Kidliterate

THE DOLL SHOP DOWNSTAIRS by Yona Zeldis McDonough

Grandmothers, mothers, teachers at all girls' schools, listen up. (Well, librarians and other teachers listen up too.) Here's that sweet little book that comes along once or twice a year and works its way into the hearts of its readers. That book that spreads itself out like the coziest of handknit blankets and wraps itself around you while you read it. That book that you open in front of a roomful of girls (or in front of your daughter, or granddaughter, or the little girl you babysit) and when you are done with the chapter you are reading, they beg you to read just a little more. Sophie (11), Anna (9) and Trudie (7) live with their parents in an apartment on the Lower East Side in New York City. They live above the family business, Breittlemann's Doll Repair. Bisque and china dolls are very expensive, so the girls don't have any of their own, but they are allowed to play with the dolls that are waiting to be repaired by their papa. There are three dolls that have been waiting longer than most, unclaimed, and the girls have come to think of the dolls as "theirs." Anna is our narrator, and her story is tinged with the unique frustrations and tribulations of the middle child: I listen to their footsteps as they go, but I don't follow them right away. I want to be alone down here for a little bit. Sometimes it's hard being a middle sister, and I just need to be by myself. Sophie is smart and pretty and good at so many things; Trudie (her real name is Gertrude, though we never call her that) is little and cute and cries to get her way. I'm just the one sort of stuffed in between--at nine I'm not old enough to do some things, like light the kitchen stove, but too old to do others, like snuggle in Mama and Papa's bed on a cold morning. Despite her feelings, though, and the family's relative poverty, theirs is a happy life. It is a loving family, and the girls love what their parents do, so they are happy to chip in with shop chores. School is also a source of happiness, as is their friendly Jewish neighborhood.  And, of course, the time they are allotted to play with "their" special dolls is treasured. Anna often tells her private troubles to Bernadette Louise (the name she has given to "her" doll). The year passes, and is told in charming fashion. On August 2nd, however, everything changes: Germany declares war on Russia. Although the war has not yet touched the United States, it begins to immediately affect Anna's family: the parts that Papa uses to fix the dolls come from Germany. Because Germany has declared war on Russia, the US has stopped trading with them. No more doll parts. No doll parts, no work for the doll repair shop. The family comes up with some creative ways to survive the war, and Anna and her sisters grow through the experience. "Their" special dolls play an important part in both their growth and the story, as McDonough brings us beautifully to a satisfying and hopeful ending. The reader gets a very nice portrayal of the 1930's Lower East Side and the experience of being Jewish at that time, in that neighborhood. It's not as big a part of the story  as it is in ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY, but it's done in a very matter of fact way that I always appreciate. There's a lovely family relationship here, and the sibling rivalries, troubles and joys ring true. Most of all, we see Anna learn to be resourceful in some completely normal ways, which is refreshing. She's not super gifted - she's not a prodigy - but she's clever and creative in a way that comes from love for her family and a true desire to contribute in a difficult time. She's an excellent example for children without being obnoxious about it. I think this book will have a long life. (I also think it will sell better in paperback - this is one of those books that I wish had simultaneous hard and softcover print runs. Especially in this economy, it can be hard to get parents to spring for a $14.99 hardcover that's 116 pages long.)

LOOKING AHEAD: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

note from Melissa: it's not so obvious who's writing each review here, because I'm using this crappy template that I can't adjust and haven't had a chance to meddle with a better one.  Each post is tagged at the bottom with the author's name. The majority are by me, but they're not all by me, and Sarah in particular is stepping up her game and I don't want to get all the credit! There are times I read books and I want to slap myself upside the head and say, "Why didn't I think of that?"  There are also times I read books and I think to myself, "I would never have come up with that in a million years."  INCARCERON is one of the latter.  The sheer originality of concept in this novel is breathtaking, and I'm going to have to be careful with this review so as not to spoil the beauty of it for you. The story begins with Finn, who lives inside Incarceron.  Incareron is, without a doubt, the most perfect prison concieved; it has no passages in or out, and in its centuries-long history, only one man is rumored to have ever escaped.  Finn clings to the belief that somehow he did not begin his life inside Incarceron like everyone else there, and his intermittent fits of visions give him brief glimpses of another life.  It's difficult to know what to believe, however, because Incarceron isn't just a building.  Incaceron is alive, and it determines the fates of the creatures that live within it.  Are his visions real, or are they simply falsehoods, another way that Incarceron tortures him? Claudia lives in splendor under the watchful, cruel eye of her father, the Warden of Incarceron.  Though she is intrigued by her father's vocation, she has never seen Incarceron herself.  Quietly defiant of the rules of her house, Claudia spends much of her time with the sickly Jared, a Sapient (think scholar), and they have concocted a scheme to sneak into the Warden's study in the hopes of understanding what it is exactly that he does.  While their heist works, and Claudia is able to steal a strange key from her father's desk, the Warden is at work on his own plans, and he has made arrangements for his daughter's marriage. Their worlds meet when Finn steals a crystal key in Incarceron, which is an exact match of Claudia's.  Through the keys, they can hear each other speak, and Claudia discovers through Finn that Incarceron is not the paradise her government told her it is.  She promises to help him escape, but her time is running out, as her impending marriage will essentially seal her within its own kind of prison.  A lovely addition to the main plot are the small boxed quotes that begin each chapter, which are excerpts from songs, poems, and secret documents regarding Incarceron.  My favorites were the legends about Sappique, who is the only prisoner said to have escaped.  INCARCERON is layered like a dark, twisted flower, and as the petals turn back and you come to the secrets at its center, you'll likely do the same double take I did.  I literally had to go back and reread the sentences at the moment of revelation regarding Incareron itself, because I couldn't believe what I was reading.  Like all good first novels in a trilogy, INCARCERON can only take us so far, and we now await the next part of the tale, but I am anxious to see where Ms. Fisher takes Finn and Claudia after the conclusion.  Highly recommended for young adult readers of both fantasy and sci-fi, and I believe fans of THE HUNGER GAMES would find much to love here. Preorder INCARCERON from an independent bookstore!

MAKE WAY FOR DYAMONDE DANIEL by Nikki Grimes

My dad was in the Navy, so when I was younger we moved a few times. Unfortunately for me, the two moves that took place after I began school both occurred in the middle of the school year. Middle of second grade, middle of fifth grade. This? Sucked. Everyone had chosen their desks, their lunch tables, their friend groups. In the fifth grade the musical had been casts, the safety patrol filled, the library aides assigned. So I know more than a little about how hard it is to be the new kid in the class - even if your classmates are nice to you - and I have a special fondness for books that portray those feelings accurately. Nikki Grimes does just that in MAKE WAY FOR DYAMONDE DANIEL. Dyamonde is in the third grade, and when her parents got divorced, she moved with her mom from their quiet Brooklyn neighborhood to a tiny apartment in Washington Heights. She likes her new neighborhood well enough, but misses her best friend and her bedroom and her school and her dad. Still, Dyamonde's a fighter, and she's bursting with the desire to fit in and make a new life for herself. And more than anything else, she wants a new best friend. One right here in her school, who she can sit with and play with and laugh with every day. Enter Free. New boy. He's sullen and keeps to himself. When Dyamonde invites him to sit with her at lunch on his first day, he tells her to leave him alone. She secretly nicknames him "Rude Boy," but at the same time becomes kind of obsessed by figuring out what his deal is. Why won't he read out loud in class when Dyamonde's seen him reading books in the school yard? Why won't he sit with anyone at lunch? Why does he keep growling at everyone? And even though Dyamonde projects confidence and Free projects anger, could they be the same deep down inside? Is Free the friend Dyamonde's been looking for? I love Dyamonde and her whole little world. I love her spunk and her friendliness and her smarts and her determination. I think she's a great character to headline a series, and I highly recommend her. I just wish that all early reader and elementary series like this were published simultaneously in hardcover and paperback. Unless you're talking about something like Magic Tree House, it is so hard to sell a book like this in hardcover. I understand that libraries and schools need these in hardcover so they don't fall apart easily, but parents of newish readers are often buying books frequently and are more likely to buy two paperbacks than one hardcover. I think this issue is especially important because there are a billion inexpensive paperback series out there featuring little white children, and almost none with children of color. Children of color from well-off families are going to be able to get whatever books they want. Children of color from families that are not well-off are going to have to get a paperback book, if they get a new book, and if they want a book with a kid that looks like them on the front there are only going to be a couple of choices. And I think, too, that children from poverty-stricken homes might just be the kids who need books with faces like theirs more than anyone else. They are the ones whose parents will be working so often and so hard that there won't be a lot of time at home to read together. They are the ones who might never become readers because the early reader window was missed. I think you have a greater chance of hooking some of these kids if they can look around at a selection of books and see more than a sea of white faces, and if that selection of books is more affordable to them. (Please don't think that I am saying that elementary level books featuring children of color should all be published in paperback because all of those kids are poor - if that's what you're taking away from this then I've stated it badly. I think that elementary books in general should be published in paperback more often than not, and turning disadvantaged children of color into readers is only one of many reasons. It's a good one, but it's hardly the only one.) This book was read as part of the Color Me Brown Book Challenge. Order this book from an independent bookstore!

THE POTATO CHIP PUZZLES (The Puzzling World of Winston Breen) by Eric Berlin

When I picked up this galley, I wasn't aware that it was a sequel. Somehow we missed the first one at my former job, and I do mean missed: I think we would have sold THE PUZZLING WORLD OF WINSTON BREEN quite well in hardcover. Well, now they'll sell it quite well in paperback, and I'll tell you about the sequel. You certainly don't have to have read the first book to enjoy the second, although now that I've enjoyed book two so much I'm going to have to get my hands on a copy of book one as well. This book is going to appeal to kids who like THE WESTING GAME, THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY, THE NAME OF THIS BOOK IS SECRET, SHAKESPEARE'S SECRET, THE VIEW FROM SATURDAY...in other words, this book has some pretty wide-ranging appeal. The basic plot is this: the owner of a local potato-chip company sets up a puzzle hunt for area school kids, and Winston's school gets an invite. His principal asks him to head up the school's team, and he picks his two best friends to be the other participants (a move unappreciated by the math teacher who ultimately becomes the chaperone, as he'd hoped the participants would all be Mathletes). Winston and his team head off to the factory to meet the other teams and set out on the puzzling quest that will end with one school winning fifty thousand dollars. Along the way they'll have to deal with cheaters, math experts, bad tempers, and a teacher who doesn't seem to believe that they can win. The puzzles are sprinkled throughout the book for the reader to solve (answers are in the back). I'm terrible at math and terrible at most puzzles, so I skipped 95% of them. They're an enhancement to the reading experience, but not central to the plot - I didn't miss anything by skipping them, as far as I can tell. But for a math or puzzle obsessed kid, the puzzles will only make reading the book that much more awesome. Winston and his pals are smart and funny, but not dwelling-in-the-basement-geeky in that stereotypical way a lot of smart kids can be portrayed in. In fact, this book does a remarkably good job of not painting any of the math...enthusiasts? as mouthguard-wearing pocket-protector-having nerds. This book actually makes math and puzzles seem...fun. (Just writing that made me feel a little faint - math hasn't been my friend since 7th grade Algebra I.) I would have loved this book in middle school. I think it'll be a big hit in its target age range, whether a kid likes math and puzzles or not.

GOLD STAR CLASSICS - a new occasional series

It never fails to surprise me when people have never even heard of a book I love. Even though I know that there are bajillions of books in and out of print every year, bestsellers and not, good and not, picture books and chapter books and nonfiction books and activity books, I am still surprised, every time, when I am head over heels crazy nuts for a book and encounter someone who has never heard of it. Especially if that person is involved in books somehow - a librarian, a teacher, an author, a fellow bookseller. So instead of continually saying "What? You've never heard of WHAT?" I have decided to just spotlight those books I'm crazy about right here in this blog. I'm calling the series "Gold Star Classics" because these are books that I think should be classics (or already are classics) and, well, that I'd give a gold star to if I could. (Upon further reflection, I'm pretty sure you all could have figured that out on your own. You're a pretty smart bunch.) Many of these will likely be picture books, because I don't review picture books here very often yet, but I'm sure I'll talk about longer fiction as well.

So, on to my first pick! (Which will not surprise...probably a lot of people.) In my opinion, IF I BUILT A CAR by Chris Van Dusen (author/illustrator of DOWN TO THE SEA WITH MR. MAGEE and A CAMPING SPREE WITH MR. MAGEE; illustrator of Kate DiCamillo's MERCY WATSON books) is the greatest boy-centric picture book of the last decade, minimum. I can say without ego that I "discovered" this at my old store - we'd had two copies sitting in a turnaround for two months before I picked it up and read it and then forced it into the hands of all of my coworkers. Somehow most of us hadn't read it in F&G (folded and gathered; a galley for a picture book). Once we'd all read it, we started selling it like mad. Seriously. It came out in May of 2005, and between now and then, Children's Book World has sold hundreds and hundreds of copies. It was book talked at every school book fair. It was sold to every young boy who shopped at the store. Then our customers took up the banner and came in to buy it for gifts for other people and recommended it to their friends, who came in for it. Families wore out copies and came back to purchase it a second time.

Then in 2007 it came out in paperback, and CBW sold hundreds of paperbacks...while continuing to sell it in hardcover. Which they continue to do to this day.

There is nothing about this book I don't love. Jack, from the backseat, said to his dad, This car is OK. This car is not bad. But it's just a car. Nothing great. Nothing grand. It's nothing at all like the car I have planned. From here, Jack proceeds to describe in wonderful detail the car he would build if he could. And what a car it would be! It would fly. It would go underwater. It would have an amazing aesthetic design and be super-safe. It would have a fireplace! A pool! A snack bar! And it would smell fantastic, as the following lines (which appear on what may be my favorite page, artistically) tell us:

A car that smells GOOD? Now that's something new.

But if I built a car, that's just what I'd do.

Inside the engine I'll add a machine

To capture the odor of burnt gasoline

And change it to something more pleasing to noses--

Like blueberry muffins or freshly picked roses.

The rhyme scheme, I think, is one of the finest I've ever read. So many "rhyming" picture books have lines that scan horribly, making them an annoyance to read aloud. That isn't the case here - far from it. One major review I read complained about the lot of a plot, but this isn't a plotted picture book - it's a flight of fancy, along the lines of what so many kids must imagine every day. And the art. Oh, the art. The fantastic, 50's-inspired art. Another reviewer thought it would appeal more to adults than kids, but I haven't found that. The colors are so vibrant, the expressions so cartoonish without being over the top. (Jack's dad's face on the last page kills me every time.) It's just so beautiful and awesome and angle-y and specific and great. (And if you're a Mr. Magee fan, which you should be, you can spot him and Dee, his dog, on one of the pages.)

I think I could count on just my hands the number of times we handed this book to someone and they didn't purchase it. It really is that good. I've never understood why it wasn't a New York Times bestseller. (I remember when we had passed the 200-sold mark my friend Sarah asked her roommate, a manager at a large local chain, to check and see how many their store had sold. TWO.) It completely deserved the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award it won in 2006. It is a joy to read aloud. It is an almost guaranteed surefire hit, and anyone who can't sell it should get out of the bookselling business. I hope it's in print forever.

LOOKING AHEAD: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

When Laurie Halse Anderson is at her very best, there may be no one better, and she's at her very best in her upcoming teen novel Wintergirls. We're back in Speak territory here - haunting, powerful, vital. I finished this book over two weeks ago and still can't stop thinking about it. It's killed me to wait this long to tell you just how good it is. Wintergirls is the story of Lia and Cassie, best friends whose lives changed forever when Lia first saw Cassie make herself throw up. They were eleven. Cassie learned to do it at drama camp, and she brought her new skill home to share with Lia. Lia and Cassie's friendship, described mostly in flashbacks, becomes mostly about one thing: being as thin as possible. Having power over your weight. Having power over your world by having power over your weight. They support each other and sabotage each other until finally, after Lia's second trip to a clinic, Cassie begins to blame her for all of her problems and ends the friendship. So Lia and Cassie hadn't talked for six months, but there was Lia's cell phone, ringing in the middle of a Saturday night - and it was Cassie. Lia was still mad; Lia assumed Cassie was drunk-dialing her, and Lia wasn't going to get sucked back into whatever drama Cassie was planning on stirring up. There's no way Lia could have known that Cassie would eventually call 33 times that night. And there's absolutely no way Lia could have known that Cassie would die shortly after placing the final call to her. Now Lia's left holding Cassie's gift to her - the eating disorder that she can't get out from under. Her mental and emotional state is deteriorating, but her parents, so easily deceived and so rarely fully engaged in her life, don't see what's happening.  And down, down, down Lia goes. I marked about a million passages in this book, but this one that follows is (I think) one of the best. Cassie's mom wants Lia to talk to her. She wants to understand why Cassie would do this to herself. Lia thinks: Why? You want to know why? Step into a tanning booth and fry yourself for two or three days. After your skin bubbles and peels off, roll in coarse salt, then pull on long underwear woven from spun glass and razor wire. Over that goes your regular clothes, as long as they are tight. Smoke gunpowder and go to school to jump through hoops, sit up and beg, and roll over on command. Listen to the whispers that curl into your head at night, calling you ugly and fat and stupid and bitch and whore and worst of all: "a disappointment." Puke and starve and cut and drink because you don't want to feel any of this. Puke and starve and cut and drink because you need an anesthetic and it works. For a while. But then the anesthetic turns into poison and by then it's too late because you are mainlining it now, straight into your soul. It is rotting you and you can't stop. Look in a mirror and find a ghost. Hear every heartbeat scream that everysinglething is wrong with you. "Why?" is the wrong question. Ask "Why not?" This is not a happy book. This is not an easy book. Anderson takes us step by painful step through Lia's experience, both before Cassie's death and after, and honestly, by the end of the novel you sort of feel as though you had an eating disorder yourself. That's how good the writing is. That's how terrifying the writing is. Where Lia goes, you go - and where she goes is scary and painful and dizzying. Anderson takes you to the edge and back over and over and does not let you look away no matter how hard it gets. My most powerful emotion while reading Wintergirls? Do whatever you have to to keep your daughter from going through even a fraction of this. I always hesitate to use the word "important" when it comes to books, but this one is. Read it. Talk about it. Share it. It is important. Purchase at Powell's or find your local independent bookstore.

LOOKING AHEAD: Tell Me Who by Jessica Wollman

Oh, aimed-at-tweens books featuring tween characters doing tweeny-age-appropriate things, how I do love you. Sixth-grader Molly is really not happy about things. Her dad is going to get married again (her mother passed away years ago) to a woman Molly and her best friend Tanna call The Claw. The Claw has changed her basketball-loving, Chinese food-ordering, hanging-around-the-house, don't-ever-call-me-Mitch-my-name-is-Mitchell father into an organized activity- attending gourmand Mitch. The Claw has no idea how to act around kids (she treats Molly like she's six) and doesn't seem to particularly like them, either. Molly was already having enough difficulty adjusting to the difference between fifth and sixth grade: co-ed lunches, switching classes every period, and the fact that she was apparently supposed to now be throwing herself at boys were all giving her some trouble. Add into that the Frizz (her problem hair) and her complete ineptitude in P.E. class and you can see that the last thing Molly needed was to hear Mitch and the Claw singing the Wedding March. The Claw takes over most of the house for wedding plans, and Molly and Tanna's daily afterschool hanging-out session is banished to the basement - where the Claw has "helpfully" set up an arts and crafts station that would be more at home in a preschool than with two sixth-graders. Out of frustration they begin digging around in the antiques that the Claw stores down there, and they make a bonanza of a discovery: a machine that accurately predicts who a person will marry. Molly is horrified by what the machine predicts for her own future, but is more concerned when it confirms that the Claw will be her stepmother. What happens when she tries to change the results (and when the word gets out around school about the machine) makes for some truly excellent reading. I could hand this book to anyone. There are never enough books like this. I enjoyed Wollman's previous book Switched but I hope she sticks to tweens now because tweens need her. There are some serious issues in this book but it never becomes depressing; there's a lot of lighthearted moments in this book but it never becomes fluff. I know my former bookstore is going to sell this like mad. As soon as this book is published in January I am buying it for my cousin's 11 1/2 year old daughter. She is going to love it. Preorder at Powell's or find your local independent bookstore.

LOOKING AHEAD: Breathing by Cheryl Renee Herbsman

Savannah's finally met the guy of her dreams, but it seems like the world is conspiring against them. Savannah's asthma has her in and out of the hospital, and her mother's refusal to tell her bosses about it has their family in and out of poverty. Jackson's father died, and his mother expects him to give up his dreams of college and painting and be the man of the house. Just when they figure out a way to be together, Savannah's offered a semester away for gifted students - but can she leave Jackson now? Separately, the air closes in around them - together, they feel like they can breathe freely. Will their love survive if they're apart? This is sort of written in dialect - they're Southern, so it's written in accents. It annoyed me at first (dialect usually does) but this really is a good book and I was eventually able to get over it. Dialect doesn't bother a lot of people, and I don't expect it to have any effect on a reader's enjoyment of the book - not everyone's a freak like me! It's got a nice strong family structure with Savannah and her mom and brother. Her mom also does a nice job of keeping Savannah close and giving her some freedom, which is especially impressive considering how fragile Savannah's health can be. Often a parent's impulse is to hold tighter rather than the opposite, but the mom lets Savannah live the life she can, which is refreshing. I should also say that a lot of books revolving around teens having/being allowed to have more grownup relationships often make me roll my eyes. I know two couples who met in high school who are still together (and ended up married); the odds are hugely stacked against it. So usually when I find a book where the general mood or foreshadowing indicates that the author believes these characters will remain together, I find it impossible to believe. Something about Savannah and Jackson's story, however, made me believe that these two crazy kids might just have a chance to make it. Older content: Savannah and Jackson attend a party where people are drinking, smoking pot and skinny dipping, but they don't do any of that. They do indulge in one session of heavy making out but nothing further than that. Publisher: Penguin Pub Date: April 16, 2009

GOBLINS! An UnderEarth Adventure by Royce Buckingham

There's going to end up being a bit of a rant in this review, so I want to preface it by saying: I enjoy Buckingham's writing very much. I loved DEMONKEEPER, his first book, and sold a lot of it when I was a bookseller. I was very much looking forward to reading GOBLINS! and did ultimately enjoy it, but I have a major problem with it that I'm going to have to rant about in a minute. But first, here's the plot. Sam lives waaaaaay up north in Washington State, right near the Canadian border. There is absolutely nothing to do in his tiny town, so at 12, he's already becoming something of a juvenile delinquent. Right now he's sitting in the local jail because he couldn't resist swiping some fireworks out of a truck parked at the Stop-n-Sip, and of course, Officer Myrmidon - the town's only policeman - caught him immediately. On the way to the police station, Myrmidon had pulled over a Camaro that ended up being driven by his son PJ, on his way up from California for a visit. And then he'd gotten a call that some cavers were missing, so he'd taken off to help and left PJ and Sam alone. Big mistake, of course. The police motion-detector that's set up at the US-Canadian border goes off, and PJ decides that he and Sam should go and check it out - in his dad's police cruiser. On the way they run over what they initially think is a person, until they get it into the back of the cruiser: Thick, black fur covered its entire body--it was not wearing a fur coat. Its hands were leathery, like those of a gorilla, and its fingers were tipped with long, yellow claws. It pushed its face up against the glass and stared back at Sam and PJ with huge yellow eyes. Two long tusks jutted up from its lower jaw. It was definitely not human.  Soon they meet two mysterious people and learn that the creature comes from a land beneath the Earth. After the creature is dispatched with and the people return to whence they came, PJ realizes Sam is gone. He quickly figures out that Sam followed the UnderEarth people, finds the entrance that goes underground, and reluctantly enters it himself. Soon both boys are caught up in a war between the UnderEarth humans and the Goblins who desperately want to take over everything that the humans control and possess all their power. Unfortunately PJ and Sam, each in his own way, makes everything UnderEarth a lot worse - but maybe, in the end, they'll help make it a lot better. There's a lot of humor in this book and PJ and Sam are both likable characters. A lot of the Goblin stuff is hilarious. The plot moves quickly and the end, while drawing to a satisfying conclusion, clearly paves the path for a sequel. I think this could be a pretty successful middle-grade series. Here's my problem, and the rant. This book is listed as being for ages 8-12. So why, then, does PJ say things like No friggin' way, backwards-ass, my friggin' gravestone and I don't mean to bitch? Does a third-grader really need to read that? Or a fourth-grader? The language adds absolutely nothing to the story. Nothing. Yeah, PJ is 17. But this isn't a YA novel. And it's not a novel with a character who needs these words to show readers who he is. The book isn't full of this language - the phrases cited above are it. So why bother? If I were handselling this book to an elementary school librarian, I would have to tell her about the language and you know what? She wouldn't buy it. I am finding this over and over and over - stuff just shoved into a book that doesn't need to be there - that does absolutely nothing to advance the story or define the characters - that should have been removed during the editing process. I'm thinking of YA novels that'll be squeaky clean until 3/4 of the way through when suddenly everyone gets drunk for no reason. I'm thinking of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, which is getting tons of Newbery buzz and which is one of the most age-inappropriate (for how it is leveled and covered) books I have ever read. (That, incidentally, will be an entire post, but I read the galley awhile ago and need to get a copy so I can quote specifics.) In my perfect world, Buckingham's editors would remove those four words before printing the book in paperback and make sure that the sequels don't contain anything like them. The humor in Goblins! counteracts the scary parts quite nicely, and it would make a good read-aloud. It's a book I would have been happy to have in the shop where I worked, because you always need books for boys that have freaky creatures in them. But the whole reading experience was marred for me by those age-inappropriate words - they jarred me right out of the story. I really, really wish they weren't there.

LOOKING AHEAD: Alis by Naomi Rich

Almost-fifteen-year-old Alis has never been out of her sheltered religious community, and despite the many rules she must live under (which caused her brother to flee years before), has lived a fairly contented life. However, everything changes when her parents tell her that she must marry the village's 40 year old minister. Alis decides that she must run away to the city to escape this unwanted future - hopefully she will find her brother and together they will live a life of freedom. She takes the first step toward escape by convincing her parents to allow her to accompany an ailing visitor back to a neighboring village, one much stricter than her own. Here she manages to make an enemy of an incredibly cruel Elder as well as fall in love with a strongwilled village boy who helps her to escape to the city when the Elder accuses her of burning down the prayer house. Life in the city is much more frightening and hard than Alis had anticipated and she ends up returning, nearly broken, to her village and agreeing to marry the minister. Her return sets off a chain of events that will change her life and those of her family forever. With religious extremism so much in the news these days (and threatening to enter our White House) a lot of this book hit me pretty hard. As a staunch supporter of women's rights, women's freedom, freedom of religion and the separation of church and state it was difficult to not see a lot of this book as a metaphor for the more extreme parts of today's world. Alis manages to grow up single-minded in a community that encourages anything but and find her own way in the world and her own happiness. Hers is a world that does not make that easy. Sometimes our world seems to be the same. I think ALIS has a lot to say and is very worthwhile reading. Publisher: Penguin (Viking) Pub Date: February 19, 2009