we've ever done, we also manage to keep on doing dumber and dumber shit.

This is my history.

There are things in here: babies with two heads, insects as big as refrigerators, God, the devil, limbless warriors, rocket ships, sex, diving bells, theft, wars, monsters, internal combustion engines, love, cigarettes, joy, bomb shelters, pizza, and cruelty.

Just like it's always been.  

Grasshopper Jungle is one of those books that is amazingly clever in how it tells a story.

History is my compulsion.

I see the connections.

And that was our day. You know what I mean. 

You should probably be about fifteen or sixteen to read this book due to the swearing and the sex and the violence… but, you could probably be fourteen… because good books are always about everything.

the way things look, and the way things are, are very different

The movie trailer for The Giver is out...



If you've been to middle school, odds are you read The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Not yet? Be sure to read it before the movie comes out on August 15th. The movie trailer appears to be more Sci Fi in style than I remember the 1993 novel… but, awesome! (Although what happened to everything being in black-and-white? Perhaps I'm being too picky)

The story belongs to Jonah (who in the book was 12 and now played by 24-year-old, Brenton Thwaites), who's exposed to a world beyond his clean (colorless?) utopia when he's selected to receive the memories of The Giver (Jeff Bridges), the only citizen who still knows the pain that used to exist in society.

"When people have the freedom to choose, they choose wrong."  What do you think? Would you choose to live in a world where all the sharp edges have been softened or would you take drastic measures to have a world that included disorder, and color, and suffering, and joy?

a magical place to call home

This week I read A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd.

It's the debut novel by Natalie Lloyd, a lover of books and bluegrass music and words. Her favorite words are starlight, firefly, violet, and love. 

Again, like I say a lot, Natalie and I should meet and become friends.

A Snicker of Magic is, well, magical… and lyrical and pure and sweet. To quote our heroine, Felicity Juniper Pickle, it's "factofabulous".

I knew from page one that this was one of those books that comes along and is such a privilege to read. Here's how it begins…

"They say all the magic is gone up out of this place," said Mama.

She looked straight ahead as she drove, past the white beam of our headlights, deep into the night, like she could see exactly what was up ahead of us. I couldn't see anything though: not a house, not a store, not even an old barking dog. A big fat moon, pale white and lonesome-looking, was our only street light. I watched the way the moonlight painted her profile: the dark shadows under her cheekbones, the tight pull of her mouth. I didn't need to see her eyes to know how they'd look: sky blue and beautiful. Full of all the sadness in the world.

If you know a lover of wonderful middle grade fiction, you need to tell them about this book. Read it along with them. Get a blue notebook and become word catchers. Go to tattly.com and buy yourselves bird tattoos. You'll be glad you did. 

Like Flea says:

Because I'm convinced Midnight Gulch can't be the only magical town in the world. I bet there's a snicker of magic on every street, in every old building, every broken heart, every word of a story. Maybe it's hidden away and you need to look harder for it. Or maybe the magic is right there, right in front of you, and all you have to do is believe.

Of course she couldn't save the world. She was only eleven years old.

After reading the beginning to Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee, I thought, "I should give up all other genres and just read middle-grade fiction." 

Here's an abridged version of how it begins:

In the end the Queen was nothing like she was in the stories the Marvelous Boy had been told, first as a child beside the hearth and later by the wizards. There were no claws. No sharp teeth. She was young. Her pale hair dripped over her shoulders. She opened her blue eyes wide and smiled sweetly at the King.

"I do not like him, my darling," she said, not once raising her voice. "I do not like him one little bit."

"I should like him locked away," she said.

She really was very cruel.

The boy did not struggle as he was led to his room. He had struggled already. Three times since the wedding he had tried to run from the city, and three times he had been returned.

"You have failed in everything you have set out to do," she said when they were alone, just the Marvelous Boy and her. "I do not know why the wizards chose you, such a poor, sorry thing. Why did they think you could defeat me?" She did not pause for his answer. "And this charm that is bestowed on you so that I cannot harm you - it is nothing but an irritation. When the charm has worn off, I will run you through with my sword."

She said it very pleasantly, as though she were talking about marshmallows or afternoon tea.

"I will find the sword," the boy whispered. "And the one who will wield it." 

It's an awesome beginning.

You can read a preview of the book for free on amazon. You can also listen to a clip of the audiobook.

Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard, our heroine, loves science and is grieving the loss of her mother. She and her sister Alice move to a new city where their father takes a job in an unusual museum. On her very first day in the museum Ophelia discovers a boy locked away in a forgotten room.

Can Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy save the world?

"Of course she couldn't save the world. She was only eleven years old and rather small for her age, and also she had knock-knees. Dr. Singh told her mother she would probably grow out of them, especially if she wore medical shoes, but that wasn't the point. She had very bad asthma as well, made worse by cold weather and running and bad scares." 

Yet. Perhaps. Maybe.


I'll be giving away a copy of Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy on Friday, March 7th. Leave a note in the comments to be included in the drawing.