Posts
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Review:
Cameron is your typical bored with life teenager who indulges in the occassional joint, hates his family and doesn't see the point of anything. After a series of delusional episodes Cameron is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, or mad-cow disease; a condition that causes the patient to lose grip on reality and slip into their own world. For Cameron, slipping into his own world gives him a chance to learn to enjoy life.
The message in this book is to get out and live your life. Bray uses parallels with Don Quixote as the vehicle to give Cameron a series of adventures to battle evil, solve mysteries of the universe, and get the girl. Throughout the reader is never sure whether the adventure is real or all in Cameron's head. Each adventure seems more outrageous than the last but readers will enjoy watching Cameron shed his determination to be disappointed with everything and find value and meaning in his life. Bray takes a few satirical shots at today's society through the happiness cult, who has rigged the bowling alley to give everyone strikes and the MTV-like television channel that kills brain cells. Overall written with a good balance of humor and meaning, this story is a must read.
Reviews/Awards:
Michael L. Printz Award (WON AWARD) 2010
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books (WON AWARD) 2009
Locus Awards (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2010
School Library Journal: "It's a trip worth taking, though meandering and message-driven at times."
Voice of Youth Advocates: "The novel is a laugh-out-loud, tear-jerking, fantastical voyage into the meaning of what is real in life and how someone can learn to live."
Booklist: Star Reviewed* "Bray's latest offering is an unforgettable, nearly indefinable fantasy adventure, as immense and sprawling as Cervantes' Don Quixote, on which it's based."
Publisher's Weekly: "what readers have is an absurdist comedy in which Cameron, Gonzo (a neurotic dwarf) and Balder (a Norse god cursed to appear as a yard gnome) go on a quixotic road trip during which they learn about string theory, wormholes and true love en route to Disney World."
Library Journal: "Bray has not written a teen problem novel about mad cow disease. She swims in deeper water, defending the importance of friendship, family, and life purpose in the face of mediocrity."
Connections:
*Discuss the actual symptoms of mad-cow disease.
*Point out the parallels with Don Quixote and discuss.
Read Printz nominees for 2010:
Heiligman, Debra. Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith. ISBN 9780805087215
Yancey, Rick. The Monstrumologist. ISBN 9781416984481
Image credit: www.bookreader4.blogspot.com
"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." This chilling line is the opening of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. The hand belongs to a man named Jack, who uses that knife to kill all of the residents of the house bathed in darkness. Except one. A toddler, who somehow wandered out of the house to a graveyard up the hill, finds asylum in the graveyard. The inhabitants, ghosts from a variety of time periods, name the boy Nobody. Bod spends his formative years being raised by his ghostly parents and taught by his mentor, Silas, who is neither living nor dead.
If the opening line is not visual enough, it is printed on a black page with the text in white and the image of a hand holding a knife going across the page. The illustrations in this book are all black and white charcoal or pencil drawings and they add to the macabre feeling of reading a book about a boy growing up in a graveyard. Each of the chapters are like little mini-stories from Bod's life, which is probably good for weaker readers as it makes the story easier to digest piece by piece. Despite growing up in a graveyard, the love shared in Bod's family is heartwarming and the adventures with ghouls, ancient guardians, and school, make this tale one that kids are bound to enjoy.
Reviews/Awards:
Hugo Awards (WON AWARD) 2009
Los Angeles Times Book Prizes (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2008
Locus Awards (WON AWARD) 2009
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2009
Audie Award (WON AWARD) 2009
World Fantasy Awards (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2009
Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award (WON AWARD) 2009
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2009
Book Sense Book of the Year (WON AWARD) 2009
American Library Association Notable Books for Children (WON AWARD) 2009
Great Stone Face Children's Book Award (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2009
School Library Journal: "Gaiman has created a rich, surprising, and sometimes disturbing tale of dreams, ghouls, murderers, trickery, and family."
Library Journal: "An elegant combination of Gaiman's masterly storytelling and McKean's lovely drawings."
Booklist: Star Reviewed* "This is an utterly captivating tale that is cleverly told through an entertaining cast of ghostly characters."
Voice of Youth Advocates: "Gaiman writes with charm and humor, and again he has a real winner."
Publisher's Weekly: "When the chilling moments do come, they are as genuinely frightening as only Gaiman can make them."
Other books by Neil Gaiman:
The Wolves in the Walls. ISBN 9780380810956
M is for Magic. ISBN 9780061186479
Coraline. ISBN 9780380977789
Image credit: www.pbs.org
Review:
Using a blend of hand drawings and diary entries, Jeff Kinney has created a witty romp through the life of middle school student and 52nd or 53rd most popular guy in his class, Greg Heffley. The diary chronicles Greg's adventures as he schemes a way to become more popular and inevitably gets held back from his goal by his parents, friends, his own actions, and an old piece of cheese. It can be sometimes difficult when writing a novel in the first person to show the reader how other characters are reacting and feeling, but Kinney does a very good job of giving the reader this information through Greg's observations; even though Greg is oblivious to most of them. The book is over 200 pages, which may discourage a reluctant reader, but the illustrations help to break up the text and illuminate the action on the page. The character of Greg Heffley is hardly an upstanding moralist given the treatment of his friend Rowley and a healthy dose of self-centeredness, but perhaps this only makes the character more believable. Over all a fun read that kids obviously love and recommended for kids 4th grade and up.
Reviews/Awards:
Quill Awards (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2007
Original Voices Award (WON AWARD) 2007
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (WON AWARD) 2009
Garden State Children's Book Awards (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2010
Booklist: "The simple line drawings perfectly capture archetypes of growing up, such as a preschool-age little brother, out-of-touch teachers, and an assortment of class nerds. Lots of fun throughout."
School Library Journal: "Kinney does a masterful job of making the mundane life of boys on the brink of adolescence hilarious."
Voice of Youth Advocates: "Kinney provides readers with a realistic view of middle school life as seen through the eyes of the entertaining but not very bright class clown."
Publisher's Weekly: "Kinney ably skewers familiar aspects of junior high life, from dealing with the mysteries of what makes someone popular to the trauma of a "wrestling unit" in gym class."
Connections:
*Invite readers to start their own diaries.
*For readers not yet in middle school, discuss what they think middle school will be like.
*Compare Greg's siblings to each reader's own family situation.
Further Reading
Continue the series with:
Kinney, Greg. Rodrick Rules. ISBN 9780810994737
Kinney, Greg. The Last Straw. ISBN 9780810970687
Kinney, Greg. Dog Days. ISBN 978-0810983915
Image credit: www.spinebreakers.com
;;
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
