Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli

Main character: Diana, a budding poet and astronomer
Location: A six-hour drive from Pittsburgh
Time period: Contemporary
Genre: J Fiction, Verse

This is such a sweet and charming little book--little in size, but not in heart. Diana is a young girl who loves her yellow house, her best friend Rose, the wren nesting in the wreath on the front door, and the night sky. She writes a poem about the sun and it wins a school contest. She wakes up happy in the morning. Her life is good.

But then her dad loses his job and her parents decide to move to Grandpa Joe's house near Pittsburgh. Diana is heartbroken. She has to say mad-sad goodbyes to her yellow house, her teacher Mrs. Clifford, and Rose, and she knows she will never laugh again.

Since Diana writes poetry, this book is written in a series of poems. In spare language, the author reveals Diana's happy highs to her mad-sad lows. The illustrations are black and white pencil drawings, but I can feel the glowing warmth of the yellow house and the deep softness of Rose's purple floppy hat (or "purpy flopple" as they call it.)

Where I Live is on the 2009-2010 Texas Bluebonnet Award List.

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

Main Character: 16-year-old Gemma Doyle
Location: London
Time Period: Victorian Era
Genre: YA Fiction, Fantasy, Supernatural

Finally! I am finished with this series. I still found Gemma to be one of the most exasperating characters I have ever encountered, and there were times that I put this book down in favor of others. I was really hoping for a breakthrough--something that would let me like Gemma before the book was over (rather like I was hoping for a major redemptive moment for Snipe in the Harry Potter books.) I did get one, and that made the ending much more worthwhile for me. Things are heading for disaster when Gemma says "I can't live in fear any longer. I've cursed this power. I've both enjoyed it and misused it. And I've hidden it away. Now I must try to wield it correctly, to marry it to a purpose and hope that that is enough." That is what did it for me--Gemma finally (finally!) understood that she had to stop fighting her power and avoiding her destiny.

Now I don't want to give you the impression that there was a sudden switch--there was a a good deal of laying the groundwork for this declaration, including a very nice scene with her brother, Tom, after she rescued him from the Rakshana. This wound up being Tom's redemptive moment as he was able to drop his superior and supercilious facade and talk with Gemma person to person instead of older brother.

I do have to give Gemma props for one thing. In a number of other books, such as Cory Doctorow's Little Brother or Silenced by James DeVita, I have been bothered by how easily the protagonist trusts new people. Sometimes it has turned out well, but sometimes it leads to inevitable betrayal. Gemma does not have this problem. On the contrary, Gemma doesn't trust anyone (well, except for the Gorgon, who continually tells Gemma that she is untrustworthy.) Now, one could say that Gemma learned not to trust when the one teacher she felt close to turned out to be Circe in disguise, but she was showing this tendency early on. The problem with this is that Gemma doubts her own judgement about people--it's takes merely a passing comment from one person to turn her against someone else--and that greatly contributes to her sense of isolation.

I can't say that I enjoyed this series--if it wasn't for the recommendation of some of my patrons, I would probably have given up on it after the first book. Still, I can see why appeals to other readers.

Surprises According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney

Main Character: Humphrey, a golden hamster
Location: undefined
Time period: Contemporary
Genre: J Fiction, School

Humphrey the hamster returns in his fourth book of adventures as the classroom pet of room 26. We're coming to the end of the school year and there is plenty going on. I-Heard-That-Kirk brings in a hamster ball so Humphrey can roam around the classroom. (Nobody knows about the lock-that-doesn't-lock and how Humphrey does plenty of roaming on his own when no one is watching.) On his weekend stay at Wait-for-the-Bell-Garth's house, Humphrey goes on an unexpected roll down the hill in his ball and comes face to face with a curious cat. When Aldo the janitor comes to clean the classroom speaking in a language Humphrey doesn't understand and then is replaced by a stranger, Humphrey becomes convinced that Aldo has been kidnapped by aliens. Most worrying, Mrs. Brisbane hasn't decided whether or not she wants to come back to teach next year.

There is a lot of charm in this series of books which looks at classroom activities through the eyes of a classroom pet. I like his use of repetition for emphasis--things aren't just fun, they're FUN-FUN-FUN! I also like his definitions which close each chapter. A suprise is "something totally unexpected and unplanned for...[it] can be both good and bad, like a shiny balloon (a good thing) that suddenly pops and scares you (a bad thing)." Humphrey cares deeply about the children in his classroom and wants to help them with their problems. He also has the opportunity to watch the teacher and get to know her in a way that the students don't.

Surprises for Humphrey is on the 2009-2010 Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee List.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Main Character: 17-year-old Marcus, aka w1n5t0n, aka M1k3y
Location: San Francisco
Time period: 2011
Genre: Fiction, Dystopian Society, Fight the Power

I was hearing a lot about this book when it first came out--I think I first read about it on Scott Westerfeld's blog back in April--so I've been looking forward to getting hold of it.

Marcus is a smart kid--too smart for his school. The more they try to limit him--like using preprogrammed SchoolBook laptops which track every keystroke users make--the more he finds workarounds. This drives the assistant principal crazy, especially since he knows Marcus is doing something but just can't prove it. (Shades of Ferris Bueller!) One day, Marcus ditches school to meet with his friends Darryl, Van and Jolu; they are playing a game which gives clues online that lead you to a real-world place. They just get to the spot the clues have led them to when there is a rumbling that isn't an earthquake. They don't know it yet, but terrorists have just blown up the Bay Bridge. People panic and run for shelter, but in the crush Darryl is stabbed. Marcus tries to flag down one of the many police or fire vehicles passing to get help, but instead they are stopped by some military-looking personnel who put bags over their heads, tie them up and bundle them into the back of a truck. Marcus and his friends were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that was enough to attract the attention of the Department of Homeland Security. They are detained in a Guantanamo-type facility where they are questioned and tortured for several days until they are released (except for Darryl) with the threat not to tell anyone what they have been through.

Now I am going to say something really odd: I found this book utterly delightful. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, I had a grin on my face through much of it. Marcus, as I said before, is smart and watching his mind work was a joy. He starts talking about the math behind computer encryption and, yes, some of it goes above my head, but how wonderful that the author trusts the reader to follow it. There is a playfulness in some of Marcus's actions that reminded me of Jean Merrill's The Pushcart War. He is an anarchist, but he doesn't use bombs to make his point. Big Brother may be watching you, but Little Brother is watching back and has YouTube on his side.

I like the fact that some adults supported Marcus; his mom, his social studies teacher, and the reporter are all willing to listen to him. I was a little disappointed in his dad's reaction at first, but he came around. I will say that for someone so (rightfully) paranoid, Marcus seemed a little too quick to place his trust in strangers. There was one character in particular that I was quite concerned about though, thankfully, my fears proved to be unfounded.

There was one little thing that my mind started gnawing on late at night: it is mentioned, almost in passing, that the casualty figures from the Bay Bridge bombing are over 4,000. Plot-wise, I know it had to be that high to make this the worst attack on our native soil, but I started wondering if that could be a realistic number. How long is the Bay Bridge? What is the capacity? It's during a school day, not rush hour, so it wouldn't be bumper to bumper, and what percentage of cars would have more than just the driver? (You know, just about anything can be thought of as a math problem--oh no, I've been Math Cursed!) In the clear light of day, I realized that there may not have been 4,000 killed on the bridge, but that the rest were the number of detainees held secretly by the DHS. After all, Marcus's father thought he was dead. Darryl's father thought he was dead. How many of the people reported missing and killed that day were actually being held by their own government? OK, that is a chilling thought.

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Main Characters: (Almost) Thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, and Jonah's younger sister Katherine
Location: Undefined
Time Period: Contemporary
Genre: YA Fiction, Science Fiction, Time Travel
Series: The Missing #1

A plane mysteriously appears at an airport terminal. It was not scheduled, it was not on radar, it did not land. It just appeared. When airport personnel boarded it, they found no crew. But in each of the thirty-six seats on the plane was a crying baby.

Thirteen years later, Jonah receives a letter. There is no return address, no signature, just a single sentence: "You are one of the missing."

Seriously, do you need more than that to want to read this book?

This is the first book in a new series by the author of the Shadow Children series (better known--in my library, at least--as the Among the... series) and as such has to lay a lot of groundwork for the rest of the series. But Haddix keeps the story moving along to the climactic reveal--which is so much more complex than I was expecting. As with the Shadow Children series, there is the potential to follow many different characters through various adventures and some who were minor characters in this book could become major characters later. According to her website, there will be seven books in this series, just as in the Shadow Children, and the second one, Sent, will come out in August 2009. I can hardly wait.

Found is on the 2009-2010 Texas Lone Star Reading List.