Back from New Orleans, Part 1

I'm a nerd, and I love to go to conferences--they leave me feeling energized and excited and full of good ideas. They also leave me tired, particularly when I get stuck in O'Hare Airport until the wee hours of the morning. So, my ALA report will come in several installments, so that I have time to catch up on my sleep. This first installment will focus on authors whose books I now want to read because they did such an excellent job of reading from them.


Notes From the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick
I've seen Sonnenblick read before, but he was a freshly-minted author and he just seemed really nervous. This time, however, he was fresh and funny and I almost didn't want him to stop. The idea for Notes From the Midnight Driver came from Sonnenblick's day job as a middle school English teacher. The book, about a teen who gets in trouble with the law and is assigned to do community service at an "old folks' home," features a feisty senior citizen who, apparently, sounds remarkably like Sonnenblick's own grandfather. Sprinkled with Yiddish and rife with angsty teen attitude, Midnight Driver seems like an awful lot of fun.




Tyrell by Coe Booth
This could very well have been just another book about a homeless inner-city kid, full of false language and overly dramatic situations and all those other things that keep such novels from ringing true. But Coe Booth, who is a teacher and a social worker in the Bronx, knows Tyrell's world and does a brilliant job of translating it to the page. The language is spot-on, and I guarantee that your teens will relate. Booth's reading was tough and gritty, and when she was done, she shyly ducked her head and let out a demure little "Thank you." It was charming, and now I'm very much looking forward to reading the book.



M.T. Anderson
Okay . . . I didn't really hear M.T. Anderson read, but Michelle and I did have dinner with him and a small group of publishers and librarians. He was charming and delightful and I think that everyone should run right out and read all his books. And I should run out and read Feed, because I think I'm the only person in this business who hasn't.

Reading in Vegas, Baby!

I've been out of the office since my last entry, jetting off to LA for a bit of R&R. Of course, my traveling mojo is always a bit off, which explains the emergency landing in Las Vegas to make sure that the engine wasn't really on fire, as the indicator lights were saying it was. In the end, nothing had to hosed down and I had a little extra time to read one of the three books I'd brought with me . . .

Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty

Despite a few slow spots, the third book in this series does not disappoint. With all the brouhaha about Opal Mehta, it was nice to read McCafferty again and remember why she's worth "borrowing" from. Jessica Darling and the continuing saga of her love life took my mind off the terror of faulty airplanes, and what more could a person ask?

I leave tomorrow for ALA, and so I'm sure that I'll be back next week with a whole bunch of new titles to rave about.

Apparently I miss summer vacation . . .

OK . . . I realize it's been a while since I've posted, but we'll just call it "summer break" and move on. Here are some things that caught my eye while I was gone.


Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
I guess I should start right out with a confession that will anger and scandalize lovers of teen fiction everywhere--I wasn't overly fond of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. I mention this because the plotline of Just Listen is very similar to that of Speak, and I'm sure it will draw comparisons. But, to me at least, Just Listen is the book that Speak wanted to be . . . touching, true, and altogether beautiful. There is a gorgeousness to Sarah Dessen's writing, and a clarity and depth to her characters that makes me want to just hug the book to my chest and run away. This book not just about a single event, but how that event fits into a life that is already complicated and beautiful. I'm almost done reading this, and as you may be able to tell, I highly recommond it to anyone.


In the Fiddle is a Song by Durga Bernhard
This lift-the-flap-book highlights the potential of objects, as wheat becomes bread, a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, and an acorn becomes a tree. What intrigues me is the title, which appeals to the yoga-going, hippie side of me. There's something achingly true about the concept of the song being in the fiddle.


Harlequin Pink: Idol Dreams by Charlotte Lamb
Since the last two books left me all touchy-feely and way too Zen, I'll abruptly switch gears and bring you a new series of manga romances, Harlequin Pink. From the same company that brings you the ubiquitous Harlequin romances, and by many established romance writers, this series combines two things that teen girls are mad about. And they are printed entirely in pink ink!!!! Now, if only they would add a terminally ill love interest, our teens would want to LIVE in the library.



You're Different and That's Super by Carson Kressley
My basic cable has not allowed me to see even a single episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, so I'm not drawn to this book just because it was penned by the fashion stylist for the show. Maybe it's because this tale of a horse growing a unicorn horn tells me that it's more than okay for me to be unique . . . it's actually super!


Gorilla! Gorilla! by Jeanne Willis
LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!!! I tell you, these publishers are killing me with these big, sweet faces on the covers of all their books. Oh . . . and I'm sure that the story, about a mouse who loses her baby and is chased by a "mean, mouse-eating" gorilla, is sweet, too.