I know, I know – NYC trip; summer 2010 buying appointments; book fairs; book talks; event planning; oh yeah and then there’s my actual home life. I have had to jam so many books into my days that I do not actually have time to stop and review them, which completely sucks.

I can tell you a little bit about one book I love and can’t wait for, though, because they picked my blurb for it for the Spring Kids’ Indie Next List:

Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve
(Dial Books for Young Readers, $16.99, 9780803733626)
“Polly Peabody lives on a magical rhubarb farm where diamonds grow and rain falls on a schedule. But when the rain stops falling, the plants begin to wither and the tourists stop coming. Polly’s belief in the magic has always been unwavering — is it enough to bring the farm (and her shaken family) back to life? The only thing more magical than the rhubarb farm itself? This book.” –Melissa Posten, Pudd’nhead Books, Webster Groves, MO

I was so excited to see it included – I LOVE THIS BOOK and cannot wait to sell it. See the preview of the whole list here!

(Be back soon, I promise.)

It has been hard to post here over the last few weeks, but I am determined to finish listing my favorites of last year (even if, in the end, it is simply a list). These are not necessarily my Caldecott predictions, as the books that I end up loving most are often not the sort of book the Caldecott committee selects for one reason or another. These are also not in any particular order. I’m going to start by linking back to the reviews of any books that have ended up on this list rather than re-review them here.

These reviews are also going to be pretty short.

There will also be hardly any nonfiction, because I sell very few nonfiction picture books in the shop, so I haven’t had the same experience with those as I have with the fiction this year.

1. OTIS by Loren Long

2. THE SLEEPY LITTLE ALPHABET by Judy Sierra; illustrations by Melissa Sweet

3. THE CIRCUS SHIP by Chris Van Dusen

4. ARE YOU A HORSE? by Andy Rash
This book has one joke, but it’s a good one (which I will not reveal, because it’s on the last page). Roy is given a saddle for his birthday, and he has never seen one before (which is a little odd considering he’s basically dressed like a cowboy). Fortunately said saddle comes with instructions: 1. Find a horse. 2. Enjoy the ride. So Roy goes off looking for a horse, working his way through many different living creatures in the process (and learning something from each one). I LOVE Rash’s art, too. This one’s a favorite in my house as well as in the shop.

5. THE LION AND THE MOUSE by Jerry Pinkney
I am assuming that you have all seen this magnificent, beautiful achievement by one of the finest children’s book illustrators to ever walk the earth. If this doesn’t (finally, belatedly) earn him the Caldecott Medal he has long deserved, I suspect I will not be the only unhappy reviewer/reader/blogger/bookseller out there.

6. THE CURIOUS GARDEN by Peter Brown
A quietly lovely book about a little boy who discovers a small patch of green on top of the railroad tracks in the dingy, brown place where he lives. He begins to tend to the green, eventually growing a garden, which inspires others to grow their own. Slowly, across the city, the gardens spread. With its basic message of “act locally,” this book is very close to my heart.

7. ALL THE WORLD by Liz Garton Scanlon; illustrations by Marla Frazee
This is such a beautiful book. My 3 year old daughter wasn’t enraptured by it, but I think it works best either with someone younger (who is listening more to the cadence than the story) or someone older (and a little more capable of conscious thought about the world at large). This is the kind of book I often sell to a grandparent – often grandparents come in asking me for “something new and beautiful” that might be saved forever. This is definitely that book. This is also the perfect book to give your picture book-loving adult friend or relative.

8. 14 COWS FOR AMERICA by Carmen Agra Deedy; illustrations by Thomas Gonzalez
This book is based on the true story of a Masaai man named Kimeli who returned to his Kenyan village after 9/11, bringing with him the story of what happened that day. The villagers are so moved by the story and wonder what they can do for the people of the US. Kimeli offers his prize cow – a generous, symbolic gift as to the Masaai, the “cow is life.” In the end, fourteen cows are given as a gift. This is one of those stories that we don’t often hear about, making it the perfect story to be turned into a picture book. “No nation is so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.”

9. THE CHRISTMAS MAGIC by Lauren Thompson; illustrations by Jon Muth
Jon Muth’s illustrations alone are enough to get just about any book into one of my “best of” lists. When you pair them with Lauren Thompson’s delicate story, this book becomes my favorite “pretty” Christmas book of the last…well, several years, at least. Santa Claus (dressed all in midnight blue in a lovely variation on what has become tradition) is preparing for the arrival of the Christmas magic, and the book takes you step by step with him through everything that leads up to Christmas Eve. He selects a toy for each child, because he knows what each wants most, and loves them all (there’s no “good list” and “bad list” here). He grooms the reindeer, and polishes the sled, and carefully, quietly, lovingly welcomes in the magic of the season as he always has and always will. This got added to my personal Christmas book collection immediately.

10. PRINCESS BESS GETS DRESSED by Margery Cuyler; illustrations by Heather Maione.
There is always a need for a sparkly pink princess book, but I truly cannot abide selling them if the sparkly pinkness masks a mediocre story. Not the case here – this is delightful, and my customers agreed with me. Princess Bess has a day filled with obligations, and must change her clothes for each one. Finally at the end of the day she is free to retire to her room, where she strips off her finery and dances around the room in her favorite outfit of all – a set of simple cotton underwear. The rhymes are good, the art is good, and the extensive fashion display is sure to please fans of FANCY NANCY as well as little girls who just love dressing up.

11. LLAMA LLAMA MISSES MAMA by Anna Dewdney
I am a big fan of the LLAMA LLAMA books, both as a bookseller and as a mother. This one was especially timely for me as my daughter started preschool this past fall, and that’s what this book is about. We got a lot of mileage out of “Don’t forget when day is through, she will come right back to you!” which is what the teacher tells Little Llama when he gets sad and misses his mama. Also, it’s just fun to say “llama” over and over and over and over again.

12. RHYMING DUST BUNNIES and HERE COMES THE BIG, MEAN DUST BUNNY! by Jan Thomas
I think you either think Jan Thomas’s books are hilarious, or not. There’s no in-between. I am definitely in the former category. (A BIRTHDAY FOR COW is so beloved in our house that every family member can be heard yelling “A TURNIP!!” occasionally.) I LOVE the dust bunnies. In the first book, Ed, Ned and Ted, the dust bunnies, rhyme all the time: “What rhymes with car?” “Far!” “Jar!” “Tar!” “Look!” says their friend Bob. As the others try to educate Bob on proper rhyming technique, it becomes apparent that Bob is trying to deliver a message to the others. Will they listen before it’s too late? The second book has the dust bunnies attempting to placate (and, eventually, befriend) the big, mean dust bunny they’ve encountered.

The illustrations might have you thinking that these books are best for younger toddlers, but the humor’s more sophisticated than that. Molly liked hearing A BIRTHDAY FOR COW when she was 2 1/2, but now that she’s a little past three, she truly finds it funny.

13. FELICITY FLOO VISITS THE ZOO by E.S. Redmond
Redmond tells the tale of little Felicity Floo, who infects an entire zoo full of animals because she uses her hand to wipe her runny nose rather than a tissue, and for some reason (you must suspend your disbelief here), you are allowed to pet every single animal in this zoo. She leaves teeny tiny little green handprints all over the animals, and begins an epidemic so large they name it after her. The whimsical Edward Gorey-esque illustrations fit the story perfectly, and, of course, it sends a very timely message in a brand new way.

14. THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS by Clement C. Moore;  illustrations by Rachel Isadora
Isadora pairs her awesome African-inspired art (LOVE Santa’s white dreadlocks) with Moore’s classic poem to create yet another book of hers that had to go on my home shelf immediately. Bonus: as I said to one of my favorite customers (who shares my sarcastic sense of humor): “I didn’t know that people of color celebrate Christmas too!” (This customer is African-American and we often discuss the dearth of books for children that aren’t about slavery or civil rights or athletes or drugs.) Never is the whitewashing of children’s publishing more evident than when the Christmas books start to arrive. I’d like to think that many more will follow this, but history has me rolling my eyes at the very idea.

15. NEVER SMILE AT A MONKEY by Steve Jenkins
This book has the creepiest back cover of any picture book, ever. Jenkins uses his trademark paper collage art to instruct the reader about what not to do should you encounter certain animals. Since he often has more than one book published per year, I feel like Jenkins must have a sort of picture of Dorian Gray, asleep, in his attic – how else could he make so much art out of teeny tiny pieces of paper? I have never been less than impressed with his art, and the information contained within the books is always top-notch as well. This book is no different and will certainly please animal lovers, especially those who have a taste for the slightly scarier side of nature.

16. DINOTRUX by Chris Gall
Honestly, this idea is so obvious that I can’t believe no one ever thought of it before, but that’s also what makes it brilliant. This imagines that before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, there were Dinotrux! The Dumplodocus…the Semisaur…the Blacktopadon. So simple, so clever, so funny. Absolutely fantastic, bold art. Great cover. This was on many, many in-store wish lists this past holiday season, and I love the way little boys’ eyes light up when they see it.  Dads are also usually pretty gleeful when they pick it up, like the little boy inside of them can’t wait to turn the pages. Sometimes a book is pure fun to sell and this book has been one of those for me.

And…that’s it! I am sure I forgot something, and if I remember what it is, I will add it to this post another time. Let me know if I seem to have missed something that you think is amazing!

Can we please stop using HARRY POTTER as a reading benchmark?

A week never goes by that I do not have a customer telling me that they are reading the HARRY POTTER books aloud to their 5 or 6 year old child, and the pride in their voice is always evident. Using HARRY POTTER as a sign that a child was ready for long read-alouds or that they are an advanced reader annoyed me when the books were still in publishing process, and now that the series is finished, I am even more over it than before. Eight times out of ten, when I ask a parent what kind of book their child enjoys or what they’ve read lately, the answer is “Well, they’ve read all the Harry Potter books.” (The other two times the answer is “Well, they’ve read all the WIMPY KID books,” but that is a rant for another post.) (And honestly, pretty much every kid reads the HARRY POTTER books – so that doesn’t tell me much about anyone’s reading preferences.)

If you are reading HP to your kids before you have read them the RAMONA books, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, the FUDGE books, most of Cynthia Rylant, A CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE, STUART LITTLE, and most of Roald Dahl, just to name a fraction of the available books, then your kids are not ready for HP. Shorter books do not equal bad. It is okay to finish a read-aloud quickly. It is okay to tell your child that they are not old enough for HP yet. And at six years old, they’re just not old enough. Why the need to jump ahead? Why not start with books that are meant for kids their age or closer to their age?

Some reasons, not in order of importance, of why kids should wait for Harry:

1. The majority of these parents ultimately come back and tell me that they have had to stop reading the series (usually right around book 3) because their child got scared. Usually these parents did not listen to my careful, polite warnings that this would happen. There is no way around the fact that Voldemort starts picking off Harry’s friends and family one at a time, and that this gets worse, not better. The HP books are amazing, yes. I am and always will be a giant HP nerd. But the books run the gamut from scary to downright terrifying; the darkness gets darker and darker with less and less reprieve as the series winds to a close. Somehow while watching Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson grow up, a lot of us seem to have forgotten that these books are aimed at a middle-grade (and up) readership. This leads me to number

2. While children of that age are ripe for the worlds of make-believe (which is why so many parents want to read them HARRY POTTER), they are not ready to process the idea that all fantasy worlds are not created equal. While they are certainly ready for the happier things in HP – deep friendship, magic, humor, magical creatures, mystical objects, education, love, loyalty, etc – they are not ready to process HP’s darker themes of racism, classism, abuse, hatred, death, war, self-loathing, self-doubt, betrayal, and pure evil.

3. If they hear HP aloud at a young age (especially if it ultimately scares them), there is a decent-to-good chance they will not go back and read the books to themselves when old enough to process them in their entirety.

4. There are, at last count, about ninety billion trillion other books to read to them first. Books that satisfy that need for magic and make-believe without the darkness that HP wraps those things in. Books that a lot of kids are skipping, or having skipped for them.

PLACES TO START (I’m listing fantastical stories only, since this is a “please wait for HP” post):

WINNIE THE POOH. Disney has caused practically an entire generation to forget that the books are about forty-five trillion times better than the animated cartoons.

TOYS GO OUT by Emily Jenkins, which joined the ranks of classic read-alouds immediately upon publication. This story of three toys who live in a little girl’s bedroom and have adventures has never failed me. No, it is not just like TOY STORY, I promise. It is actually nothing like TOY STORY. It is the number-one bestselling children’s book in our shop.

A BEAR CALLED PADDINGTON and sequels by Michael Bond. A great many of you adults missed this charming British series about a sweet bear from Peru who gets found in Paddington Station with a tag on his coat reading “Please look after this bear. Thank you.” The family that finds him does indeed look after him, and gets a handful of fun and trouble in the process.

THE CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE by George Selden, in which a hungry country cricket jumps into a New Yorker’s picnic basket and winds up in Times Square. His adventures with Tucker Mouse, Harry Cat, and Mario, the boy who discovers him in the subway newsstand owned by his parents, have stuck with me my whole life.

THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE and sequels by Beverly Cleary. (I will gently remind those who might argue that this is not a fantasy that the main character is a talking mouse.)

PIPPI LONGSTOCKING by Astrid Lindgren. The Lauren Child-illustrated read-aloud edition that came out a few years ago is fantastic.

TIME AT THE TOP by Edward Ormondroyd – no one has ever heard of this book, but it’s so good. Purple House Press reissued it, bless them. Susan discovers that the elevator in the building where she lives can actually take her back into the past.

THE LIGHTHOUSE FAMILY books by Cynthia Rylant, beginning with THE STORM. Utterly charming series about a cat who’s a lighthouse keeper and the shipwrecked dog and mice who become her family.

NO FLYING IN THE HOUSE by Betty Brock. Annabel Tippens is cared for not by parents, but by a talking dog named Gloria. When a wicked cat named Belinda tells Annabel that she’s actually half-fairy, Annabel must choose between her old life with Gloria and a new life filled with magic.

THE TALE OF DESPERAUX by Kate DiCamillo. Please, please read the book before you show your children the movie. The story of a large-eared mouse, the princess he loves, a light-loving rat and a dim servant girl is one of the most magical stories ever written.

THE DOLL PEOPLE and sequels by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin with fabulous illustrations by Caldecott Medal winner Brian Selznick. It is, I would venture to say, impossible not to love these talking dolls and their adventures.

anything by Edward Eager; I like to start with HALF MAGIC. Children discover a coin that is magic – well, half magic, anyway. This makes its wish-granting powers a…little hard to predict. Charming, charming, charming.

Laurel Snyder’s Edward Eager-inspired ANY WHICH WALL. Four children discover a wall that can take them to any place, in any time. Also super charming, and a worthy homage to the above.

MY FATHER’S DRAGON by Ruth Stiles Gannett, in which the narrator’s father runs away to rescue a baby dragon on a faraway island.

Kids get rushed through so many things nowadays. Don’t rush them past some of the greatest read-alouds ever written. And if you have a young, high-level reading child (6, 7, 8), I would offer the same advice that I offer for read-alouds. It’s okay for your child to go through books very quickly. It doesn’t matter how quickly they read – there are plenty of books that are more appropriate for their emotional maturity than HP and other upper middle-grade books. If you have more suggestions, please put them in the comments!

(Not only would I wait on HP, I would wait on the Narnia books, Susan Cooper’s THE DARK IS RISING series, Lloyd Alexander’s PRYDAIN CHRONICLES, Rick Riordan’s PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, Angie Sage’s SEPTIMUS HEAP series, Madeleine L’Engle’s TIME QUARTET, Trenton Lee Stewart’s MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY series and just about every middle-grade fantasy series or standalone novel that you can think of.)

Santa left a signed print of this Chris Van Dusen art (from IF I BUILT A CAR, natch) under the tree for me:

No, I wasn’t excited or anything. It’s just okay, I guess.  I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I feel lukewarm at best about that book.

(Did I mention it’s in the top ten bestselling books ever at Pudd’nHead?)

I cannot wait to have it framed and hanging on the wall. Yay Santa!

Four series I love came to an end this year. Two I’m okay with; one I’m uncertain about, ONE I AM IN COMPLETE DENIAL ABOUT YES JESSICA DAY GEORGE I AM LOOKING AT YOU. Although I am very sad (and in denial, DON’T LOOK AWAY WHEN I AM TALKING TO YOU, JESSICA), fortunately for me (and the other lovers of these series), the closing books were uniformly fantastic.

(But don’t think that lets you off the hook, Ms. George.)

1. CITY OF GLASS by Cassandra Clare, which I reviewed here. You may remember that in that particular review, I ate some crow over having originally rolled my eyes at hearing that a fanfic writer got a book deal. After spending almost the whole year reading other books, I still think that Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy has one of the best YA series endings I’ve ever read. I definitely wanted more Clary and Jace and Simon, but all of my major questions were answered and all the ends were tied up well enough. We consistently sell this series over and over again, and I’m always happy to put it in someone’s hands.

2. THE LAST OLYMPIAN by Rick Riordan, which I never did get around to reviewing because it came out at a really busy time and I barely had time to read it, let alone write about it. There are probably one or two reviews of this tiny little series roaming around the internet. You may have heard of it – Percy Jackson and the Olympians? (About to be made into a movie that I am skeptical about because the actors are so much older than their kid characters?)

Anyway. I knew going in that this was the last book, so I was prepared. I was prepared for it to end, and from reading the other four (and meeting Rick once), I felt that he would not let us down with the ending.

I was right.

I would like more of Percy’s story, but I feel that Rick did him justice, and did the readers justice. That story is over, and I am satisfied. I also knew very, very early that there would only be five, so I had a long time to get used to that fact. Also Rick has a new book coming next year, and while I have no idea what it’s about, who’s writing it is really what matters in this case.

3. FRONT AND CENTER by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Catherine lives close by to Children’s Book World, where I worked (and Sarah still works), so I was lucky enough to get to know her a little. We got in on the ground floor, so to speak, with the D.J. Schwenk books – and we were so lucky to discover them so early.  Sarah reviewed FRONT AND CENTER back in July, and when I finally read it in October, I learned that it was every bit as good as Sarah said it was. It is an incredibly satisfying close to D.J.’s story. And if you’ve yet to discover D.J. and her family and her world, the good news is that all three books are out so there is no waiting for you.

4. DRAGON SPEAR by Jessica Day George.

Pull up a chair, Jessica. (Can I call you Jessica?)

Okay, look. Here’s the deal. I know that you can finish DRAGON SPEAR and see that Creel’s story has a resolution, and that the dragons got a resolution and we have a happy ending and blah blah blah. And a trilogy is a nice round set of three, so you dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s and wrapped it up without staying at the party too long like so many others tend to.

COME BACK TO THE PARTY, JESSICA.

(I’m going to talk to the readers now. Try the appetizers!)

Back when I read the ARC of DRAGON SPEAR I insisted that you all go and read this series if you hadn’t yet. I am expecting, of course, that you listened to me, and that you’re all ready with your teeny tiny picket signs to wave at my little internet protest, right? “What do we want?” “MORE CREEL!” “When do we want it?” “NOW!”

I know that we have an uphill struggle here. Jessica’s got other stuff to contend with, like her publisher, and the fact that she’s been writing other awesome books, blah blah blah. But I believe that if we all hope with all our hearts we can influence this outcome. YES WE CAN.

(Okay, back to Jessica now.)

How are the pigs in blankets?

Look, Jessica – I’m going to read anything you write. (I just finished PRINCESS OF THE MIDNIGHT BALL and now, almost 12 months after publication, it has to go on my best of the year list.) If you write a fantasy where a bowl of oatmeal comes to life, I’m going to read it. And I’m going to read it whether there’s ever any more about Creel or not. I’m just saying, if you’re hanging around sometime in the future and you’re bored and don’t have anything else to write, I’d like some more, please. It was a really good party. I’d like to stay.

But if you move on to another party, I’ll come too. (Not in a stalkery way.) And thanks for Creel, because I really do love her, and I can’t wait to share her with my daughter in seven or eight years.

~

And that’s it – the endings to four series I loved, all hitting in the same year. I’m leaving these characters behind with a great deal of sorrow, but I can’t wait to see what these authors do next.

I thought about doing a “best of,” but who am I to say that? Also,  the books I loved the most are not necessarily the BEST books of the year in some cases. I tend to rate highly on readability and sell-a-bility, being a bookseller.  Sometimes that coincides with the ones that are likely to win awards/are the highest form of literary genius etc, and sometimes it doesn’t. So: favorites.

These are in no particular order, and if I reviewed the book here earlier in the year, I’ll link to the review. And I probably won’t do more than two or three per post. Also: I’ve been asked to do some holiday gift recommendations, and the specific requests will be fulfilled in other posts, but I’ll put a little note at the end of each favorite to tell you who I think might like that book best.

Today: two picture books.

1. THE SLEEPY LITTLE ALPHABET by Judy Sierra, illustrations by Melissa Sweet.

This has been a huge hit in our house since the moment of publication as well as being a big success for me at work. The premise is that it’s time for all the little letters to be tucked into their beds, but a number of them aren’t quite ready. By the end of the book, though, they’re all snoring Z Z Zs. I know this entire book by heart, and I never get tired of reading it:

It’s sleepytime in Alphabet Town!
As moms and dads run round and round
the little letters skitter-skatter
helter-skelter. What’s the matter?

Uh-oh! A is wide awake!
And B still has a bath to take…

One by one they take us through the steps most kids go through at bedtime…F has got the fidgity wiggles; M is mopey; N is naughty; X expects a great big hug. And at the end of the book, they’re all tucked in to their own little beds with something that begins with their letter either tucked in with them or sitting on a nightstand beside them or something (L has a lamp; T has a teddy bear etc). This is an utterly charming read with lots to see in each lively picture.

We have been reading this to Molly since she was about 2 1/2 and she’s a little over 3 now and still loves it. I think it’s good for anyone from 2-4, and it also makes a great gift for new parents building a collection. Order THE SLEEPY LITTLE ALPHABET from an independent bookstore!

2. OTIS by Loren Long

Mr. Long wrote this as a sort of homage to books like MIKE MULLIGAN AND THE STEAM SHOVEL, and the influence and respect for Virginia Lee Burton and others like her are all over this book. Someday, I believe, OTIS will be remembered just as fondly as the books that inspired it.

Otis is a hardworking, joyful little red tractor who likes both his work and his playtime. He has a heart as big as the farm he lives on, which helps him to soothe a scared little calf to sleep with his gentle puff putt puttedly chuff. One day, however, the farmer shows up with a brand new big yellow tractor and Otis is put out to pasture. It will take a very bad day for the farmer to realize just how valuable Otis is (which of course he does).

I was lucky enough to be at an MBA breakfast where Mr. Long explained the origin of this book and showed slides of the art as it went through various color schemes. I had him sign my copy for Molly, and it has been a favorite in our house ever since. We can all be heard letting out the occasional putt puff puttedy chuff. It’s been just as big a hit at the store, too, appealing to a wide range of customers.

OTIS works for anyone who loves a good story. Molly has never shown any like for modes of transportation before; the story is the hook here rather than the fact that Otis is a tractor. She had just turned 3 when we started reading this. It’s long-ish, so this is good for a 3 who likes a long story, and also for 4s and 5s primarily. Order OTIS from an independent bookstore!

So of course I’d heard of Octavian Nothing. But it was just one of those books (two volumes, actually, but really one book, in my mind) that I’d never gotten around to reading. But I’ve been catching up on John Green’s archives after going crazy for his Looking for Alaska, and I took what he wrote about it to heart, and I checked out both volumes to take with me over Thanksgiving. Many hours in airplanes and the backs of cars and some 900 pages later, I am done.

It is hard to know where to begin when talking about Octavian Nothing. I guess the first thing I’d like to say is that the less you read about it in advance, the better. (I won’t be giving away anything here, not even the most basic summary.) I’ve started to avoid reviews and even book jacket blurbs of books before reading them. I can’t tell you how much it’s enriched my reading experiences lately. Even a one-line summary often gives away too much.

So … Octavian Nothing. It carried me away. It just took me out of my body and mind and placed me squarely on Octavian’s journey with him. It was a sucker punch to my gut and my heart. People would ask me what the book was about, from family members around the fireplace to strangers standing nearby at baggage claim, and I felt at a loss. The first volume takes its sweet time in letting the story unfold, and before I was really sure what was going on, I said, “I’m not really sure. But it feels — sinister.” And it did feel sinister, a lot of the time. It felt shocking and horrifying and terrifying and sad. But it also felt hopeful and moving and ultimately profound. This book is profound. It just — is. It’s not only a thoroughly engrossing and gripping and epic story with characters who spring to life with an insane degree of vividness, it’s a book about ideas. About science and faith. About the nature of humanity. About good and evil. About revolution. About freedom. I don’t even know how to explain it. I will never be able to do it justice.

This book just crushed me, and it took my breath away. I don’t say that lightly. It also made me laugh out loud sometimes, even though you’d never describe it as “funny.” But there is humor — not often, certainly, but every now and then, and lightness. There has to be, otherwise you might pull the covers over your head while reading and never come out again. But you see — that’s the thing. You will come out, because you will want to keep reading. You probably won’t be able to put this book down.

It’s not a page turner in the sense that the words fly by you — the words are hard, and strange, and there’s a rhythm/syntax to them that feels unfamiliar and takes some getting used to when you first start reading. (At least it did for me.) But it definitely became a page turner for me — at first just so I could figure out what in the hell was going on, and ultimately so I could find out what would be Octavian’s fate. And everyone else’s in the story that I soon fell in love with. (Or hated passionately.) Volume two definitely moves at a faster clip than volume one, but just be patient. It is all worth the wait.

God, this book — what a book.

I found myself wondering time and again how this book was ever marketed for teens. Obviously it has been, and successfully — bestseller, multiple prestigious awards, and so forth. The author himself has said he intended it for older teens, and I definitely think that’s the perfect audience for this book. It’s dark and frightening and violent, but it’s also totally a coming of age story — and it is, at its heart, so much about the questions older teens sometimes ask themselves as they find their ways in the world — What does it mean to be brave? What does it mean to be free? What are my special gifts? How will I ever become my own person? Why are we here? Does God exist? Does good exist? How can human beings treat other human beings like this? How will I survive this loss? Is war the answer? What is the value of a single life?

I also ask myself if I would have picked it up and read it as a teen. I think I might have, but I think it would have only been at someone’s urging. The urging that we hear that so often rocks our worlds:

“Read this book. Don’t give up, even if it’s tough at first. You will love it. It will change you.”

I guess that’s what I’m trying to say right now.

There are some questions that children’s booksellers get asked over and over and over again, and one of them is “Do you have anything else like THE DOLL PEOPLE?”.

Beginning in February, my answer will be to hand them THE SIXTY-EIGHT ROOMS.

In the Art Institute of Chicago, there is a collection of sixty-eight miniature rooms called the Thorne Rooms. Each one is designed in the style of a different time and place, and they are absolutely perfect down to the most minute detail.  I have seen these rooms, and they are amazing. Mesmerizing.

While on a field trip to the Institute, Jack and Ruthie find a key that allows a person to shrink down small enough to enter the rooms and explore. Once they do, amazing things begin to happen to them. They learn that they are not the first visitors to the room, and they learn that some valuable things may have been left behind in the past. The discovery of the key sets them off on a fantastic series of adventures, with mysteries to solve and chances to take and things to figure out about themselves.

This review will be necessarily short, because I feel like almost anything I say would be a spoiler. I can tell you this: I LOVE THIS BOOK. I love this book hugely. I cannot wait to sell this book. I am going to get my fifth grade girls’ book club to read it; I am going to book talk it at any spring book fairs we might have. I am going to sell this book and sell it and sell it. I am going to buy it in hardcover and put it away for Molly. I am going to send it to my cousin’s daughter and the daughters of friends. Not that you can’t give this to a boy – I think there are some boy readers who will like it – but the premise of this book is one that girls often imagine themselves into. I used to wish all the time that I was small enough to fit into my dollhouse. Just sometimes.

While reading this book, the memory of that particular make-believe from my past came flooding back.

This book will make a great read-aloud. It’s good for classrooms and libraries and birthday party gifts for kids you don’t know (and kids you know). It’s a good grandparent gift; it’s an easy handsell. It’s smart with a strong female character and an excellent portrayal of friendship.

It’s only December 2009 and this is already one of my favorite books of 2010.

Did I mention I LOVE THIS BOOK? And it’s a debut! Well done, Ms. Malone. I can’t wait to see what you do next.

Reviewer: Sarah

Middle school, for many of us, was a time of great confusion.  There were training bras, and zits, and oops I forgot my deodorant, and oops the boy who used to be my friend is now my crush, and what do you mean I need glasses and braces and STIRRUP PANTS (why, early nineties, why?).  I had a lot of bad hair and bad clothes, but what I did have was lots of good books.  That said, if I had been able to read THE POPULARITY PAPERS, I think my middle school years might have been just a little easier.

Meet Lydia Goldblatt (sometimes called “Goldbladder” by the mean kids), a blond curly-girl with glasses and lots of gumption.  Her best friend, Julie Graham-Chang, is the quiet one, the artist/cartoonist, the short one who’s easy to overlook.  Junior high is looming, and Lydia realizes that neither she nor Julie are anywhere in the vicinity of popular.  They decide to spend sixth grade in the pursuit of popularity, but not in the traditional way.  Like the National Geographic explorers of old, Lydia and Julie begin a notebook of discovery, wherein they can document their findings after extensive observation, and then, Francis Bacon-like, apply the scientific method to test and see what works.  Case in point:  our heroines discover many popular girls have a blond streak in their hair.  Lydia attempts to lighten a swath of hair with bleach.  Under the sink bleach.  Burn your skin off bleach.  (Luckily she can hide the bald spot until the hair grows back.)  Lydia, as the outgoing one, has more interaction at first with the glitterati of her school, but Julie finds her own chances to mingle once she joins the field hockey team.

What really works in this painfully funny (graphic?) novel is the core friendship of Lydia and Julie.  The sincerity with which Ignatow writes is just wonderful to read, and there is such loving care in the crafting of their personalities, even down to the differences in their handwriting.  As this book is truly a journal of sorts, it reads like an intimate dialogue between two girls that you can’t help but root for from page one.  Sometimes they give each other their best, and sometimes they let each other down, but what remains is the truest element of friendship:  change will happen, but true friends will grow alongside you, and give you room to grow in your own way.  I love that Lydia and Julie both try things that are new to them, and both attempt things that are scary (and not always together), because junior high (and oh yeah, real life) is full of those moments.  Our heroines both have family issues as well:  Lydia lives with her high-strung single mother and emo sister, while Julie lives with her two dads, and both girls are trying desperately to transition out of “little kid” mode.

THE POPULARITY PAPERS will invariably draw comparisons to DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, and I hope that anyone who does will make the same connections I did.  Both PP and WIMPY utilize a lot of comic-style art.  Both PP and WIMPY take place in that shadowy land between kid-dom and adolescent-dom.  Both PP and WIMPY feature two best friends.  Both PP and WIMPY have a journal-like construct.  This is all very true.  You’re missing the point, however, if you don’t make this last connection, which I think is the only one really worth mentioning:  both PP and WIMPY are utterly HILARIOUS.  Lydia and Julie are comedy gold together, and I laughed out loud over and over again.  I have written before about how publishers and writers need to bring the funny if they want to reach kids today, and THE POPULARITY PAPERS delivers hard-core.  I am going to LOVE selling this book.  (If I had a time machine, I’d send one back to myself in 6th grade.  I mean it.)

…to my place of employment. Pudd’nHead Books turns one today, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.