Recap of CITY OF EMBERS by Jeanne DuPrau

Decidedly a younger read than our typical books for our group. We would recommend this for Grades 5-7 in general. None of us had yet seen the movie that is now out based on the book, but our curiosity was touched about how the movie might handle some of the scenes. We are also wondering if they changed the ages to be a little older in order to do more with the main characters without offending modern senses about how old children should be when be trudged off to work and/or aware of romance, love, relationships, etc.

City of Ember reminded several of us of different books/movies for many different reasons. Among the books mentioned: Brave New World, The Giver, Lion Witch & the Wardrobe, Harry Potter and even a little of the latest movie WALL-E (for the reference to plant life and the search for it as a sign of life).

We discussed why age 12 would be reasonable to be leaving school and going off into work. Generally, you already knew as much as anyone by the age of 12 about the workings of the City and it's history. Like many agricultural based societies of our past, one did not need to go beyond the basic needs in order to fulfill their duties within the community. Even rural areas in the late 19th and early 20th Century often took their kids from school at the 5th or 6th grade level to work on the farms. They needed to read enough to do certain tasks, but that was all that was considered necessary.

We thought it interesting that they didn't spend any amount of time trying to match the kids up with jobs they might actually enjoy, it was simply a lottery. Although you weren't pigeon-holed to that job forever. After 3 years you were assessed and reassigned if needed. Eventually you probably would end up in a job better suited for you. It was also interesting that although they drew jobs, it was very easy for Lina and Doon to switch theirs. There was no penalty or issue with them just deciding to switch.

Also, the fact that they had no concept of fire being a potential source of light for going into the darkness was very interesting to our group. There were fires but it seemed that they were only through carelessness and perhaps seen as something more scary than helpful. We also discussed the ramifications if they had used fire rather than electricity in their world, clearly underground to the reader but not to the characters.

Why were they down there? Clearly a natural disaster since a chemical or nuclear disaster would have infiltrated their air in their world as well since we later discover there are openings and connections into their world.

The map of the city was excellent and useful to most of us.

We questioned the shallowness of Lina and the others at the death of her grandmother. Even we as readers didn't feel all that sad when the moment happened. Was this response supposed to be somewhat a cultural issue? Should the author have explained the coolness, the practicality, the shallowness of the emotions a little more?

Lina & Doon epitomize the creative spirit whereas so much of the rest of their world seems complacent and resigned to their situation. Lina's dreams seem not necessarily a premonition but more a sign that she has imagination and curiosity within her. Doon is clearly curious and a has a sharp mind. These two characters are clearly above the fray of the rest of the people and why they are thrust together to solve the dilemma facing the city. Singing Day is full of meaningful messages that have gotten lost over the years, but begin to make sense to Lina and Doon as they find their way.

How did no one from the outer world find them before now? Did no one before Lina and Doon actually discover the secret to getting out? There were people who simply disappeared from time to time in the river. Some certainly perished, but perhaps others, even inadvertently, may have found the way out. Perhaps those who may have gotten out didn't go back because things hadn't been so bad yet?

A question I had after our group met... how is the City of Embers plight like our world today? How would kids see connections between this book and environmental issues of today?

This was an enjoyable book even with the intended reader's age being much younger. Overall a positive book full with thought provoking characters, situations and issues.

UPCOMING BOOKS:
NOVEMBER: Re-read Twilight if you would like since the movie releases late November.
DECEMBER: Hush by Jacqueline Woodson
JANUARY: Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock

Twilight Trailer #3

NYT essay YA crossover authors...

This is a great article that I found thanks to another blog I peruse from time to time:

This New York Times essay "I'm Y.A., and I'm O.K." about crossover authors and their books. It's a great reminder why we as adults enjoy YA just as much as many of the teens out there.

The blog I found this through and highly recommend checking out is Book Group Buzz at http://bookgroupbuzz.booklistonline.com/

Enjoy!

Twilight Trailer #2

Twilight opens on November 21, 2008. See the official movie site for more information: http://www.twilightthemovie.com/

Twilight Trailer #1

Recap THE RABBI'S CAT by Joann Sfar

The group discussion was small and meandering, much like a cat perhaps, but we found the book very intriguing and interesting. Overall we really liked the graphics especially the drawing of the "snarky, questioning feline". "Dead on" was one comment about the cat's depiction not only in general but also with the details and poses in some of the scenes. We discussed that this is soundly in the high school YA realm as the sexual content, political and religious themes were not appropriate for the general middle school reader. One may have a hard time defending the book on the middle school shelves than the high school shelves. On the flip side, the issues of identity: personal, political and religious were very rich and meaningful.

The only downside to the book was that we felt the descriptions of it were all a bit misleading. The cat only speaks in the first part of book, quickly losing his speech and remaining speechless for more of the book than not. So many descriptions of the book said it was about a cat who eats a parrot, learns to talk and wants have a bar mitzvah, but there is so much more to the book that this brief storyline.

Joann Sfar does have a line of graphic novels for the younger set. The series is known as the "Little Vampire". This may be a good alternative to middle school graphic novel collections that are trying to broaden out from just the Manga books.

Next month's selection: The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau

Recap ONCE UPON A MARIGOLD

Jenn B reported for the group's August discussion, "There wasn't a discussion leader so it was pretty freeform, but we all enjoyed Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris a great deal and were interested in checking out what else the author had written. Sadly, we all concurred that happy, funny books don't give you as much to discuss (though this book was a pleasant respite after our darker spring and titles like Fallen Angels). We did discuss gender some and the idea that the romance in this book turned the love at first site stereotype upside down because the characters actually got to know each other (via p-mail!) first."

Member of our group, didn't make the meeting? Add your comments too.

September's book is The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar.

Recap ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie

This is a book that makes you see people as people and challenges some of our misconceptions, perceived perceptions, and even, some hard cold tuths. There's moments of sadness, but it doesn't weigh down the whole book and make it a drudge to read. It's laugh out loud funny and yet very poignant. Moments that stayed with us such as Junior's anger about the alcohol abuse that has taken it's toll on so many of his own people, and the original intent of the reservation versus those who don't want to leave (or perhaps emphasizing that to a large degree they still serve their original purposes). For us this was a book to make you think without being preachy directly to you. It is the thought process of a young Indian boy trying to make sense of and make it in this earthly world. It tackles many issues in an easy to read format and shows that even though there are differences there are similarities among each and every person. The biggest difficulties aren't necessarily because of different ethnicities, sometimes the breakdown is within your own culture and you need to understand, accept, perhaps forgive and move forward. We all wish we could be more like Junior's grandma and her beautiful tolerance. We felt that this book was uplifting even with the sad parts and the ambivalent ending. There is a hopefulness, not just for Junior but for anyone who touches this book. We recommend it for 8th grade and up because of the age of main character, situations, and some language. We expect (as Neil Gaiman so aptly quotes on the back cover) that this book will be hitting both the best-books list as well as the banned books list in the next few years! Go Sherman Alexie! We loved it!

NEXT BOOK: Once upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

The list of books read keeps growing...

I think it's helpful to periodically recap the list of books we've read thus far as a book group:

2008
Jan. - Cuba 15 by Nancy Osa & American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Feb. - A Great & Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Mar. - A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
Apr. - Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers (recap actually written this month - June)
May - Repossessed by A. M. Jenkins
June - Freak Show by James St. James

2007
Jan. - Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare & Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
Feb. - Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Mar. - The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Apr. - Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David
Levithan
May - An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
June/July - Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
August - Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
September - Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
Oct/Nov - Clay by David Almond
Nov/Dec - Eragon by Christopher Paolini

2006
June - Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
July - Hoot by Carl Hiassen
Aug - Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Sept. - Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Oct. - Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Nov. - Blankets by Craig Thompson
Dec. - NO MEETING

Recap FREAK SHOW by James St. James

Well... James St. James needs to have a one act monologue show somewhere and it would be marvelous! His voice rings very loud and clear in his character Billy Bloom. Unfortunately St. James tries to merge his 20-something Club Kid persona into a younger teen version. While the book has its moments of being very funny and painfully overly dramatic, there isn't a lot of overwhelming sympathy for the main character. Billy lives inside his head and pretty much nowhere else. The plot (was there one) gets convoluted with trying to figure out if the outrageousness being written is happening inside Billy's head or for real, and whether or not it is truly as outrageous as Billy's declaration of it. Our group felt that Billy is not a character with which many teens (even drag queen teens) would really identify. Mainly because it is VERY clear that Billy has a very elite lifestyle - from Darien to Ft. Lauderdale and living in a self-described compound with a personal attendant - which tends to alienate many of the teen audience.

The book works hard to portray a "poor, unloved and abused drag queen" scenario, but our book club felt that the real issue wasn't the drag queen aspect at all. Instead the more serious, and relatively ignored, issue is Billy's bi-polar behavior. Although we are not convinced that this is a high quality GLBT book (good fluff, yes), the popularity of it speaks to us as it has been nearly impossible to get the book from a local library (most were either missing or checked out). Obviously the book is generating some sort of impact and we'd be curious to know exactly what it is! In the meantime, we're looking and recommending other GLBT books with solid, strong, positive messages for it's readers.

Next book: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Recap FALLEN ANGELS by Walter Dean Myers...

This is not a book for the faint of heart, which probably explains why it's often challenged. Our general consensus of the book was that it wasn't a book any of us would have read outside of book club, but we found it a profound (often profane) and honest piece dealing with minority issues in the military and especially during the Vietnam War. This is not your soft around the edges, hold the language for the minors type of book and it shouldn't be! War is hell! Myers crafts the wide range of emotions from excitement to fear; from optimistic to deeply conflicted thoughts giving each character personality and life (even as they face death). Any teen whose idea of military combat comes from video games where it's "fun" to kill people should take the time to read this gritty war novel. Adults uncomfortable with strong language or war themes will have a hard time with this book, but we strongly believe it is a quality book that deserves to read.

Next Book

We settled on "Freak Show" by James St. James for June. Watch the email for discussion of dates. For July "The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian" is a strong contender. Of course, none of us have strong opinions but if you have one you'd like to share go for it!

Repossessed

Discussion decided that the book was deceptive; the cover led us to believe the read would be fun and quirky but the read was actually pretty deep. Like The Outsiders by SE Hinton, you could sense the femininity of the author coming through, coloring the feeling of the book. She asks a lot of questions that remain unanswered (maybe her intent?) and we wondered if there was a religious agenda to her work If so, it was non-denominational.
Overall, we were surprised that this was a Printz honor book; we rated it a resounding "thumbs medium"

Walter Dean Myers in town...

May 10 is the Kerlan Award Ceremony & Kerlan Professional Day
with speaker Walter Dean Myers. The Kerlan Award is
"presented annually in recognition of singular attainments
in the creation of children's literature and in appreciation
for generous donation of unique resources to the Kerlan
Collection for the study of children's literature". Contact
The CLRC for more information at: clrc@umn.edu

Registration information is available at
http://special.lib.umn.edu/clrc/2008KerlanAward.php

Recap A NORTHERN LIGHT by Jennifer Donnelly

Elysium is as far as to
The very nearest room,
If in that room a friend await
Felicity or doom.

What fortitude the soul contains,
That it can so endure
The accent of a coming foot,
The opening of a door!

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-86)

The way the book structure is a bit confusing at times, but the word-of-the-day helps keep track of where the thoughts change. Some of the flashbacks become muddled as the flashbacks and current activities converge. However, the story moves well and keeps an intensity that would otherwise, make the story a bit long winded and less exciting. Donnelly's writing however is well crafted.

We discussed the juxtaposition of the beginning paragraph being so serenely pastoral in detail and then sharply changed by the last line of the page. It really is the entire tone of the story. While Mattie is trying to find the beauty of life she is constantly reminded of the struggle and despair that surrounds her life. While the tone of the book is somewhat mysterious it is more about the journey of Mattie than the mystery of the murdered young woman.

One of the themes we really saw in this book was the price of knowledge. At first Mattie sees knowledge as freedom in her mind through reading and writing, but knowledge comes in many forms and can be harnessed to a burden. As the lose of innocence starts to envelop Mattie, she realizes that knowledge certainly has power, but in very unexpected ways.

Along with knowledge came the idea of the Power of Words. Weaver's strength and weakness was in his reaction to words. It was both what cause of problems for him and what brings him back to his senses. Words in Grace's letters had the power, in real life, to convict Chester and, in the story, helped Mattie set her life in a new direction. Words as weapons are shown through the word "fights" between Mattie & Weaver, but also in the way words can bring people down or lift them up such as Weaver's temper towards the trappers and Royal's careless words towards Mattie.

Power of Words also connects with the idea of Promises. In the end, Mattie chooses to break both her promises to the now dead women in her life in order to survive herself. She needs to leave in order to make a better life for herself and realizes that she is not responsible and cannot control her sisters lives, but only live her own. Furthermore, it is her breaking of the promise to burn the letters, that will resolve the murder of Grace Brown. Justice couldn't prevail had the letters not been saved. In breaking these promises, Mattie realizes that she can save herself and give something, perhaps, to others that she could not if she kept the promises requested of desperate women who were in some stage of dying.

Character notes: Mattie was a good leading character, although a bit too naive at times for some of our sensibilities. Weaver was a strong character and it was nice, if not a little questionable because of the era, to see such a strong minority character. We all enjoyed the relationship between Mattie and Weaver. We all were very disturbed, but again acknowledge that the era certainly supported, the relationship between Royal and Mattie. Royal in modern times is just plain creepy. He is after Mattie for a specific objective which doesn't actually include loving her. He treats her more like an object than a person. When Mattie wonders if a woman can be unmanned or even unbrained, the consensus was that "yes" she was unbrained by Royal. She let herself be the "dumb" girl when he gave her attention. Other interesting characters included Mattie's father, sister Lou and Emmie. These were all very complex characters dealing with things that made them less of a person for most of the book.

Mattie's dad just couldn't function after the loss of their mother. He was inept and in such deep despair that he couldn't see what his family really needed. Yet, there were moments where he was genuinely concerned. Mattie learned to understand him, but could not abide or agree with him in the end.

Lou had been dad's favorite and was obviously the Tomboy of the family, but was there other underlying currents. She was wild and uncontrollable. Our discussion questioned if this was just because of the loss of basically both her parents' affection or if perhaps she was having serious sexual identification issues and how, during that era, would that have been handled?

Emmie was a woman who was taken advantage of. had no self-respect. Was the realtionship between Emmie & Royal's father ever a loving one or simply a trade-in-kind for his support. She was considered the "problem" in the community, but she was given the chance to pull herself together and get some dignity back when Weaver's mother needed help.

These characters were neither all good or all bad. They were complex and more human than many characters in YA and adult lit.

This book referenced the early literary women Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson. This book left us deliberating over the question of "words vs love". This was often a struggle and/or underlying theme of these earlier authors. Can you have both? Can this still be a challenge today for young women?

Members of the club... please add your input and thoughts on this book. Next book: Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers.

A GREAT & TERRIBLE BEAUTY by Libba Bray RECAP

JB lead an excellent discussion on this book and I apologize if my recap doesn't capture it all quite as intensely. One of the main themes of the book was "Women and Power". What is it about women and power that seem to make people want to contain or control women? How do you think it has changed or not changed in today's society? We discussed that women historically have been kept away from positions of power with the exceptions of some leaders such as Queen Victoria who seemed to be the exception to the rule but were in thier place by "divine right". But why? Do women actually hold the ability to be stronger leaders? Will they lose their beauty by becoming a leader? We discussed how changes, especially during the Victorian era, were happening rapidly in general and many of these changes were breaking conceptions of established societal rules. Among these changes, near the end of the era, were beginning to affect women and their established roles. Today there are more opportunities for women, but is there still a limit to were and what a woman can be? Do women still suffer the consequences of losing their "feminine" status by taking on non-traditional roles and leaderships?

What about Miss Moore? Will she be back again? Is she part of the order? After all, she unblinkingly read the passage about Sarah Rees Toome and Mary Dowd. She is an appealingly strong character that people liked in this book. It was mentioned that she does return in the series, but we will not discuss how or to what extent here.

How do the flaws of the girls real lives affect the way they see and interact in the real? We discussed the strong desires of each girl and whether or not the realms really fulfill their desires. Felicity wants strength because there is something about her situation that has left her desiring power, but does she get the strength she really wants and how could it affect her real life? Pippa wants true love? The realm offers her that, but will it be what she really wants after all and what would happen if she stayed in the real world and married according to her family. Ann wants to be beautiful. She is plain. Would beauty be enough to jump her into a new and accepted position? Her singing is what brings out her beauty. Could she improve her station based on her voice? Gemma wants to know herself. This will affect her in both realms as she tries to make choices that will effect everyone around her.

Is this story original? There are similar elements that can be found in other stories of this similar genre, however the way Bray has put the elements together create a new and exciting story. One of the more interesting and unique things about the book is that the focus is on the female rite-of-passage that is often overlooked. Perhaps this book is designed to bring the gothic novel to a whole new generation.

Lady of shallot poem at the beginning seems to weave throughout the story, both directly and indirectly. Several passages reference the lines of the poem and discussions about the poem are very direct within the story. However, we felt the poem was nearly an outline of the story. The Lady of shallot cannot leave her tower and yet she does. Her fate is wrapped in her choices. Much like the girls themselves. Water plays a large part within the story. Things happen by or in the water several times that move the story in significant ways. There are changes because of the boat and water: The power switch between Felicity and Gemma happens after Gemma discovers Felicity with the gypsy boy at the boat dock. Boat and water are also indicative of changes in the realm.

Audio book is a good way to take in this book as well as reading it. Josephine Bailey, who reads the book, has a strong voice and good characterizaton. She does a nice job reciting Tennyson's poem Lady of shallot without out falling into the sing-song pattern that could so easily happen. Another wonderful rendition of Lady of shallot is the song sung by Loreena McKennet on her album The Visit.

IF YOU LIKE this book: We felt you might like Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King because it has strong female character, Late Victorian era, feminism, outsider character, burdens of guilt.

Bookclub members - Did I miss something? Want to add a little more to what I've mentioned? Please comment to this post or make your own post!

Our next book is A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly.

Bookclub Survey...

I'll be doing a full write up about our last meeting soon.

In the meantime... if you haven't been contacted through one of your membership groups, blogs or newsletters....

There is a Bookclub survey that is happening and if you have perhaps 10 minutes and are willing to share your thoughts with the RUSA CODES Readers’ Advisory Committee of the American Library Association (sponsor of the survey), please feel free to do so.

You can get to the survey by clicking here.

You can read more about it at Book Group Buzz's blog entry called "Talk about yourselves" (Book Group Buzz is a blog sponsored by Booklist).

Upcoming events in the area

Thought I'd throw these up... I think it would be great to share local events via our blog. You can either e-mail me or post your events yourself if you are a member of our bookclub.

February 20th - William Durbin - author of Broken Blade, El
Lector, Darkest Evening and Sampo Lake (and others - some
in the My America serics) will be at the Heritage library
in Lakeville on Wednesday, February 20 at 7:00 pm.

February 23rd - Hubbs Children’s Literature Conference (as
announced in the recent Kerlan Friends Newsletter):
The 16th Annual Hubbs Children’s Literature Conference will
take place Saturday, February 23, 2008, from 8:30am-3:00pm
at the University of St. Thomas O’Shaughnessy Educational
Center on the St. Paul Campus. The 2008 event features Jane
Yolen appearing with Adam Stemple, and Lisa Westberg Peters,
as well as breakout sessions focusing on children’s literacy
topics. To register & for complete program information, visit
http://www.stthomas.edu/education/events/hubbs/default.html.
or call (651)962-4983 for more information.

April 3 - Barbara Joosse (author of Mama, Do You Love Me?)
will discuss her newest book "Grandma Calls Me Beautiful"
at 4:45 at U of MN Libraries' Andersen Library on the West
Bank Campus. This event is open to the public.

May 2 - Extreme Censorship - Banned, Battered, and Burned
Books - Noon to 1:00 pm in Andersen Library. This is part
of the libraries First Friday series, but may be of
specific interest to our group. Speakers will include
Marie Harvat from Children's Literature Research
Collections (CLRC) on the banning of children's and young
adult literature of the 19th & 20th Centuries in the US
and special guest Dr. Heino Beckmann, the German Honorary
Consul, who will speak on Nazi censorship in the context
of modern Germany (sponsored by the Tretter Collection for
GLBT Studies). Event is open to the public.

May 10 is the Kerlan Award Ceremony & Kerlan Professional Day
with speaker Walter Dean Myers. The Kerlan Award is
"presented annually in recognition of singular attainments
in the creation of children's literature and in appreciation
for generous donation of unique resources to the Kerlan
Collection for the study of children's literature". Contact
The CLRC for more information at: clrc@umn.edu

June 24 - Chase Lecture - speaker poet Paul B. Janeczko will
give the lecture at 4:30 pm. More information to come on
CLRC's website:http://special.lib.umn.edu/clrc/

CUBA15 and AMERICAN BORN CHINESE

Our inadvertent theme this month seemed to be cultural identity struggles. Both of these books deal with main characters trying to find themselves among a split cultural identity.

While most everyone enjoyed CUBA 15 by Nancy Osa, there was a feeling that overall it lacked enough poignant moments that would lend itself for good discussion points regarding multiculturalism with younger readers. There were some feelings of frustration with the book, but we discussed whether this was intentional on the author's part wanting the reader to feel as frustrated as the main character, Violet Paz. We also discussed whether or not the author may have purposefully chosen to not focus on the real angst of the multi-cultural situations in the book and more on the actual coming of age of Violet. Was the author's intent to gloss over some of the racial and cultural situations or was she choosing to be "color blind" and not dwell on the possible tensions and issues? Again, final word on the book from the bookclub: Sweet, enjoyable, but not as poignant as expected.

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE by Gene Luen Yang seemed to capture and force people to think more about the struggle which many multicultural youth face whether American-born within a multicultural family or a new immigrant trying to understand a new culture. The three stories are intricately told through graphic novel. We felt this was an excellent way to tell these stories which are all inter-connected and deal with finding and accepting ones true self. This is a book that anyone can learn a lesson from and resonate with even if they are not specifically Chinese-American. We discussed this book's merit in receiving the 2007 Printz Award and felt that it has a broader resonance for readers than several of the others. Our thoughts: this is an intense, sometimes uncomfortable, but powerful and thought provoking book worthy of its award and honors.

ALA announces literary award winners...

The news is out!

"Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schiltz is 2008's Newbery Award winner.

"The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick is 2008's Caldecott Medal winner.

See all the honors and other award winners at American Library Associations website:
http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2008/january2008/announce08.htm

We'll have to consider some of these for our 2008 reads!