Books I Read 2003
Little Kids
Kogi’s Mysterious Journey (Elizabeth Partridge) Japanese legend about art and fish, with gorgeous paper-cut illustrations by Aki Sogabe.
J Books
Akiko : flights of fancy (Mark Crilley) "Selected strips & bonus features from issues 1-46"
Akiko: Volume Four (Mark Crilley) Graphic novel (compiled from Story Tree comix issues 8-13) about an Asian-American girl (Akiko) and her pals from Planet Smoo.
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident. (Eoin Colfer) Okay, not great. Didn’t finish.
Bartlett and the ice voyage (Sijie Die)
Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster : the search for the smallpox vaccine (Albert Marrin) Fun, tres readable medical history.
Emperor Mage(Tamora Pierce) Book 3- she learns to shape change and visits the decadent empire. Good.
Graphic novel (fantasy): Prequel to Bone. Kinda dopey, I thought.
Hannah, Divided (Adele Griffin) In 1934, a thirteen-year-old with a gift for numbers is offered the chance to leave her family's dairy farm to spend one term at an exclusive Philadelphia girls' school preparing for a scholarship exam.
Hoot (Carl Hiaasen) Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site. A funny mystery.
LightLand (H. L. McCutchen) “12-year-old Lottie and her best friend Lewis, who speaks only to her, find themselves in a world called LightLand, where they confront the dreaded NightKing, a dangerous being who experiments with the energies of memory.”
Maida’s Little Schoolhouse (Inez Haynes Irwin (Gillmore))
Maida’s Little Store (Inez Haynes Irwin (Gillmore))
Minuk: ashes in the pathway (Kirkpatrick Hill) 12-year-old Minuk's traditional Eskimo way of life is changed forever in 1892 with the arrival of Christian missionaries (and the flu).
Olivia Kidney (Ellen Potter) “Twelve-year-old Olivia explores her new apartment building and finds a psychic, talking lizards, a shrunken ex-pirate, an exiled princess, ghosts, and other unusual characters.” Totally surreal and excellent- has that “real” edge of genuine emotion and danger.
Phineas Gage : a gruesome but true story about brain science (John Fleischman) Great—and gruesome.
Rascal (Sterling North) A lyrical memoir of Sterling’s 11th year, in 1918 southern Wisconsin, with his pet Raccoon kit, Rascal. Seductively peaceful and independent images of the freedom of his boyhood in the gorgeous woods and streams around his town.
Rodzina (Karen Cushman) A grumpy 12-year-old Polish orphan from Chicago rides the orphan train West. Good.
Rose (Jeff Smith and Charles Vess)
The City of Ember (Jeanne DuPrau) Almost 250 years ago, the Builders built the City of Ember, a city of darkness lit only by electric light, provisioned from greenhouses and the storerooms deep underground filled with light bulbs and cans of food. The Builders also left Instructions, to be opened in 120 years, but somehow those Instructions, and the memory of them, was lost. Now the City is running out of supplies, even electricity. The generator is breaking down and blackouts are more frequent. 12-year-olds Lina and Doon know something must be done—but what?
The Doll People (Ann Martin et al.) A family of porcelain dolls that has lived in the same house for one hundred years is taken aback when a new family of plastic dolls arrives and doesn't follow The Doll Code of Honor.
The Elevator Family (Douglas Evans) The four members of the Wilson family decide to spend their holiday in an elevator (“a mobile room with extras!”) at the San Francisco Hotel.
The Girl With the Silver Eyes (Willo Davis Roberts) Hadn’t read this in years. Still very good. Katie has silver eyes and unusual abilities- mild telekinesis, telepathy with a cat. A strange man is nosing around asking questions about Katie, and she’s worried she will be blamed for her grandmother’s accidental death (she fell down the stairs). She also finds out her mother worked for a now-defunct drug company for a few years, including while she was pregnant with Katie. Three of her friends at the company also became pregnant then, and Katie wonders if their children might have the same abilities she does- and can she find them in time to help her?
The Jamie and Angus Stories (Anne Fine)
The Meanest Doll in the World (Martin/Godwin/Selznick) Old-fashioned china doll Annabelle and plastic pal Tiffany hitch a backpack ride to school, ride home in the wrong pack to the wrong house, and encounter Mean Mimi, the princess doll. Mimi takes elaborate revenge against dolls who won’t be her friend (read: do what she says), and our heroines fear Mimi’s heedlessness could get them discovered by humans and blow every doll’s cover, sending them all into PDS (Permanent Doll State)!
The Realms of the Gods (Tamora Pierce) Book 4 – stupid. Very amorphous, full of fiery sparks and shifting colors, and unfortunately the subplot has 15-year-old Daine hooking up with her own teacher, Numair, who is 30. Ick!
The Riddle-Master trilogy (Patricia McKillip) –excellent!
The Seeing Stone (Kevin Crossley-Holland) In late twelfth-century England, a thirteen-year-old boy named Arthur recounts how Merlin gives him a magical seeing stone which shows him images of the legendary King Arthur, the events of whose life seem to have many parallels to his own.
The Wild World of the Future (Claire Pye) Totally cool weird book about evolution, with computer-generated pictures imagining how today’s animals might evolve as the earth experiences major geographic and climatic shifts.
Wild Magic (Tamora Pierce) Fun preteen fantasy about a (12 year old) girl who speaks animal and is great with horses. Kinda Menolly attitude of humility; hooks up with the Queen’s Riders (horsewomen warriors). Good.
Wolf-Speaker (Tamora Pierce) Book 2- good. Daine learns to ride along in the minds of animals and helps scotch a brewing rebellion. (Environmental subtheme.)
YA Books
A Northern Light (Jennifer Donnelly) Mattie lives in the North Woods (Adirondacks) in 1906. Her ma died, she hopes to get to college, she loves words and books, she works at an inn on the lake, her pa was a riverman/logjack but now is a grieving farmer; many subplots. Unfolds alongside the based-on-fact story of the drowning of (pregnant) Grace Brown by her lover. Enjoyable, full of historical nuggets and quirky words.
Abhorsen (Garth Nix) Sequel to Sabriel and Lirael.
Alt Ed (Atkins) A Breakfast Club for 2003. Fat girl, jock, popular girl, punk/”slut” girl, redneck, and gay boy get together with teacher for revealing chats (otherwise they’d be expelled). Told by fat girl. Pretty good at depicting HS hierarchies and an underdog gaining confidence, but unbelievable that the teacher would let them discuss the things they do (including gang rapes) without ratting on them.
Boy Meets Boy (David Levithan) (Totally fun, surreal high school romance book in an almost-reality where the varsity quarterback is a drag queen and no one thinks twice about it.) Totally cute. Funny, sweet, thoughtful, bizarre. Paul meets Noah and falls for him, meanwhile trying to untangle things with his ex, “architect” the school dance, hang with his big circle of friends, and spend time with a friend whose Christian parents think he’s damned for being gay. Extraordinary for being so normal, and at the same time a fabulously surreal look at high school life in a town that is basically gay-friendly, to the point that the Boy Scouts seceded from the national organization and became the Joy Scouts, and a drag queen is the varsity quarterback. And yet it feels like real high school at the same time.
Castle Waiting: The Curse of Brambly Hedge (Linda Medley) A graphic novel retelling of Sleeping Beauty, with emphasis on the more minor characters’ personalities. A quick read, and pleasing.
Chill Wind (Janet McDonald) Companion novel to Spellbound.
Crispin: the Cross of Lead (Avi) Boring Newbery winner.
Destination Unexpected (ed. Donald R. Gallo) Short stories about teens learning something surprising along the way, on journeys real and metaphorical. Especially good: “Something Old, Something New,” by Joyce Sweeney; “The Kiss in the Carryon Bag, by Richard Peck; and “Mosquito,” by Graham Salisbury.
Dolores (Bruce Brooks) Stories about a smart, oddball girl from age 7 to 16.
Dunk (David Lubar) HS boy wants to be a “Bozo,” the clown that shouts insults to lure people to spend money throwing balls at the dunk tank. Pretty lamely written; a major skimmer.
Dust by Arthur Slade. “11-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger arrives, performing tricks and promising to bring rain, at the same time children begin to disappear from a dust bowl farm town in Saskatchewan in the 1930s.” Started out eerie and spare but then got a little confusing and rushed. Decent.
East (Edith Pattou) Lovely strange lyrical imaginative retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
Faerie Wars (Herbie Brennan) “Troubled by family problems, Henry finds his life taking a whole new dimension when he and his friend, old Mr. Fogarty, become involved with Prince Pyrgus Malvae who has been sent from the faerie world in order to escape the treacherous Faeries of the Night.”
Fat Kid Rules the World (K. L. Going) Fabulous! I loved the genuine and claustrophobic view from the inside of someone excruciatingly self-conscious (and self-loathing); and the punk perfection of Curt, addicted to prescription drugs and guitar god; and their strangely adolescently brutally tender interaction. A gorgeous, unique-voiced book.
God Went to BeautySchool (Cynthia Rylant) Lovely, startling, not-actually-irreverent poems about a very personified God. (God Made Spaghetti. God Took a Bath.)
Gravel Queen (Tea Benduhn) Aurin hangs out with buddies Kenney and Fred, meets Neila and falls in love with her, rearranging friendships somewhat. Reasonably good- lots of metaphorical sensory details (“sparks of frozen fizzle warm”).
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling) Number 5. I liked it better than Goblet of Fire- Harry is more adolescently unreasonable and grumpy, and Things are Revealed.
Heir Apparent (Vivian Vande Velde) “While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and intrigue, fourteen-year-old Giannine learns that demonstrators have damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she must win the game quickly or be damaged herself.”
I Am Not Esther (Fleur Beale) “After her mother unexpectedly leaves her with her uncle's family, members of a fanatical Christian cult, Kirby tries to learn what has become of her mother and struggles to cope with the repressiveness of her new surroundings and to maintain her own identity.” Good.
Jake, Reinvented (Gordon Korman) New HS senior Jake Garrett hosts some incredible parties & thus gains fame at his new school. Turns out he reinvented his former-nerdly self to woo the girl he used to math tutor. Everybody turns on everybody. Not much fun.
Keeper of the Night (Kimberly Willis Holt) A poem of a book told in small, gem-like chapters with revealing titles, in the voice of Isabel, whose mother recently killed herself. Set on Guam, it’s the story of a family stunned with grief (& guilt & anger) trying to put itself back together somehow. Father “Tata” vanishes into grief and fishing; brother Frank cuts the walls and himself; little sister Olivia wets the bed but dances in the daytime; Aunt Bernadette is wise and steady; responsible Isabel tries to be the glue to keep everyone together. Lovely, clean lines, against the lush backdrop of Guam. Sad but full of the messy strength of family and life too.
Keeping You a Secret (Julie Anne Peters) Annoying, limply written cliché novel about the senior class president who is bored with her boyfriend and then falls hard for a girl and discovers she is gay- gasp! But actually she’s okay with it, it’s her mom who freaks and kicks her out brutally so by the end she’s living in transitional housing with her oh-so-loyal girlf. Left me utterly sick of the phrase “she curled a lip.”
Losing is Not an Option (Rich Wallace) More Sturbridge tales. Short stories following the life of Ron, a cross-country runner and general guy. Okay, but not great.
Mister Monday (The Keys to the Kingdome: Bk 1) (Garth Nix) “Arthur Penhaligon is supposed to die at a young age, but is saved by a key that is shaped like the minute hand of a clock. The key causes bizarre creatures to come from another realm, bringing with them a plague. A man named Mister Monday will stop at nothing to get the key back. Arthur goes to a mysterious house that only he can see, so that he can learn the truth about himself and the key.”
My Heartbeat (Garret Freymann-Weyr) Ellen (14) is in love with her older brother Link’s best friend James. Yet James & Link seem like a couple. Told in Ellen’s intelligent, spare voice, this book is realistic about the subtle shades of relationship, love, family dynamics, and sexual orientation.
Open your eyes: extraordinary experiences in faraway places (ed. Jill Davis)
Out of Order (A. M. Jenkins) A popular jock picks on people, moons after his smart girlfriend, tries to hide his fear over being “stupid,” tries to get laid, and is basically a high school asshole seen from the inside. Also develops beginnings of friendship with alternagirl. Pretty good.
Pagan’s Crusade (Catherine Jinks) Jerusalem, 1187. Pagan Kidrouk—orphan, 16, raised in a monastery, scrappy kid versed in the ways of the streets, used to work the city night patrol, strapped for cash—applies for work with the Templars. He is assigned to squire for Lord Roland, an absurdly good Templar knight. Meanwhile, Saladin's armies close in on the HolyCity. Told in Pagan’s irreverent voice, with a bit of Monty Python (yet historically accurate) flair.
Planet Janet (Dyan Sheldon) Janet’s diary, recounting how everyone and everything irritates her, and inadvertently (on her part, not on the author’s) revealing what a selfish, obtuse twit she is. Reasonably enjoyable nonetheless. Very British in flavor. For mid-teens—14 and 15 maybe—or those who won’t be shocked by frequent references to sex and sometimes drugs (she and her pal try hash once, and an acquaintance has sex with a stranger while drunk, but the core group is basically clean). Oh, and her aunt’s a feminist vegan lesbian. And her Nan is a conservo Christian.
Revenge of the whale : the true story of the whaleship Essex (Nathaniel Philbrick) Recounts the 1820 sinking of the whaleship "Essex" by an enraged sperm whale and how the crew of young men survived against impossible odds.
Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge. 14-year-old first baseman Kevin Boland, struck down with mono in the middle of baseball season, begins fooling around with his writer dad’s poetry book and starts writing. Thoughtful, if spare, and fun and real. Good.
Singing the Dogstar Blues (Alison Goodman) “In a future Australia, the saucy 18-year-old daughter of a famous newscaster and a sperm donor teams up with a [teenage alien] from the planet Choria in a time travel adventure that may significantly change both of their lives.” Heroine Joss is a rebel familiar with gritty underground subcultures—kinda Guy Noirish. Fun read.
Son of the Mob (Gordan Korman) 17-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent. More thoughtful than you might think, and funny, of course. Quite good.
Sorcery and Cecelia or the enchanted chocolate pot : being the correspondence of two young ladies of quality regarding various magical scandals in London and the country (Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer) Delightful fluff a la Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen: droll, quick-witted, early feminist heroines (cousins) correspond through letters about their battles with pushy aunts and nasty wizards.
Speaker for the Dead (Orson Scott Card) Ender Wiggin book 2.
Stargirl (Jerry Spinelli) High school iconoclast and the town that isn’t ready for her happiness and highjinks.
Surviving the Applewhites (Stephanie S. Tolan) “Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had.” Cute painting of an eccentric family- a la Hilary McKay but not quite as engaging. Plot tension minimal.
Sweetblood (Pete Hautman) “After a lifetime of being a model student, 16-year-old Lucy Szabo is suddenly in trouble at school, at home, with the "proto-vampires" she has met online and in person, and most of all with her uncontrolled diabetes.”
The First Part Last (Angela Johnson) “Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.”
The Kindling: Fire-Us Trilogy Book 1 (Jennifer Armstrong and Nancy Butcher) “In 2007, a small band of children have joined together in a Florida town, trying to survive in a world where it seems that all the adults have been killed off by a catastrophic virus.” Post-apocalyptic friendlier Lord of the Flies meets Peter Pan and Wendy. Good.
The Kings are Already Here (Freymann-Weyr) Very formal piece about two serious (and seriously scheduled & determined) youngsters, a ballet dancer & a chess player. Okay, not all that engaging. Too much in the head, I thought.
The Merlin Conspiracy (Diana Wynne Jones) Good. Not fantastic, but good.
The River Between Us (Richard Peck) “During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.” Good. Young soldiers and rural living and octoroons from N.O. and a small town’s tiny piece of the view of a great big messy war.
The True Meaning of Cleavage (Mariah Fredericks) Jess & Sari – best friends since 7th grade – when the enter high school Sari gets stupidly obsessed with senior boy- as reader I lost all respect for her & all interest in dumb story.
True Confessions of a Heartless Girl (Brooks) Spare. Canadian. I didn’t love it as much as everyone else seems to have, but it was okay.
Xenocide (Orson Scott Card) Ender Wiggin book 3.
You Remind Me of You (Eireann Corrigan) Free verse first person “poetry memoir” of author’s adolescence, consisting of her near-fatal anorexia and her co-dependent boyfriend who tried to kill himself and the aftermath. Riveting voice, I thought.
Zigzag (Ellen Wittlinger) Roadtrip coming-of-age helping-cousins-grieve novel. Perfectly nice but unremarkable.
Adult Books
A Primate’s Memoir (Robert Sapolsky) Great!
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Odo Hirsch)
Little altars everywhere (Rebecca Wells) Re-read.
Swimming Sweet Arrow (Maureen Gibbon) Sex, drugs, and coming of age. Emotionally real and rough. (Adult book.)
The birthday of the world and other stories (Ursula K. Le Guin) Excellent, anthropological SF stories exploring gender, sexuality, and identity.
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) Silly adult mystery about the Holy Grail (which it turns out equals Mary Magdalene, mother of Jesus’s child)
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Rebecca Wells) Re-read.
The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough. The juicy, funny, awful “autobiography” of a cantankerous old woman who was a famous circus tiger trainer in the 20’s (with Ringling Brothers, even) and later a tiger trainer for Jungle Land. Based on a real person.
The Wolf Hunt (Provant) Middle ages- intrigue- romance- fun.
Traveling Mercies: some thoughts on faith (Anne Lamott) Essays about faith, motherhood, Jesus, alcoholism, friends, messy beauty.
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