RECAP: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen

For Nov/Dec 2011 our group went back to the "YA" of our book club and read The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin.

Over all our group found the book to be "cute" - nothing too riveting, nothing too gory, nothing too serious to tackle, just a nice family mystery story and some great puzzles to solve along the way. This book has good boy appeal as well as being the perfect read for mystery and puzzle lovers.

Characters were generally well developed and so were the relationships between them. As adults ready YA, our group tends to give a lot of proverbial high-5s when the protagonists parent's are dead, absent or negligent, but still give voice to the character's own independence. This story has great parents as far as this is concerned. We did, however, think that retired Officer Marietta was overly mean and sort of filled the "kids these days" grumpy old man stereotype, but even he comes around.

We were all pleased that none of us really figured out the entire ending ahead of time. This story was engaging whether you solved the puzzles or just let them unfold to you as you read. A good family themed story and relatively light-hearted overall, despite the librarian's family issues from her past.

This has wide age appeal as noted by being a cross-over between age groups for the Maud Heart Lovelace Award nominees.

Next up: Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer for January; Anya's Ghost (graphic novel) by Vera Brosgol.

Meeting author Jennifer Griffin

Our group strayed a little in October to read this local author's first fantasy novel The Dream Time and hosted her at our meeting for an informal author discussion.

(NOTE: This is not a YA book, but may have appeal with older teens into the fantasy genre.)

Here are some of the things we learned about the author and her book:

Jennifer's background in history and interest in fantasy writing lead her to try her own hand at writing. Noteable authors who inspired her: Robin McKinley (especially The Blue Sword), Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and Anne McCaffrey.

Other inspirations for her story came from a mash-up of cultures and religions including: Japanese, Aboriginal, Greek Mythologies and Christianity.

This is a story that has been with her for many years. Some of her characters had been with her since her sophomore year of college but the story line kept changing. Originally she had placed her book setting in a different world altogether, but eventually made it earth based but futuristic.

Jennifer writes every day, but she does not really write in rough drafts or free form. She thinks through all of it first, then types with some editing. She has "a prequel of sorts" at her online blog http://thehuntersstory.wordpress.com

Our group thought the book had good intrigue and played with some very interesting notions of God and what happens when God disappears or dies. Something that not a lot of people would dare to take on in a first novel. There is a nod to Japanese Manga whose stories often deal with controversies in culture/religion.

Those who really like this type of dark fantasy will probably enjoy the book a bit more than those who dabble with the genre as a whole.

It was a pleasure to have meet this author and hear what might be coming from her in the future.

RECAP 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

This book dives right in… no preface, no chapter announcement... it just captures your attention and doesn't let go.

This is the story of two people: Hannah and Clay. Hannah is dead. Clay is alive and one of 13 recipients of the tapes Hannah has left behind. His thoughts are intermixed with Hannah's as he listens to the tapes that "explain" what lead her to commit suicide. What will Clay do once he's heard all the tapes? How will Hannah's death and explanation change those who hear the tapes?

As this story unfolds, you find yourself waiting to find out why Clay has the tapes, and which number he is realizing that the longer the wait the worse it may be.

Near the end Hannah's mind is made up. She has made her choices and although she's looking for help, she rejects it and does not allow it. Are some of the last events just bad judgement, poor excuses, true cruelty?

Our group certainly recognized the personality types of all the characters within our own social experiences. We discussed our own reactions to similar issues or other types of bullying that could have led to worse outcomes had we not handled things differently in our own lives.

Here are our thoughts to a selection of discussion questions paraphrased and/or quoted from: Reading Rumps Blog at: http://www.readingrumpus.com/2009/08/13-reasons-to-use-thirteen-reasons-why.html

Was there any specific event or person who could have saved Hannah? Perhaps, Clay at the party. If he would actually not listened to what she was saying and instead stayed, and made her talk about what was bothering her. Clay is a typical teenage boy, unsure of himself while trying to appear confident. It makes his character likeable and relatable. He is also typically in the fact that he isn’t prepared to handle the emotionality of Hannah. Although, it may have been too late at this point, Clay will probably always think he should have done more. His saving grace is that he takes the knowledge he has at the end and is open to making a difference in another’s life. He won’t be afraid to do something, say something, or wait anymore.

Why is Mr. Porter the last one on Hannah’s list, the one who “can take the tapes straight to Hell” (p.9). Was he that bad of a counselor? Why did Hannah record their conversation? Did she give him sufficient time to answer? Why do you think she kept interrupting him? She was done. She was looking for someone to stop her, but didn’t necessarily want to be stopped and Mr. Porter fell short of her hope and expectations.

He should have gone after her, but with her vague answers and interruptions he would have been hard pressed to understand just how serious the situation was.

Was Hannah powerless? Why or Why not? How could she have been more in control of her own life when everyone around her seemed to be pushing her down? Whether she was powerless or not, the fact that she believed she was powerless kept her plummeting. If you believe you are powerless, how can others tell you that you aren’t or how do you keep small things from building up when you feel like you have no control? If she had felt more in control of her own life perhaps she would have talked more to Clay maybe she would have reached out to others.

There are several symbolic elements: The man at Rosie’s letting Clay leave without paying, the stop sign, the Lost-N-Found Gazette, Hannah’s poem,. What roles do they play in the story? Coffee bar and finding the poem brought the book into real time. It brought you along. There are moments of noticing or not noticing, and the results that come from observing or not observing another person. The stop sign is an example: At the beginning Clay mentions an accident. There is a mystery within the story. This and other incidents show the interconnectedness of actions and reactions. The Poem: Shows the intensity of Hannah being horrified about having her poem published and dissected by people suspecting it was her, but not being direct or asking her. There is also a disconnect to the way people see things and the way Hannah sees things.

Hannah’s parents were absent from the story. How do you think they feel? Are they responsible? At what age are we responsible for our own actions? Her parents were clearly devastated, never reopening their store. They left everything behind them. So many parents miss signs or don’t know how bad their child is feeling because their children are so independent at that age. Hannah was on her own like many teenagers and perhaps her parents were busy with their shop and didn’t realize that she needed help. She may have kept things very bottled up inside until it was too late. They will forever feel partially responsible for their daughter’s death in a similar way that Clay may always feel responsible.

Some final notes from our discussion:

We felt that is was good that you never know exactly how she died. It’s all rumor which also was the thing that brought her to the point of her suicide, another symbol about how little things can have big effects.

Our recommendation for readers: Every junior high/high school should have this book. Despite some of the really bad things that happen and the fact that the story is being told post-mortem, there’s an uplifting aspect to the book – there’s a hope like Clay with Skye. While you can’t change the outcome of Hannah’s life you could change someone else’s or maybe your own.

Next Month: Listen! By Stephanie S. Tolan

October: The Dream Time by Jennifer Griffin - This is not a YA book but the author has a personal connection with a member of our group and we are going to be her "test" audience for her to discuss her book with readers.

RECAP of Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cakeby Aimee Bender
Appropriate age: Upper High School and up (Alex Awards)

This book has many allegories related to dealing with the dysfunction of the family. The brother learns to disappear. The mother buries her feelings deep down. Rose essentially has an eating disorder.

The family all are denying reality in some way. Rose’s brother can’t deal with the world and doesn’t want to be a part of it. Mom is a bit crazy/off from the beginning: Her attraction to her son may be because he wasn’t fully there. Mom wants to be anchored and looks for people who can anchor her: husband, son, lover. Rose tries to avoid the bitterness of life by not eating proper food. Dad avoids any deep subject and only peripherally involves himself in the family life. Dad is like a guest – same routine, but doesn’t really interact with them/ absence.

The significance of Grandmother being more a disembodied voice over the phone or by letter/package shows more absenteeism within the family, each person living their lives in their own individual silos next to each other. Never really seeing or knowing each other.
Rose and Joseph’s friend George ends up being the voice of reason and help for them both. He tries to help them accept what their potential really is and gives them a safe place to show who they are.

Our group really felt for Rose. She is super sensitive, acutely aware, wanting in love, very lonely – her “Factory” at her core shows she’s turned off /cold towards her family in order to protect herself but it also exacerbates her lonliness.

Are most people’s deep feelings negative in their life? Why does Rose so frequently taste the negative? Our group discussed how more often people try to repress negative feelings, so it would stand to reason that most of what Rose tastes is the deep negative feelings of repression.

Ultimately it is Rose being drawn to cooking that helps heal her and makes her more whole. She learns from the French woman how to be more present with herself. There is so much emotion attached to preparing and eating food.

Validation and affection through art: The French woman uses her cooking to be at peace and rest, Mother with her craftsmanship the love she felt and had was going into the creations, George embraced the idea of imperfections. Symbolizes being whole and that within the whole there are imperfections. Joseph’s attempt at the perfect circle is his frustration with the imperfection of the world.

Joseph/Desert & Geode and Rose was a Rainforest/seaglass – Joseph harsh but interesting; Rose is diverse, sensitive and pretty, formed by forces

Rose seeing Joseph in the apartment – Saw him as leaving, he had been disappearing for a long time. Shaken but not surprised. Card table chair – cold, functional, impersonal, factory-made

Discuss the image of trees and last lines of the novel:
First tree line – Joseph – intellect but can’t deal with the world
Second tree line – Mom perhaps, surviving but not straight and whole
Last line of trees – Rose /George chance to live and accept and be whole
Last line of the book – She had alternative choices in the world, but Joseph really hadn’t.

Misc. Notes: May appeal to teens who are struggling with their own family dynamics or just the fact that they are feeling out of place because they are in that in between stage of child/adult. Finding their place in the world.

March Book: Charles and Emma: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

Night of the Howling Dogs RECAP

It's down and dirty, but better to get it posted than not.

The author of this book is Graham Salisbury.

One of the best works we’ve read that would really get a boy’s interest. Quick read. Reluctant readers. Scouts/scout masters.

Title: A bit of a disservice since the dogs aren’t a huge part of the book. While there are passages about dogs in nearly every chapter and some are most definitely foreshadowing, they are not the main attraction of the book. A title emphasizing the natural disaster or the surroundings might be more affective.

Characters: Louie is probably the most complex, partially because Dylan doesn't understand him. He's had a very hard-knocked life. He tends to be mean because he sees the fear and knows he can be kind of a bully. He has also been bullied and feels that fear is a sign of weakness therefore he doesn’t like people who he preserves as weak. He doesn't like Dylan for this very reason, but in the end Dylan proves himself to Louie.

Dylan is an average kid. He has a good home, dad’s busy, good friend, boy scouts, very 13 - big juxtaposition of the broken home of Louie.

Dylan’s connects to Louie – Chapter 9 – they don’t like messing up.

Mike & Louie are the oldest and both have Hawaiian ancestry. Louie connects to Mike because of this, but Mike feels the need "be tough" to keep his ancestry and pride in check with Louie.

Tad, Sam & Billy – the younger group - These are the least developed of the characters and it was hard to keep track of them at times.

Zach is the one caught between the younger group and Dylan & Casey's age. Wants to be with the older ones, but has responsibility to the younger group.

Mr. Bellows is a critical character for Louie and Casey. Also for Dylan since his dad isn’t there and isn’t a part of the group.

The Reverend really seems to only be there as a chaperone.

Masa was more developed even than the Reverend. The conversations he has with the boys. He gives the information about the white dog being Pele.

Plot:

We all seemed to expect a death and a bit surprised no one died except the 2 horses. The one horse was built up for the emotional connection of loss.

Given the age of intended audience, however, the deaths of the horses versus people may be a lighter way to handle this issue and material. Some teachers may shy away from books with death in them due to their kids maturity level and emotional issues. This book offers ways to share issues without being so in-depth.

Pacing: Fast pace, chapters seemed short. Sometimes could have been continued into the next chapter. Introduces the characters before it picks up the pace. Audience might not realize that the pace is slower because they are still looking for the nugget that’s really going to happen while getting all the pertinent information – characters, background, etc.

Scenery/setting: A map of Hawaii would have been nice. Hard pronunciations with the Hawaiian words. Good explanations without being to “dictionary-style”. For example: Haole or the different types of lava flow sediment. Felt very believable.

The intended audience is for 5^th grade and up through middle school. It was a Maude Hart Lovelace Nominee Division II.

We discussed some of our media specialists favorite books to recommend to the older middle schoolers (8^th grade) – Black Hole Sun can get gruesome; Hunger Games, Shiver & Linger, Ship Breaker, Theodore Kid Lawyer (seems to be popular with boys). Wimpy Kid is still popular for middle school. Graphic novels are huge. Woods Runner by Paulson. Ook & Gluk and Captain Underwear are still popular for the younger set.

Next Months Book – The Particular Sadness of a Lemon Cake by Amiee Bender – 2011 Alex Award Winner. The Alex Award is for adult books with young adult appeal.

SPLIT by Swati Avasthi - recap

Split takes on different and interesting perspective as it looks at the main character teenaged Jace as both Victim and Abuser. Not a lot of YA seems to tackle this issue which actually happens more often than not with abused people. Often the character is only a victim trying to get out.

Notes on characters:
Jace's character is well developed and expressive. You have sympathy while not 100% liking him or accepting what he has done.
Christian more removed, not as developed, but we felt this might have been intentional. He is more walled off, which is how he survived. There is still a fear within him and he keeps both a physical and mental space between the other characters and the reader.
The reader and Jace actually find out more about Christian through Miriam and through the apartment wall. Another analogy of the brother's relationship.
Jenn T's favorite character ultimately is Miriam. She is a positive adult without being too “clinical”. When she starts crossing that "clinical" line it is often interrupted by Jace calling her on it and her backing off. There are moments where she isn’t perfect but she’s really working to help Jace. The readers emotions change along with Jace’s emotions about her.
One of the least liked (by our group) of the characters was Lauren. She comes off too bitchy.
She is your quintessential "Queen Bee" of the school, and she uses that to hide her weaker traits and issues such as her alcoholic mother. Jace at first thinks she's strong and can't be broken, but his violence shows her to be just as suseptible and emotionally co-dependant. Even though we didn't like her through most of the book we also connected to when and how she starts to cave.

What our group really liked about the book was that there were no simple answers and nothing was cleaning wrapped up at the end, but there was still hope.

The book is about relationship abuse – not just the family's abuse. There are themes of guilt and blame and the readers can really see different perspectives of how people saw and dealt with the events in the book.

Our group really saw this book being ideal for the high school ages: 9-12 grade, mature 8th graders may also like this book and understand the complexities in it.

We are continually impressed at how writers can write so outside their experience and be convincing and hit right on the issues? This author while having had contact with social work abuse situations does not seem to come from a personal background of it, nor is she obviously a
16 year male who has been on both the receiving and dealing end of abuse. Although some of our group felt that authors such as E. R. Frank have even stronger realistic writing skills when writing outside their own experiences, we felt that Avasthi has the potential and capability of being another such writer. Given this is her debut novel she gives us a real, honest and frank situation with which to contend.

We briefly discussed the cover: Orange with black keys – not really appealing; really have to think about the connection – get it, but not until after reading.

Other books dealing with heavier issues:
It happened to Nancy - AIDS
Kim empty inside – Cutting
Dirty Little Secrets – Hoarding
A Child Called It - Severe abuse

Next Meeting: Tues., Oct. 26th – Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

Nov: Maude Hart Lovelace Nominees – Members: Vote for the one you want to read here on the blog: Alabama Moon, Night of the Howling Dog, A Girl Named Eva

LEVIATHAN By Scott Westerfeld

Illustrations are beautiful and overall work well with the story. The map endpapers are very cool in how the countries are depicted, but a little hard to see the shading differences. Some knowledge of who was actually allied and neutral in real WWI is helpful.

We liked the integration of using real historical oddities with the fictional fabrications. Although we aren’t sure that a Tasmanian Tiger, which once really existed, would have really made a good pet.

One way that series were often critiqued was whether or not they could stand on their own as well as in a series. The main issue would be resolved (even if temporarily) by the end of a single book. There may be some unanswered questions that keep you wondering and may be answered or more important in the next book. However, we found Leviathan’s ending unsatisfying, but at least you know there’s a next book. No resolution of anything at the end seems to be the trend with series books these days – both adult and YA. The next book due out in October.

We also discussed the mystery at the end of what’s in the eggs? Our thoughts: Kracken/Squid? Shark? Based on illustration in Ch. 24 we are guessing perhaps a Giant Sea Turtle. A mighty warship made of?....

The steam punk genre seems to be really on the rise and may be jumping genres soon. Main characteristics of steam punk: Mechanical components with historical fiction elements, often with an alternative history twist.

Characters, Quotes & Descriptions:

“Steam punk” – a genre name that has been created to sound “cool”; came from a play on cyber-punk which came from characters who really were more punk.

“It’s barking hard to be a boy” – great quote

Really liked Deryn. – Her spunk, her intelligence, she passes as an underage boy. Loved it when she’s trying to be a boy and she talks about needing a “swagger”; later Alek comments on that Dylan’s “swagger”. Starts having crush on Alek. Where will this go, since she hasn’t revealed her true identity to him.

Monkey Ludites – luddites are afraid of technology, but the Clankers aren’t afraid of technology they are more afraid of the whole biological sciences. Hence Monkey Ludites refers to someone afraid of biological science.

Bats guano carries metal shards: Using bodily functions for weaponry and transportation.

We also liked Alek. His self awareness comes naturally, not contrived.

Other thoughts related to the book and author:

Scott Westerfeld – US/Texas boy spends much of time in Sydney Australia (married to an Australian)

He seems to have been very influenced by several sci-fi books/movies that already exist. There are parallels to Star Wars with the Storm Walkers. Furthermore, creating an ecosystem based on living creatures is a theme in several sci-fi shows as well. The sci-fi show Farscape has a character named Moya of the Leviathan race. Grows other creatures that help function to maintain her. Could it be an infringement of these types of sci-fi characteristics? We’re not the only ones making these comparisons and drawing these parallels which isn’t surprising knowing how into Sci-fi people can get.

We would recommend it for Middle School through High School; a precocious reader could read it in upper elementary. This book is a good intro to genre of steam punk to readers, and can be easily pitched to either gender. It can also be pitched to people with varied interests: historical-fiction readers, sci-fi readers, push fantasy, etc.

Other books using this genre that our group recommends:
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest another Steam punk that may be up for Alex Award
Solace by Gayle Carringer