Mini reviews!

More Favorites of 2009

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
There's a lot of online buzz about this one, and deservedly so. I did figure out most of the twist/ending pretty early on, but there remained enough mystery to definitely keep me enthralled. And who wouldn't love a book whose heroine adores A Wrinkle In Time?



Born to Fly by Michael Ferrari
Just read this last night. A great WWII action adventure, complete with secret missions and spies - and a young female heroine who saves the day.






Jolted: Newton Starks Rules for Survival by Arthur G. Slade
Despite the fact that I have read many juvenile or young adult titles recently that are set in boarding schools and several that deal with lightning strikes, this one sticks out as unique and enjoyable. I love the pet pig. I desperately want a pet pig, and enjoyed this little aspect of the book immensly.




Alvin Ho Allergic to Camping, Hiking and other Natural Disasters by Lenore Look - This second Alvin Ho book made me laugh out loud on many occasions - and is perhaps even better than the first. I am a complete Alvin Ho fan now.





Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford
When listening to this on audio, I thought perhaps that this was another poor negelected kid novel and that the very cute cover was deceptive, but I was wrong. The story turned nicely and I began to have more and more fun. The audio version is narrated by the author and well done.

Catching the Fire at BEA 2009

I know I haven't posted recently, but I've been busy. This Children's Librarian gig I've got going has turned me into something that looks and smells a lot like a workaholic. Those few precious hours I'm not at work, I've been spending with my young niece, who is pretty charming (or I should say: pretty & charming), even though she does like to eat books more than read them.

In any case - I took two vacation days last week and did this:


Yup, a friend and I stood (pretty darn near the front, and thus for almost an hour) in the line for an ARC of Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It turns out that they had more copies than people in line, so some incredibly lucky folks got to walk by and get one, but I wasn't taking any chances. It was the opportunity to get this coveted ARC that pretty much was the reason I traveled to NYC to attend Book Expo America 2009, and I wasn't coming home without it.

I know that by definition an ARC isn't the final version, and as such I think I found at least one typo, but I'm kinda hoping it doesn't change much because it might just be better than the first. Still not for kids under the age of 12, but wow, do I love it! Collins picks up the plot strands that I hoped she would and twists and weaves them into a gripping tale of love, loyalty, and war that just refuses to be put down until its cliff-, no precipice-, hanger ending.

BEA after Catching Fire
After I had my ARC of Catching Fire in hand, I took a deep breath and delved into Book Expo America with much less anxiety, determined, now that my #1 mission was accomplished, to have fun. And I did. There aren't any snazzy online videos like above, but I got to see Valerie Tripp again, which was really cool because she was the first author I ever met in person, and as a very early American Girl fan, it was huge in my life. (That and I'm 'convinced' that after our meeting way back when she named a future AG character after me.) It was fun to tell her that, and how I grew up to be the children's librarian at the library where I met her. I even got to recreate the photograph we took together so many years ago.

I also got to meet (and get the autographs of) Shannon Hale, Kristin Cashore, Jan Brett, Gennifer Choldenko, Linda Sue Park, Ally Carter, the 39 Clues 'guys' and lots and lots of other authors.

Big embarrassment of the show: not realizing before I was standing before 'him' that Jude Watson is Judy Blundell, (female) author of What I Saw and How I Lied, the National Book Award Winner!

Cool random happenings: Practically bumped into Jan Brett, Paul Zindel's son walked up to my friend and me as we pushed our box of books toward the UPS line and started chatting with us, we got the last two 'Scaredy Squirrel' tote bags at the Kids Can Press booth before they ran out, we we caught the Trenton Lee Stewart and Ally Carter autographing lines at what were probably the shortest they ever got, and thus secured for our library's teen summer reading game some awesome autographed books, and got to finally meet some of the Unshelved force. Although I'm afraid that when I finally caught Unshelved's Bill Barnes when he was not (or at least less) busy, it was late Saturday afternoon, my feet and head hurt, and I wasn't at my most lucid, I think I rambled.

I'm hoping to most mini-reviews of what I've read since coming home with over 50 lbs of books. That's how I think of books now, not in terms of stacks or piles, but pounds. We'll see. Wish me luck - I'm off to read more!