Library of Congress: Books That Shaped America

The Library of Congress, whose website I have woefully been neglecting to visit, has put out a list of books that had a great influence on the United States, based on a current exhibition. These aren't meant to be "Best American Books," but many of are, all the same. Looking at this list, I definitely agree that their choices deserve to be on that list, but wonder what's left out. I'm wracking my brain for other influential works.
I am thrilled about this list, as it's alerted me to a great resource that I've neglected. Also, I've been thinking of a reading project, and think this might be it. I'm been thinking of reading an author's entire oeuvre, but maybe this is more useful. I'll decide and post about it soon.

Because of Mr. Terupt; Mr. Terupt Falls Again

After reading Rob Buyea's two Mr. Terupt books, about a gifted elementary school teacher and former wrestler, told from the perspective of his seven different students over the school year, all I can think of is that elementary teacher Buyea's nickname on the wrestling mat must have been Boo-Ya! Please, if anyone reads this and knows, please let me know. It doesn't appear that he's on Twitter, so I'll check around.
While Because of Mr. Terupt and Mr. Terupt Falls Again will appeal to students in upper elementary who want more excitement and true friendship (that is, all of them), reading it as an adult was mind-numbing. The first one went quickly enough, but I don't plan on reading any more in the series. The books are innocuous, and I like how Buyea introduces the concept of a changing narrator, but I just felt like he was writing about the teacher he imagines himself to be. In addition, as a teacher, the practical details that he fudged (yes, I know about artistic license) distracted me too much. Seven students in a class? Maybe a special ed class. Don't get me started. But I am constantly distracted by incorrect details in books and movies. This book is overwhelmingly fine.

Judy Blume

Vulture, which associated with New York Magazine in some way, has a lovely, lovely infographic of Judy Blume's life and career, including a timeline, guide to books by age, history of protests to her books, and so much more. For anyone who grew up with Judy's books (yes, of course we are on a first name basis), this is a wonderful reminder of the great books she has written. I'd almost forgotten about Iggie's House, one of my favorites, because only one library I ever frequently had it. It doesn't mention every book of hers, but enough to convince me that I need to reread them all. My favorite? Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself.

Throwback Thursday! The Christmas Killer

Back in my youth, I read books like those by Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine, involving ghosts, haunted dresses, stalker girlfriends, and serial killers. I preferred the serial killer ones, which seemed less cliched and less spooky. Mainly, these books came from the library and were quickly read and forgotten. One of the few scary books that I actually bought was Patricia Windsor's The Christmas Killer. Why, I know not. To find out why, I reread while visiting my parents last month.
I am still not sure why I bought the book. Maybe I had read it already, and wanted to do so again and again. Most likely, it caught my eye (c'mon, a Christmas serial killer!) and I got it at a book fair or similar.
Windsor's story is simply enough. Rose, a teenager who takes dance lessons, has a twin brother, with whom she used to share dreams. When girls in the area start disappearing in December and showing up murdered, her brother begins acting weird. She begins dreaming of the girls, and the chapters from the perspective of the murder show that he dreams about her. The mystery and identity of the killer come out, but not before Rose is accused of witchcraft and almost murdered. Nothing too unusual, but nothing bad. There is a bit of looking into the causes of the killer's psychosis via the switching perspective. Rose's dreams about the murdered girls are actually frightening, while the big twist is no more predictable than any other book of this type. For students who like being scared, but are beyond Goosebumps, this book should work.

Humorous Reading

I got the link to this list of humorous kid's books and started thinking, what funny books have I read recently? I've read a lot of great books, but not much in the way of humor. One amusing book that I read last spring was Lois Lowry's The Willoughbys.

It's about a family with old-fashioned children who seem to live in an old-fashioned story, but don't fit with their parents. Similar in style to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate  Events, The Willoughbys is less grim and dark, but more appealing to children who are already great readers of classics. Lowry's riffs on the unfortunate orphan and countless books containing similar characters will make children chuckle gently, even if they don't laugh uproariously.

Virginia Reader's Choice Announced!

The Virginia State Reading Association sponsors a yearly "battle of the books" for primary, elementary, middle, and high school level books. Virginia students read them over the year and vote, usually through their libraries.  You can read more about it at the VSRA website. The winners were announced last week, and included Matthew Cody's Powerless, a fun and original superhero story. Other winners are: Amanda Noll's I Need My Monster, Eric Wight's Rankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom, and Rachel Cohn and David Levithan's Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. I tried to read as many of the nominees as possible, but unfortunately they were so popular that I could only get a few from my public libraries. But, they're on my to read list, and look forward to taking my time about it. Another librarian who's read all the primary, elementary, and middle grade books for the last year says they are all fantastic.

The Storm Makers

Jennifer E. Smith's books have been recommended by many reliable sources, so I grabbed the single book my library had in. Perhaps her other books are better, but The Storm Makers is fairly mundane. The girl and boy twins, whose names are not necessary, have moved from Chicago to rural Wisconsin. Their father has decided that small-time farming will support the family better than having both parents work full-time while he works on an invention and the mother paints (yes, illogical details are distracting and annoying to me). The twins are growing apart as they enter their teens. Strange things begin happening with the boy, and it turns out he is the youngest Storm Maker ever, one of a group of people who can control weather and earth. Complications ensue.
While the concept of a teenage boy able to control weather is interesting, the story devolves into a power struggle within the Storm Makers association. Shockingly, the smooth man in the black suit is evil while, the young woman mechanic and absent-minded drifter are good. Even more surprisingly, the struggles regarding the Storm Makers serve to bring the twins back to each other. To read a book about siblings struggling with strange powers and conflicts between them, read Katherine Catmull's Summer and Bird. It's a completely different book than anything I've read this year.

Paper Valentine

This book kept getting recommended to me after I looked up information for The Tragedy Paper, so I was very hesitant about reading it. Luckily, except for a romance between two teenagers not suited for one another, they have nothing in common! Brenna Yovanoff's ghost story romance murder mystery, Paper Valentine, is completely engaging, with interesting, conflicted characters and a not-too predictable serial killer.
Hannah, a popular indie chick, is being haunted by her best friend Lillian, who died months ago from an eating disorder. Lillian's not accusing or blaming, but is ruining Hannah's nerves all the same just by her presence. Meanwhile, Lillian's death has shaken everything that Hannah counted on. Her group of friends, of which Lillian was the ringleader, is falling apart. Hannah's falling for a delinquent whom she has bullied and been bullied by in the past. And Lillian's pressuring her to find the serial killer who's been preying on middle school girls.
While Yovanoff throws too many bells and whistles into the book, it works out, though the romance seems slightly insincere. The mystery and Hannah's struggle to become a person independent a friend to lead her are both intriguing, and Lillian is the best ghost I've seen in YA for a while.

The Tragedy Paper-POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

I'll attempt to summarize and review the book without major spoilers, but I'm not sure if it's possible. Every time I have attempted to review this book, I got more and more worked up, until I was going to my husband in the other room about every five minutes. It got so whenever he saw me, he'd say, "And another thing!" He now knows the entire book and all its problems.
 Elizabeth LaBan's The Tragedy Paper concerns a senior at a private boarding school and the boy who lived in his room the previous year and left him an account of the tragic events that occurred to him and the girl he pined over that winter. Tim, who has albinism, says to current senior Duncan in the account that it can be the basis of his Tragedy Paper, a type of senior thesis that students must write for their English class. Over the school year, Duncan listens to the CDs Tim left, learning from them how to have a better senior year, and eventually how the mysterious tragedy of Tim came to happen.
While written well enough, the tragedy is not particularly tragic, simply unfortunate. The villain of the book is not particularly villainous or even plotting against Tim, just a jerky rich kid who treats everyone insensitively. The lessons Duncan learns from Tim aren't actually profound. I don't agree with the analysis (clumsily laid out in a discussion between Duncan and his English teacher) that Tim has a tragic flaw, or what it is.Most of the problems in his life are simply an exaggerated version of what every teenager goes through. He feels embarrassed about his appearance and standing out. He feels like an outsider with few friends. He is upset when people are unfair. He makes some dumb decisions, hiding what he perceives to be flaws, and it causes a major problem for him.
I just can't understand why this book is getting so many accolades. It's fine, but overall, it's about uninteresting, unsympathetic teenagers who don't really have big problems, so they create them. This is the most irritating book I have read in at least six months.

First Light

Rebecca Stead's first novel is the most original I've read since I've immersed myself in constant reading again. First Light is the story of a boy who accompanies his scientist father and mysterious mother to Greenland for two months, just as he begins to get the headaches which have been plaguing his mother as well. It is also the story of a girl who lives underground, surrounded by ice, wolf-dogs, and the fear of the outside world.
Both Peter and Thea are looking for answers, both to concrete and abstract questions. Peter wants to know what will stop his headaches, what his parents are searching for, and what the mysterious items are that he's found hidden in the ice. Thea want to know how to find a way to the surface, despite her society's fear of witchcraft accusations, as they are running out of space and supplies. When the two finally meet, there are both questions and answers.
Stead's fantasy blends magical realism, folklore, modern issues, and the discoveries of coming of age in a truly unique way. The descriptions of the people dwelling under the ice alone are worth reading the book, but there are many other reasons. While First Light is completely different from Stead's other works, it is just as appealing.

Powerless

Kids love superheroes, but they envy them and covet their powers. So what if an ordinary child met some child superheroes? That's the situation Matthew Cody puts his protagonist Daniel in Powerless, a fantastic book that I'm hoping he has a sequel for in the works. When Daniel's family moves to Noble's Green to came for his ill grandmother, all his new friends are slightly strange. He finds out the whole truth once they save his life, including that they lose their powers upon turning thirteen.
Daniel battles jealousy at being ordinary even as he attempts to help his extraordinary friends. He learns of a old town mystery complete with a mysterious old man, evil villain, and comic books. Cody's book will appeal to boys and girls who like superheroes, and ordinary heroes too. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, Super.

The Casual Vacancy

It's taking me forever to write this review, perhaps because J.K.Rowling's first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, is such a behemoth. At 512 pages, this work rivals a Harry Potter book, as it does in scope. Talking about Rowling's first serious work is daunting, when one considers how major is was for her. But into the breach.
This is not a book for children, or even high school students. I doubt I would have enjoyed it much in college. The Casual vacancy is about small, petty people, doing small, petty things in a small, petty town. A town council member dies unexpectedly, leaving the council in a uproar and his circle of acquaintances (both friendly and not) reeling. While most of the book deals with the townspeople's relationships, a significant portion concerns the town council's upcoming decision whether the allow a methadone clinic to continue renting space in a town-owned building. The clinic mainly serves residents of a public housing area that is on the outskirts of town, and many consider a part of the neighboring larger city. Many debates over class and belonging are sparked by this town issue.
The characters are well-drawn and realistic, but perhaps too much. Even the sympathetic characters are deeply and inherently flawed. While this initially drew me in, after a certain point I began to care for no one because they were all so despicable or weak. Rowling also went too far in making the book adult and serious, leaving out much of the humor that made the Harry Potter books so charming, and leading me to skip over some parts with too much council details. Yet I enjoyed this first serious work. Seeing Rowling find her style when not distracted by fantasy is fascinating.

Liar and Spy

So Rebecca Stead is definitely my favorite juvenile author, or at least she would be if she had more books published. I might like Liar and Spy more than When You Reach Me, her Newbery winner. While with her previous book she played with the time travel genre and showed her inspiration from Madeleine L'Engle, in this she experiments with mystery and seems inspired by the complex yes simple emotional mysteries of E.L. Konigsburg (whose recent death saddened me and all children's book lovers).
Georges is dealing with various negative changes in his life, like a friend who has abandoned him, moving, and a mother working constantly due to his father's job loss. His new and only friend is a homeschooled oddball in the same apartment building named Safer, who insists that one of their building's residents is a criminal. He begins to investigate as Safer's assistant, dealing with his MIA mother and teasing at school. While less involved and mysterious than When You Reach Me, Liar and Spy is more emotionally true. Readers will wonder about Safer mystery, and after they read, who is the liar, and who is the spy.