Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Title: Under the Mesquite
Author: Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Publisher: Lee and Low Books
Pub Date: 10/1/2011
Reviewed from: ARC received from the publisher
Grades 9 and up

booktalk

Oh, I'm a sucker for a good novel in verse. And this is a really good novel in verse. Lupita, the eldest of eight, is having a year full of changes. She's getting very involved in drama at her high school, her friends are telling her that the fact that she's losing her accent means she's loosing sight of who she is and where she comes from, and then Mami gets diagnosed with cancer. Papi all but moves into the cancer center and leaves Lupita in charge of her family.

Lupita is finding her voice and the free verse she shares that voice with us is evocative and beautiful.

good for

Fans of novels in verse like The House on Mango Street or Diamond Willow. Also good for fans of novels that make you cry and cry like The Fault in Our Stars.

Waiting on Wednesday

Title: Bestest. Ramadan. Ever
Author: Medeia Sharif
Publisher: Flux
Pub Date: July 8, 2011

The summary from goodreads:
During Ramadan, we're not allowed to eat from sunrise to sunset, for a whole month. My family does this every year, even though I've been to a mosque exactly twice in my fifteen years. My exercise-obsessed mom—whose hotness skipped a generation, sadly—says I could stand to lose a few. But is torture really an acceptable method? I think not.

Things wouldn't be so bad if I had a boyfriend, but my oppressive parents forbid me to date. This is just cruel and wrong. Especially since Peter, a cute and crushable artist, might be my soul mate. Figures my bestest friend Lisa likes him, too.

To top it off, there's a new Muslim girl in school who struts around in super-short skirts, commanding every boy's attention—including Peter's. How can I get him to notice me? And will I ever feel like a typical American girl?

Doesn't that sound like SO MUCH FUN? I cannot wait to read this one.

Waiting on Wednesday - Huntress by Malinda Lo

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.


Do y'all remember my love of Ask by Malinda Lo? Do you remember how I loved it so much that I forced one of my best friend to read it and she loved it too! Well if you took my advice and read it have I got exciting news for you! (If you haven't read it yet - GET ON IT! Please?) Malinda Lo has been hard at work on a prequel! Huntress by Malinda Lo will be out in April 2011 and I cannot wait. Look at that cover. LOOK AT THAT COVER! The description from Goodreads:

Nature is out of balance in the human world. The sun hasn’t shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people’s survival hangs in the balance.

To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Taninli, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls’ destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.

The exciting adventure prequel to Malinda Lo’s highly acclaimed novel Ash is overflowing with lush Chinese influences and details inspired by the I Ching, and is filled with action and romance.

Sounds amazing, yes? I can't wait!

Linkedy linkedy links, links, links

I'm starting to understand the appeal of the link-round-ups that everyone does. There are lots of things I want to mention but I don't know that I have enough to say about any of them to merit a whole post! So here is my first link-round-up.

So the YA book blogosphere is angry about James Frey. I talked about it to some friends yesterday and was all set to write something long and involved about what an arse James Frey is and how he's taking advantage of writers - demeaning his own profession - and he's showing complete disregard to young adults in general. Then I come around today and see that Maureen Johnson has once again said it first and said it best. A Chair, a fireplace, and a tea cozy also has a lovely take-down of Mr. Frey.

I've been using goodreads so much more lately for organizing my life. I've made a shelf of my favorite story-time books and have spent way too much time looking at the communal storytime shelf. The babies shelf is too full of praenting books and what to expect books to be much use for lapsit so I've started a shelf called lapsit and so far I'm the only one using that shelf so come and join me! I'm going to branch out into more specific genres for chapter books and such soon. Mel made this brilliant List of Picture books for Boys that I'm going to stick on a shelf soon for me to remember (and add too) because that's a question I get alot. What shelves do y'all use on goodreads? What is your favorite librarian-ey way to use goodreads?

I lent my friend Anna one of my favorite books ever and she LOVED IT! Life is wonderful.

I am also over the moon about ALA adding a Stonewall Children's and YA Literature award. People who think that kids of any age are too young to read about characters who are a part of the QUILTBAG community maybe shouldn't let their kids read books where anyone loves or gets married or has any sort of passionate feelings at all. (judgey LP is judgey)

The New York Times has released their list of the Best Picture Books of 2010. I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR! From now until Marchish is just list after list of good books and award after award for great books and it all makes me happy. And I'm going to be linking to a lot of lists in the future. Because I love them.

I had Hush, Hush checked out and I'd just barely started it - and the whole thing was making me feel icky so I did some googling to make sure I wasn't the only one aaaaand I am definitely not. So that book when on my goodreads Abandoned shelf. Because sometimes I just don't want to finish something.

When I was in library school, Michael Gorman was still president of the ALA and a common refrain in one of my classes was “WOW Michael Gorman is SUCH A curmudgeon! I love him!” Seriously. I just want to pat him on the head and tell him how adorable he is. That isn’t to say I agree with him about, pretty much, anything - but he is an adorable curmudgeon. This article about libraries reinventing themselves just reinforced that for me.

I've never read any Eva Ibbotson but Laura Amy Schlitz has inspired me. As soon as I'm done with The Amaranth Enchantment, she's up next for audiobooks.

There was one of those memes going around awhile back where you had to write a haiku to the item sitting on your right. I was rather proud of mine:

Boxcar children book
Missing many pages
Goodbye, cruel lib’ry

I've found that weeding is much more fun (and oh, it gets super fun if you're in the right mood) if you take the book that is to be weeded and say, "you ARE the weakest link! Goodbye!"

I'm sure there's more I want to comment on but I'll leave that for another post. In the meanwhile here is a picture my brother took of Kaylee and Pippa last week. They're getting SO BIG and I love them.

Diamond Willow by Helen Frost

Speaking of award books do you know which book should have won ALL THE AWARDS* and actually won none** of the awards? Diamond Willow by Helen Frost. I recommended it for the Battle of the Books that my library helps with and it got chosen for this year so I get to spend extra time with it which makes me beyond happy! Diamond Willow is a beautiful book - I wanted to spend forever in this world with these characters! Lucky for me despite how short this book is, it is an easy book to savor. It invites the reader to go back over every page and really let that poem sink in.

*Ok, not all of the awards - Diamond Willow came out in 2008 and y'all know how I feel about The Graveyard Book, but if I can't use hyperbole in my own blog then where can I?

**actually while writing this review I've realized that it did win some awards - but it should have won MORE!

I didn't think I would like Diamond Willow when I first picked it up. Books written in poetry tend to be gimmicky (and yes, I know there are obvious and lovely exceptions to this) but Diamond Willow is anything but gimmicky and should not be disregarded because of the poetry. When Willow (the main character and main narrator) is narrating the book, each page is a poem. Hidden within each poem is a set of words in bold that creates another found sentence. It's hard to explain but if you see it you'll understand. Go check out the first 16 pages on FSG's website and you'll see. The hidden sentence explains more - the hidden meaning that Diamond is unwilling to say outright.

Very simply, Diamond Willow is about a 12 year old girl, Willow, who takes the sled dogs out in a storm to see her grandparents without her parent's permission and she gets caught in a storm. Willow is part Athabascan and her heritage comes into play as other narrators take over the book briefly because she is being watched over by the animals that are her ancestors. Can I tell you about how much I love that? There are so few books out there where Native people are shown living modern lives that are still rich in their cultural heritage. Diamond Willow neither shuffles the Athabascans off into the history books nor does it make Willow's heritage just a quirk - it is still a very real part of her life, her traditions, who she is.

I will never do this book justice in my review. You need to go read it. Now, please.

Diamond Willow will work especially well for girls in 4th grade and up who like thoughtful books, adventure books, nature books, books about dogs, books about snow - or really just good books.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Ok, so I've got things that need cleaned and other things that need organized and I have the cutest baby ever trying to crawl up into my lap (seriously - CUTEST BABY EVER. What, you don't believe me? Let me grab my phone and take a picture to prove it.

CUTEST BABY EVER! Pippa, meet the blog. Blog, meet Pippa. She's much bigger now.)

Anyway - I have very little time before my mother comes over with the elder daughter who she stole last night for a hotel sleepover, but I am trying to get in the habit of writing about books again! Which is to say, this one will be short, but this time I really am trying to be back!

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Delphine and her sisters are sent by their father and Big Ma to spend the summer in California with their mother who they haven't seen since Fern the littlest "still needed her milk." Their mother wants little to do with them, shes so focused on her poetry, and sends them to the Black Panther's summer camp to keep them out of her hair.

This book is historical fiction, set in Oakland in the summer if 1968, and the time and place shine through, but this book is especially beautiful because of the characters. Everyone has a rich and complex history that makes you never want to put this book down. Fern, the youngest, is my favorite. She starts as a shy baby-doll carrying girl who can't stand up for herself and how she ends up? Amazing. And the language! I especially remember Delphine thinking about how her mother prays over her printing press.

There's the door! Gotta go. Seriously - Don't trust this super short and not good enough review. Read this book. It'll take you 2 lunch hours.

Fiesta Babies by Carmen Tafolla

If there was any justice in the world I would have had this post done a few days ago for Cinqo de Mayo, but between two babies and buying a new house (!!!), I am an even bigger slacker than usual! But this book is fantastic! Anytime is the right time for Fiesta Babies.

Fiesta Babies is brand new to the library but I had to use it in a book-break* right away and it is being added to my list of no fail awesome books. The text is perfect for storytime - rhyming but not cloying, fun and bouncy, and just the right legnth. The pictures are colorful and vibrant and make you want to jump inside the pictures!

*a book break is kinda like a mini-storytime whenever I notice that the library is full of storytime-age kids. We read one book and maybe do one fingerplay sort of as a teaser for storytimes. It also works super well to clam down rowdy crowds who have started to throw plastic vegetables at each other.

I am especially a sucker for movement in books that can be copied by the kidlets during storytime. It's a book and a stretcher all in one! "K'mon, kids, stand up! 'Fiesta babies dance two by two' - Can you dance too? 'the cha-cha-cha ... and the choo-choo-choo!'" WAY TOO MUCH FUN!

In conclusion - I adore this book and you should check it out for a storytime or two.

Ash by Malinda Lo

Ok. I have put this off for long enough. I have important things to say*, so I am darn well going to say them! I got an ARC of Ash at ALA a few weeks ago, devoured it immediately, and am just now sitting down to tell you how fantastic it is. Don't hate! I'll regale you with tales of the kidlet's cuteness later in hopes that you will then forgive me.

*important to me, at least. Probably just me.

A word of caution - I will probably allude to how the book ends. I'm really bad about that. For me, though (especially in a book like this that is a retelling of Cinderella so you know somewhat how it turns out) it isn't about where the characters end up. It's how they get there. So read on with this review (and in general, this blog), but know that I am not afraid to let slip details from near the end.

So anyway - if you were going to write a book designed specifically for me it would be this book. Retelling of something from the 398.2s*? Check! Gorgeously seductive but ultimately terrifying faeries? Check! A world that is not heteronormative? Check!

*UGH - YES - I AM THAT NERD! I do think of them as the 398.2s (or sometimes the 398s if I'm feeling lazy) instead of as folk and faerie tales. I'm crazy.

For the most part I don't need to give you a quick summary - it's Cinderella with extra faeries and plus the awesome Huntress. Like I said - I rarely read books for the basic plot structure. my love of a book comes from the details and Ash is full of fantastic ones. The world is a growing and changing world. The old tales of faeries are completely not en vogue anymore, but Ash has grown up in a small town far outside of the capital city that still believes. Tales of the Fae are constantly being told between the characters.

It was in these tales that I began to realize that the world wasn't heteronormative. Do you have any idea how refreshing that is? Through out the tales women fall in love with men and women fall in love with women* and nobody ever says "oh my goodness lookie here that woman just fell in love with another woman and that is SO WEIRD!" When Ash starts to have a crush on the huntress, it seems impossible to her that she should have this crush because of tons of outside influences making it seem crazy (she's not good enough, she's a servant, etc.), but not one of those reasons is ever that to fall for a woman is bad. I love this. I can't tell you how much I love this. I know it's near impossible in realistic fiction for something like this to happen - we just don't live in the sort of world - but in this lush fantasy world that Lo has created, I would like to think that maybe some GLTBIQ teen who picks this up will let him/herself feel like maybe he/she isn't crazy for being the person he/she** is!

*I don't remember any men falling in love with men, but I think that is more because there are so few male characters and less because of any other reason.

**OY! ENGLISH! Can we please get ourselves a third person singular pronoun that is non gender specific for when we're talking about just some random person who could be either? Get on that, will ya?

So ... enough with my random soapboxing about my worldview. You want to know about the book, yes? Well let me tell you I loved it! Again let me remind you that I am a sucker for EXACTLY THIS KIND OF BOOK so I may be a hair biased, but please don't let that stop you from picking this up. It should be in stores September 1 and in your local library pretty soon after.