The sky begins at your feet: a staff review of The Sky Is Everywhere

Last March, Penguin sent our blog a review copy of Jandy Nelson's The Sky Is Everywhere which Katie raved about, and with its new paperback edition, now it is my turn to sing the praises of this gorgeous book.

Let's start with the cover: a sleeping girl entwined with vines: hinting of mystery, drama, and hopefully a handsome fellow (or two?) to awaken her. Lennie Walker (short for Lennon) is sleepwalking through life after the sudden death of her talented, beautiful sister Bailey. Without the shine of her sister to both guide her and hide her, and her Uncle Ben and Gram also adrift in grief, Lennie is overwhelmed by her sisterlessness.

What I love best of the many, many shining aspects of this debut are the characters. Lennie's best friend, Sarah, is one of the more perfectly imperfect sidekicks of contemporary fiction: she is philosophically cynical, French feminism obsessed, with a Goldilocks "goth gone cowgirl" style. Add in her mad scientist, four-times-married arborist Uncle Ben, rose gardener and green-only painter Gram, disappeared mother who has the family's "wanderer gene," and of course, two very different, attractive boys, and you have an incredible cast of fully realized, fully lovable characters.

These two boys are another compelling aspect of the story: who doesn't love a steamy, confused love triangle? Lennie discovers a solid crying shoulder in Bailey's boyfriend, Toby, whose silent support morphs into something more passionate, while new student and fellow clarinetist Joe breaks into her family's grieving routine with light, laughter, and delicious sludge-heavy coffee. Maybe it's her Gram's renowned roses, legendary in their heady love-inducing fumes, or it's the emptiness on Bailey's side of their room, but Lennie finds herself suddenly boy-crazy, vacillating between lust, depression, and laughter. Her grief is beautifully, heartbreakingly rendered: I found myself reeling along with Lennie as she yearned to run to share something new with Bailey and discovered her loss all over again.

The chapters are interspersed with found poems that Lennie had written on paper coffee cups, homework assignments, tree branches, and so on. I will close this review with one of my favorites, in the hopes that if my own obsession does not make you read this book, this poem will:

At night,
when we were little,
we tented Bailey's covers,
crawled underneath with our flashlights,
and played cards: Hearts,
Whist, Crazy Eights,
and our favorite: Bloody Knuckles.
The competition was vicious.
All day, every day,
we were the Walker Girls -
two peas in a pod
thick as thieves -
but when Gram closed the door
for the night,
we bared our teeth.
We played for chores,
for slave duty,
for truths and dares and money.
We played to be better, brighter,
to be more beautiful,
more, just more.
But it was all a ruse -
we played
so we could fall asleep
in the same bed
without having to ask,
so we could wrap together
like a braid,
so while we slept
our dreams could switch bodies.

New picture books: from moon dazed piggies to family farms' tractors

Is there anything more fun than getting a brace of new picture books, with staff members all crowding around book crates exclaiming over long-awaited titles, and customers peering into the pile to get a jump ahead on exciting books? This week has brought in some real crowd-pleasers.

Deborah Underwood had a fabulous spring last year with the popular Quiet Book, illustrated by Renata Liwska (Who wrote and illustrated a title I blogged about a few weeks ago, Red Wagon), and the graduation book, A Balloon for Isabel, illustrated by Laura Rankin. This season, Underwood and Liwska are back together for The LOUD Book, another endearing romp through the various sounds and reactions both kids and adults can relate to: "fireworks loud", "dropping your lunch tray loud," and the last page's heart-squeezing homage to summer, a lone bunny lying in a moonlit field to "crickets loud."

There are many truck and tractor books out there, as many a toddler-toting parent can affirm, but not all vehicles books have the soul and love that Grandpa's Tractor by Michael Garland contains. Grandpa Joe takes Timmy back to his childhood's farm, and while they walk by the abandoned barn to see the rusting tractor, Grandpa Joe tells him about planting alfalfa seeds, picking apples, and hauling firewood for their wood stove.


This next title, Ten Moonstruck Piglets by Lindsay Lee Johnson, I am going to beg Jess to read during story-time, it has such engaging rhymes. Just imagine the sounds you can make to this page: "They squeal! They snort!/On legs so short,/rollicking piglets/gaily cavort." I love the illustrations just as much, the black-on-blue scenery and piglet characters are so detailed that they deserve the kind of poring over that Richard Scarry and Don and Audrey Wood require.


We are a very animal friendly store - pets are very welcome (and welcome to the treats at the front door!) and our book buyer has been known to come upstairs to see any particularly adorable puppies. Which is why when such an adorable picture book as Say Hello to Zorro! by Carter Goodrich came in, we all pretty much melted. Mister Bud (with an hilarious large snout to stick over bedspreads and couches) is very set in his canine schedule, until a wee grumpy bull dog joins the family. Fans of Emily Gravett's Dogs will rejoice at another pup picture book that captures dog characters so very well.

My last pick of new picture books is the lush, lyrical and socially aware Migrant, written by Maxine Trottier and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (who happened to illustrate the Emily Dickinson installment of the Visions in Poetry series. Delicious.). Every year, Anna and her large family move with the seasons following the work from Mexico to Canada and back. The beauty in this potentially heavy story is the lightness and sweetness of the language: Anna's family is continually compared to geese flying, bees working, kittens sleeping, and the families that stay in one place are like trees rooted deeply: "But fall is here, and the geese are flying away. /And with them goes Anna, like a monarch, like a robin, like a feather in the wind."

New picture books: what's in a name?

I will admit that even after years of bookselling, and of course calling myself a discerning reader, I still make occasional snap judgments of books based on covers and titles. Even while I am trying to train myself not to, there are still those glorious moments when I read a title like The Boy Who Cried Ninja, and I am immediately, irrevocably in love with it, no matter how terrible it may be. Fortunately, these new picture books live up to their great titles, and then some.


If the title - complete with speech bubble! - alone hadn't grabbed me, the illustrations of Alex Latimer's The Boy Who Cried Ninja would have held me tight. Reminiscent of Oliver Jeffers style, these characters have such funny, endearing qualities as tiny stick legs and gaping mouths indicating speech. Don't let the title fool you into thinking this is a heavy handed morality tale, simply placing ninjas, sunburned crocodiles and time-traveling monkeys in lieu of wolves; it is more capricious than cautionary.

Just a few days ago a customer had been looking for books about stuffed animals and I wish we had had I Must Have Bobo! by Eileen and Marc Rosenthal in then! Not only am I apparently weak-kneed for It-Wasn't-Me kitty stares, I also have a soft spot for appropriately exclamatory titles. (Don't even tell me you too don't want to exclaim LET ME DRIVE THE BUS!, with various emphases)
Willy and his stuffed, beshirted monkey Bobo do everything together, from coloring to investigating potentially mean bitey-bigs. Unfortunately, Willy's conniving cat Earl also likes Bobo. The gentle humor and comforting sweetness of this story reminds me of A Sick Day for Amos McGee, with the added humor of a plush-filching cat named Earl, of all things.

This next book has a tongue-twister of a title: Where's Walrus? written and illustrated by Stephen Savage. This cheeky walrus escapes from the zoo, a la Good Night Gorilla and A Sick Day for Amos McGee, with a bumbling, mustachioed zookeeper hot on his tail, so to speak. With vibrant colors and a modern art feel, both children and adults will be amused by the walrus's plain sight hiding places and visual gags. I am particularly fond of the mermaid fountain scene and the cover's nod to Edward Hopper. Maybe there will even be a sequel with a certain red and white tourist hat for the walrus to try on...

My last latest picture book love has an understated title with an enticing cover: Renata Liwska's Red Wagon not only depicts one of my favorite animals (a hedgie! In the eponymous wagon!), but these animals look comfortingly familiar because Liwska was the illustrator of the much-talked-of adorable The Quiet Book. This tale of imagination and friendship is the definition of a picture book, with a perfect tension between the text and illustrations. My favorite spread is from the line "She was almost down [the hill] again when the wagon hit a rock!", where the wagon turns into a rocket ship with the fox and bunny friends as astronauts and the raccoon pal becomes a three-eyed alien raccoon in a UFO! Three eyed raccoons get me every time.

My latest love: Tales of the Madman Underground

In celebration of our 400th blog post, I'm going to rave about my latest young adult book obsession, Tales of the Madman Underground. This is one of those rare books that as soon as I had finished it, I turned back to the first page. I just wasn't ready to let Karl Shoemaker go! I had to tear myself away from a complete second read so I could mail my copy to my friend who teaches fiction writing...but maybe she'll send it back if I need Karl again.


Tales of the Madman Underground won John Barnes the Printz Honor in 2009 (Jellicoe Road took the Medal. What a year!). The Printz Medal is a teenage level Newbery Medal, awarded for exemplary young adult literature. In my mind, it also means you can give this book to both teens and adults - a crossover medal, if you will. And I certainly would give this book to either teens or adults. I am going to be pushing this book just like I pushed Anna and the French Kiss and Dairy Queen when I first discovered them, and still do. They are just that good.


Karl begins his senior year with "Operation Be Normal," hoping to escape his usual fate of being sent to therapy: "They might as well have tattooed CRAZY on your forehead. The next year every teacher would be watching you for the first weird thing you did - and has there ever been a kid who never does anything an adult considers weird?" (p 14). Of course, to be normal, Karl has to hide his exhaustion from four jobs, ignore taunts about his drunk pseudo-hippie mother, and most complicated of all, dissociate from his fellow therapy "Madmen." This 500 page feast covers only 5 days, but his magnetic voice, fueled as it is by anger and ferocious loyalty to the Madmen, pulls you through the many hilarious and heartbreaking tangential back stories. The plot unravels magnificently, Karl's present story line flowing into memories from childhood, middle school, or last summer, in a style that reminds me of Everything Is Illuminated and other adult titles. Occasionally I lose the narrative thread or am thrown by a few ungrammatical lines, but then Karl delivers those potent one-liners I remember from Holden Caulfield, the kind you underline and dog-ear: "Pain only matters when it happens to someone important." (p 70). Even if the writing occasionally struggles, Karl's voice carries it through. Like most teenagers, Karl is most funny and poignant when he isn't trying to be funny, so some of the dialogue clunks along while his painting of a scene rings true: "I thought how normal kids were spending their Friday nights after a game. Probably having pizza, or road drinking, or making out. Whereas I was standing on Mug Me Street in Toledo, Ohio, with a baseball bat and a purse." (p 324). I don't know about you, but I'd rather be on Mug Me Street with Karl for these 500 pages than having pizza with "normal" people.

Critics have compared this to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Catcher in the Rye, and I agree that here's a modern classic in the making. Even if this book is set a mere twenty years after Catcher in the Rye's publication, Karl is a modern Holden, bursting with anger and love, cynicism and the desire for things to be different. His language is accessible (no excess "phonies" to trip over) and his problems contemporary, even as he describes the bell bottoms of the "Christian jocks." Like Markus Zusak's I am the Messenger, Tales of the Madman Underground has that particular blend of humor and realism, in which the only way to get by is to laugh at life's painful absurdities. And for that, I would follow Karl anywhere.

"It wasn't that funny, but I laughed. There wouldn't be much laughter in the world if people didn't like each other, because there sure as shit aren't that many good jokes." (p 33).

Warning: graphic novel content!

Opening my daily Shelf Awareness email today -- an all-graphic novels edition -- I was only a little surprised to see my friend Robin talking about her love for graphic novels! Robin is the teen room librarian at the Brookline Library, where I spend a LOT of my free time, and I can vouch for her excellent (and expansive) taste in graphic novels.

Here are a few of our favorites to try!

Bookseller: Michelle
Title: American Born Chinese
Author: Gene Luen Yang
Genre: contemporary fiction/graphic novel; for fans of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Suggested reading level: age 12 and up
Synopsis: The three narratives of new-kid Jin Wang, TV’s Chin-Kee, and the legend of the Monkey King come together in heart-breaking and hilarious ways to spin a new tale on the age-old theme of figuring out just where one fits in.

Bookseller: Natasha
Title: Wonderland
Author: Tommy Kovac, Sonny Liew (illus)
Genre: graphic novel/fantasy
Suggested reading level: age 9 and up
Synopsis: “Mary Ann! Mary Ann!” Just who was this Mary Ann that the White Rabbit was looking for in the Disney Alice in Wonderland? This graphic novel, with incredibly vibrant illustrations, tells the story of the White Rabbit’s housemaid Mary Ann, picking up where the movie left off. Intrigue and fun abound!

Bookseller: Katie
Title: The Complete Persepolis
Author: Marjane Satrapi
Genre: graphic memoir; for fans of Maus or Blankets
Suggested reading level: age 15 and up
Synopsis: The struggles of a single teenager during the Iranian Revolution parallel those of a country asserting its independence in this heir to Spiegelman’s Maus. Marjane – in her dual roles as adolescent protagonist and adult narrator – is witty, courageous, and poignant; the black-and-white art is breathtaking.

Bookseller: Natasha
Title: Copper
Author: Kazu Kibuishi
Genre: graphic novel; adventure
Suggested reading level: age 9 and up
Synopsis: Great illustrations and characters that are both funny and a little deep make this a graphic novel not to be missed. Copper is a happy-go-lucky boy, and Fred is his mopey, existential dog. Together they get into all kinds of fantastical adventures. Reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes, with more fantasy.

Words can't describe...

I've long loved wordless picture books. There's something special about the joint act of storytelling between the reader and the illustrator/creator without the barrier of actual words. Within a wordless picture book, any child, no matter her reading abilities, can read: and even more satisfying, can tell the story to her grownups.


Wordless picture books can be as straightforward and humorous as Tomie DePaola's Pancakes for Breakfast, wherein a woman lacking the ingredients for this tasty morning staple finds a way to have pancakes one morning. They can be a simple day in a boy's adventures, as in Mercer Mayer's A Boy, A Dog, A Frog, and A Friend. Or they can be imaginative, even abstract, like the flying frogs of Tuesday by David Wiesner or the mind-bending perspective changes Zoom by Istvan Banyai.

The newest wordless picture book I've fallen in love with is a seemingly simple tale of friendship and love. But on second, third, twentieth reading, Beatrice Rodriguez's The Chicken Thief is so much more. Every time I see a George alum or customer particularly fond of excellent picture books, I show them this book and pose a question after the reading. (I'll give you the question after I summarize. SPOILER ALERT!). One day, a fox sneaks up on a group of various animal friends at their home in the woods, and makes off with their friend chicken. The animal friends chase the fox and chicken through the woods, over mountains and under tunnels, while the chicken and fox remain always a step ahead. Each night, the fox and chicken seem friendlier than a kidnapper and dinner might seem to be; one night they even play chess. When the friends finally catch up with the pair, the chicken gestures (because, as I have pointed out to a co-worker, in this make-believe land, the animals are still animals and don't, you know, talk) that it wants to stay with the fox, and the other animals go back over the mountains and through the woods back home. (END SPOILER!). Now I ask - is this a love story, or an example of Stockholm Syndrome? I've had a good discussion with the entire staff on this, and while most people swing toward "Love story, obviously!", a few (including our book buyer) do consider the second possibility. (Maybe they also consider that I'm a little loopy, but this is everyday knowledge here).

I hope this makes at least one person look twice at wordless picture books. Without someone explicitly telling you what is certainly happening, and therefore excluding what possibly may be happening, the act of reading becomes that much more interactive and open-ended. Sure, we know that the chicken stays with the fox, but do we know how they remain together, as friends, partners, kidnapper and sympathetic kidnappee, diner and dinner? How we choose to interpret these relationships can speak volumes about us readers, and as people.

So come in and tell me what you think! I'll be waiting.

A balloon for Isabel, a book for you

Ah, spring books. They are full of joyous things: there are flowers, there are bunnies, there are cupcakes and sunshine. There are adventures, capers, and songs. Of course, you occasionally get the extra syllable stuffed uncomfortably into a rhyming couplet, a heavy-handed moral, an illustration trapped in the gutter...but all good and mediocre picture books pale in comparison with my newest favorite.

Drumroll please. I give you:
A BALLOON FOR ISABEL by Deborah Underwood.



This is the tale of a kindergarten graduate who desperately wants a balloon at graduation - but isn't allowed one because she is a porcupine. Her predicament, her friendships, her waving quills, her series of creative solutions to her predicament: everything in this book is smart and endearing, but never overly clever or saccharine. You will sympathize, you will laugh, and you will crave gumdrops. It is, in a word, fresh. Its audience doesn't even need to be strictly graduates (of any age), it appeals to all of us who dream the impossible, and as humans, how can we not?

When the world is puddle-wonderful...

In addition to a time of tulips and mud-luscious puddles, April is Poetry Month! You can celebrate with poems hilarious or poems dolorous, poems tall or poems small...whatever poem suits you, shout it all the time (they don't even need to rhyme).

Jack Prelutsky has been the Children's Poet Laureate - and he's up there with the ranks of Shel Silverstein and Dr Seuss for amusing kids with rhymes. Try out Something Big Has Been Here - it's recently in paperback, so it makes having a big collection of poems that much more affordable and comfortable. These poems can amuse preschoolers through elementary age, lots of talk of underwear, dinosaurs, and general silliness. One of my favorites is "Mold, Mold", which begins:


Mold, mold,
marvelous mold,
alluring to look at,
enthralling to hold...


For older humorists, The Tighty Whitey Spider by Kevin Nesbitt is full of "wacky animal poems" about yaks playing basketball, a lost chameleon, and of course, a spider that gets a tighty whitey wedgie (to the tune of the Itsy Bitsy Spider). You can download the poems as read by the author on the book's website. Also try Nesbitt's second collection, My Hippo Has the Hiccups.



The Tree That Time Built takes a different approach to poetry. This collection, edited by our current Children's Poet Laureate, Mary Ann Hoberman and Linda Winston, a teacher, contains dreamy, wondrous poems about science and nature. The sections are divided into topics like "Prehistoric praise" and "Everything that lives wants to fly." The book includes an audio CD with selections of poetry and a glossary of terms.


My absolute favorite for teens is Poetry Speaks Who I Am, edited by Elise Paschen. I do love the Poetry Speaks project, and this is an incredible collection. The poets range from contemporary to classic, and the organization is brilliant: Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" across from Samuel Menashe's "Prowess", Shakespeare's sonnet # 130 ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun..") alongside "Litany" from Billy Collins. Of course, an audio CD of selected poems is included. If you've missed earlier books from this series, try out Poetry Speaks to Children, also edited by Elise Paschen and Hip Hop Speaks to Children, edited by Nikki Giovanni.


Since April is also Roald Dahl month, we can't forget Dahl's various collections of poetry! His chapter books are known for their bizarre humor and kind of gross weirdness, and his poems don't disappoint there. Revolting Rhymes are retold fairy tales in which the heroes or heroines are necessarily always heroic (Jack escapes the Giant in the beanstalk because he finally bathes!). Also try Dirty Beasts, or Vile Verses, which contains both Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts and poems from the chapter books.

In addition to these choices, we have a whole poetry section with other anthologies and collections ranging from Mother Goose, Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses and individual poet selections. For beginning poetry enthusiasts, I recommend the Poetry for Young People series; they are short, illustrated books from writers such as Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, and so on.

Boy, do I have some new gnus for you!

Spring is a glorious time - daffodils and tulips are blooming, birds are singing, the sun is warming your face, new toys are coming in from all our favorite companies...

Alex, loved for its creative and colorful toys, has expanded its line of great bath toys. In addition to the ever-popular bath crayons, "basketball" hoops, instruments, and water squirters, now you can enjoy Fishing in the Tub, where an intrepid bather can hook foam fish, and the Tub Coaster Traffic Jam, a floating automotive version of those bead mazes everyone knows and loves (See our baby room for Melissa & Doug's wooden versions!).


With the return of bugs and flowers and sunnier afternoons (oh my), it's a perfect time of year for Melissa & Doug's gardening tools! Their garden line, Sunny Patch, has all manner of toys for outdoor exploration from trowels, hoes and rakes to gloves, magnifying glasses and butterfly nets, in super colorful themes like Happy Giddy (orange and green bugs) and Blossom Bright (pink and yellow flowers).


Send your kid to their next slumber party with a bright (we're talking fashionably neon) and soft over-the-shoulder overnight bag from Sassafras. These totes are decorated with a plush sea critter cutie, like crabs, mermaids or sea horses. For first-time or seasoned toddler travelers, Sassafras has pull-along animal bags: probably the cutest thing on wheels since the cave man era. Your choices include zebra, puppy, giraffe, and leopard (yowza!).


Our newest addition to our Hello Kitty section are Kimmidoll collectible figurines. These small dolls are only two inches tall and wear adorable kimonos. Each character represents a particular value or wish. For example, Yoko is "Positive": "My spirit is noble and inspires confidence. By honoring your word and living true to the noble, you will inspire confidence and respect." Give these tokens to your friends and family, or start your own collection.

For your older friends, there's plenty of new things in our chapter book room too!

Who doesn't love a good spy? Hone your espionage skills with Slinky spy kits. The Spy Hawk Night Vision headset comes with a "night vision" red light and a microphone to amplify sound. You'll be taking missions from Bond's M before you know it.

Crafty types will love the latest activity kits from Klutz. Fashion origami gives detailed instructions and wildly patterned papers to create outfits in the Harajuku style (mixing together colors, patterns, and fashion styles to create a totally original look). Klutz Animation shows you how to make stop motion movies with regular household items; it even includes a packet of plasticine with which to make clay figurines.


Since I can't not tell you about books, here are some new titles we're super excited about!


You love her Mother Goose, fables, and especially her baby and animals board books...now there's a reprint of Gyo Fujikawa's Oh What a Busy Day! This collection is full of her round-cheeked, expressive toddlers, silly and serious rhymes, and tons of little vignettes to pour over for hours. And I promise you, you will want to come back to this book again and again, and each time you'll find another surprise in her drawings.


Our staffers Natasha and Miruna are ecstatic that Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet have a new, giant picture book out: Oops! It's big, bold, and bright like 2006's mathematical comedy 365 Penguins. (How many times do you encounter that genre?). Oops! follows the chaotic chain of catastrophes of a family trying to get to the airport on time, and even includes a cause-and-effect explanation in the back. Our staffers are extra ecstatic that Jolivet will be at the French Library and Cultural Center on April 29th!

Speaking of math, there's a great new picture book biography of Leonardo Fibonacci written by Joseph Dagnese. Blockhead tells the story of young Leonardo, who was called "Blockhead" because he was always daydreaming about numbers. Despite their ridicule, this young daydreamer continued to do what made him happy and so grew up to discover number riddles and mathematical patterns in nature that scientists still use today. There are plenty of good biographies for kids about famous politicians, inventors, and athletes, and it's great to see a good, coherent one about a mathematician!

My last pick of new books is for all the Percy Jackson fans out there. The incredible paper-working duo Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda have a new installment in their pop-up Encyclopedia Mythologica series: Gods and Heroes. As always, the paper design is gorgeously detailed and vibrant and the writing is clear. The legends are from civilizations around the world, including Egyptian, Norse, Native American, and Polynesian.

And now for something completely different.

I've been thinking lately that I might make a thousand origami cranes (or try to, anyway).

Japanese folklore says that someone who folds a thousand cranes may be granted a wish -- typically the healing of sickness. I can't tell you my wish, since in American folklore, revealing a wish to others generally means it won't come true! Today the bundles of cranes, called senbazuru, are often made as wedding presents, new baby gifts, good luck charms for a family's home, or get-well wishes for someone suffering from illness or injury. An incredible customer of ours who's undertaken the project herself said the other day that folding the cranes is a "physical prayer or meditation."

In Naomi Hirahara's 1001 Cranes, Angela is sent to live with her grandparents while her parents begin the process of separation. Angela's grandmother puts her to work folding cranes for wedding gifts in her grandparents' flower shop. At first, Angela is not only terribly clumsy at the origami but also resentful of her parents' inevitable divorce, her summer away from home, and the expectation that she work in the shop. However, as the summer progresses, she slowly begins to think of the folding as a meditation and an opportunity to deepen relationships with her extended family.

I first learned of the legend in elementary school, when I read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Elizabeth Coerr. Sadako Sasaki was two years old in 1945 when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, about a mile from her home. At age twelve, Sadako was hospitalized with leukemia. She and her loved ones began to fold cranes in hopes that her health would improve. According to some sources, all thousand cranes were finished by Sadako's death in October 1955; Coerr states that Sadako completed only 644, with the rest of the thousand finished after her death by family and friends and buried with her. Either way, after her death, Sadako became an international symbol for the horrors of atomic warfare and the senbazuru inextricably connected to wishes for world peace. Now about 20,000 cranes are sent to Hiroshima each year in remembrance of Sadako and to join the cry for world peace.

Our origami section just expanded quite a bit in the last week, but since I'm feeling a little somber I'll just show you the papers (by Aitoh) I'm getting to start my folding:

Aren't they pretty? If I don't make any mistakes with these, I'll only have 932 to go... Wish me luck!

Bippity boppity boo!

An update on the books from my fairy godperson at Penguin!

I'm in the middle of Jandy Nelson's brand-new YA novel The Sky is Everywhere. After her exuberant older sister Bailey dies suddenly, shy Lennie can only seem to feel two things: "crazy sad" and boy-crazy. Gram, Uncle Big, and Bailey's boyfriend Toby are devastated as well, and the four of them drift through their small town seeing nothing but Bailey's absence. Lennie's new classmate Joe is an unexpected source of comfort, but Lennie's torn between him and the off-limits Toby. With its just-slightly-larger-than-life hilarious characters, wrenching plot, and exquisite writing (both prose and poetry), I can only manage a few pages at a time before my heart hurts and I have to put it down.... but this is my next staff pick for sure!

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher is the other book I received mysteriously in the mail (in a somewhat When You Reach Me-esque way) from Penguin. While I haven't started it yet -- owing to my glacial pace on The Sky is Everywhere -- Michelle did read and recommend it:

Genre: dystopian, steampunk; for fans of Hunger Games
Suggested reading level: ages 14 and up
Synopsis: In order to make the world “safe,” Incarceron, a vast thinking prison, was created to contain the criminal or mentally ill. Finn, an epileptic prisoner, finds a crystal key to communicate with a girl Outside – but can he escape before Incarceron thinks, and acts, for itself? This British import blends action, philosophy, and mystery.

And it looks like Incarceron will be a movie! It'll be a while, but between The Lightning Thief and Alice in Wonderland out now, the upcoming Legends of the Guardians [of Ga'hoole] adaptation, and the long-awaited Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, our movie adaptation viewing schedule's planned for at least a month or two. :) AND DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, oh my gosh. I can't believe I forgot with our life-sized Wimpy Kid in his director's chair right in front of me.

Staff pick-a-palooza.

Seems like all of us have been staff picking it up lately -- maybe it's the terrible weather encouraging us to read under a mountain of blankets, or maybe it's just the abundance of great new books! Here's a slew of staff picks of our newest titles.

Bookseller: Michelle
Title: North of Beautiful
Author: Justina Chen Headley
Genre: realistic fiction; for fans of Sarah Dessen
Suggested reading level: ages 14 and up
Synopsis: With a gorgeous body, perfect hair and stylish clothes, you almost wouldn’t notice Terra’s facial birthmark. But the mark and her father control her life until a cute goth boy, a trip to China, and an art show change her life. Brilliant prose, cartographic imagery & well-crafted characters set this novel apart.

Bookseller: Dave
Title: Woods Runner
Author: Gary Paulsen
Genre: Historical fiction
Suggested reading level: 10 and up
Synopsis: A backwoods/Revolutionary war adventure told with gritty detail and interspersed with real historical segments. It is a fascinating and vivid portrait of frontier life in the late 1700’s. A fun way to learn some history.

Bookseller: Katie
Title: Beautiful Creatures
Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Genre: Southern gothic supernatural romance
Suggested reading level: ages 13 and up
Synopsis: Everything changes for Ethan when the strange girl he’s dreamed about enrolls in his high school. Together they brave small-town prejudice, Dark forces, over-protective magical guardians, and a Carrie-style prom to break the curse on Lena’s family. An up-all-night story of star-crossed first romance!

Bookseller: Natasha
Title: Nothing
Author: Janne Teller
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Suggested reading level: ages 12 and up
Synopsis: “A Lord of the Flies for the 21st century.” The novel explores the question “If there’s no meaning in the universe, what’s the point?” Upon this realization, 13 year old Pierre takes to living in a plum tree & practices doing nothing. His fellow classmates, unnerved by his newfound philosophy, try to get him out of the tree. The novel is at times creepy and always thought-provoking.

Bookseller: Michelle
Title: Incarceron
Author: Catherine Fisher
Genre: dystopian, steampunk; for fans of Hunger Games
Suggested reading level: ages 14 and up
Synopsis: In order to make the world “safe,” Incarceron, a vast thinking prison, was created to contain the criminal or mentally ill. Finn, an epileptic prisoner, finds a crystal key to communicate with a girl Outside – but can he escape before Incarceron thinks, and acts, for itself? This British import blends action, philosophy, and mystery.

Bookseller: Katie
Title: All Unquiet Things
Author: Anna Jarzab
Genre: mystery, drama
Suggested reading level: ages 15 and up
Synopsis: A year after Carly’s murder, her first love Neily and her cousin Audrey team up to exonerate Audrey’s dad and find the real killer. During their investigation they uncover unsettling truths about their community and Carly’s last months. Suspenseful and sad, this is a great novel for a stormy night.

It looks like March will be coming in like a lion, so cuddle up with one of these great reads and a cozy blanket to stay warm inside and out.

Thirsty for new teen fantasy?

It's been two months since the New Moon movie adaptation was released - plenty of time to hit the multiple viewing overdose; and six months until Eclipse comes out. What's a vampire fiction lover to do now? Clearly, it's time for a round up of new fantasy adventure books for the Twilight/Harry Potter addict in your life. You can find most of these titles in our "Books with Bite" display in the chapter book room.

Supernatural Romance

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
This sophisticated fantasy follows Grace and too-cute Sam through their blossoming romance. There’s only one problem: Sam’s a werewolf. When the temperature drops, Sam and his pack transform from human to wolf, and each wolf only gets so many years before the change is permanent. To make matters worse, rogue werewolves roam the woods surrounding their small hometown, biting their neighbors and friends. Sam and Grace’s alternating narratives heighten both the character development and the sense of desperate suspense.

Vampires have been sexy and edgy for a good long time now, but why don't werewolves get any love? If you're a "Team Jacob" type, this is the read for you. I'm already antsy for the sequel Linger, which will be out in July. -- Katie

Captivate by Carrie Jones
The sequel to Need, Captivate returns to a rural part of Maine inhabited by pixies and weres. The shape-shifting weres are bound to protect humans from pixies, who are definitely baddies: they kidnap teenage boys for their dinners and force human women to be their queens. Zara lives uncomfortably in the middle; she's part-pixie herself, with a werewolf boyfriend. (I'm on a pro-werewolf campaign, apparently.) -- Katie

Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
As you may remember from an earlier post, the cover of this book grabbed me: Astrid’s intense glare, sword blade a la Graceling, and the unicorn in its reflection! From what I’d seen on the author’s blog, Rampant had gone through many covers, each seeming a completely different genre (my favorite might have been the romance one, with tongue-in-cheek tone nodding to The Princess Bride). The book did live up to its dramatic cover, and that is the key word here… shocking amounts of drama.

Astrid has been trying to ignore her mother’s tales of bloodthirsty, man-eating unicorns, and their ancestors who hunted them. It’s only when her boyfriend is gored by a lesser species of unicorn (by page ELEVEN) that Astrid must face the truth about these one-horned beasts. Astrid is speedily outcast from her comfortable social position – which makes her immediate packing off to unicorn-killer training camp in Rome a tiny bit more palatable. Once installed in the decrepit former convent, she meets an array of unicorn hunter descendants, from obsessed Cordelia, with a dark past, to Astrid’s cousin, Phil, who seems out for just adventure (and dates with Italian men). The characters are likable, and their discussions about the ecological and moral repercussions of hunting any beast to extinction and the problem of negotiating the commitment of being a virgin hunter with modern dating are treated surprisingly well. I did have trouble suspending disbelief in a world that was so quickly and roughly established, especially with the hurried conclusion and the almost caricature-like behaviors of some adults. But really, when it comes to killer unicorns and eating gelato with handsome Italian men, I’m willing to forgive some ridiculous drama – I was entertained, and that’s what counts.
-- Michelle

The Mortal Instruments Trilogy: City of Bones, City of Ash, and City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
When Clary's mother disappears, she's astonished to discover an underground world of fallen angels, demons, and demon-hunters - and her own family's part in it. Shadowhunters Jace, Isabelle and Alex promise to help her, but the price of their friendship is more danger and intrigue. Soon the lives of everyone Clary loves, from her mother and her best friend Simon, to her almost-dad Luke and her new-found allies, dangle dangerously in the balance between good and evil. The second and third volumes add inner demons to Clary's long list of adversaries as she's racked with remorse over the fate of a friend and forbidden desires. Magical creatures, mystical tattoos, arcane weapons, thwarted romance, prophecies and plot twists will have you wanting to be a Shadowhunter when you grow up. -- Katie

The Vampire Diaries series: The Awakening and The Struggle by L.J. Smith
Before Angel and Buffy, Edward and Bella came Stefan and Elena - a vampire with a conscience and his mortal girlfriend. Unlike Bella, who's forced to choose between two gentlemen, Elena is torn between Stefan and his bad-boy brother, Damon. The brothers' centuries-old feud puts Elena at risk, just as a malignant force descends upon their small town. Smith originally published the first book, The Awakening, in 1991, but the series was recently reissued with new photographic covers in conjunction with The Vampire Diaries TV show. The latest volume, The Return: Nightfall, was published early last year and will come out in paperback in May. -- Katie

For more forbidden romance, try:
Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor
Nightworld and Dark Visions by L.J. Smith
Thirst by Christopher Pike (an omnibus of The Last Vampire series)

Fallen angel romance is the up-and-coming vampire romance...try:
Hush, Hush by Rebecca Fitzpatrick
Fallen by Lauren Kate

Dark Tales

The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
In a town with no women, where everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts, Todd is a month away from becoming a man. When he and his dog Manchee suddenly come across a silent spot in the Noise, though, everything Todd thought he knew about the world is proven wrong. Volumes 1 and 2 of the Chaos Walking series follow Todd, Manchee, and a girl named Viola along the dangerous and twisted path toward saving their world from falling into darkness. These unique and brilliantly written books expose the moral ambiguities of hatred and terrorism, the strength of loyalty and love, and package it all in a thrilling post-apocalyptic sci-fi narrative. -- Rachel

For more dark fantasy stories, try:
Good Neighbors: Kith and Kin by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh (graphic novel, faery)
Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler
Fell by David Clement-Davies (werewolves)
Forest of Hands and Teeth and the sequel The Dead-Tossed Waves, due in March, by Carrie Ryan (zombies)

Retellings

Ash by Malindo Lo
Ash is alone in the world; her parents are dead, her stepmother is cruel, and her only solace is a mysterious and beautiful stranger who walks with her in the Wood. That is, until she meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress. Now she must find a way to fulfill a bargain without betraying her heart. Cinderella as never before. -- Rachel

Another Faust by Daniel and Dina Nayeri
Before we really talk about this book, I have to confess that since I have not actually read Goethe’s Faust, I cannot make any legitimate comparisons. But really, from what I can tell of the original, Another Faust is not a retelling of Goethe, but a contemporary re-imagining of the question: What would you sell your soul for? A re-imagining that fuses supernatural drama with mean girl literature, creating a genre I haven’t encountered before.

Five children – desperate or lonely, poor or neglected – across the world disappear one night. No one notices. No one remembers they had even existed. Five years later, with the help of their mysterious governess Madame Vileroy, five teenagers walk in to elite Marlowe School and slowly, subtly wreak havoc with tricks that only begin with cheating, lying, and stealing. Each has a special gift bestowed by Vileroy, which they use to manipulate those around them, with varying consequences. I found the group’s complicated relationships the most fascinating, and repulsive, here. While their individual battles with their insecurities and selfish desires were detailed and of course, important to the plot, I was compelled by the tension between the fallen and the innocent sisters, the constant competition to be Vileroy’s favorite, and their cruel manipulations of each other and their peers. I don’t read the Gossip Girl novels or anything in that mean girl genre, but Another Faust seems like a raw look at that kind of self-preserving/self-harming behavior. I rarely felt much sympathy for the characters, even the more innocent ones, and at times I couldn’t believe the extent of their desperation and cruelness.

Still, I want to believe that’s the point: even if we readers consider ourselves relatively innocent, “evil” is not necessarily an extreme only a few succumb to, it’s a long path that can begin with some of humanity’s unfortunately natural emotions. I’m not sure that the dramatic cover matches the content, though I do like the glowing moths touch. The kind of audience that would be drawn to a photo of beautiful teenagers in elegant dress might like the petty school hierarchy, but not be taken in by the Devil-soul device. Likewise, the reader who may enjoy the supernatural aspects might avoid the vampy, prom night atmosphere. In the end, I wouldn’t call this book entertaining, per se, there was too much emotional manipulation for my taste, but it was interesting and certainly a creative genre blend. -- Michelle

For more spins on familiar fairy-tale motifs, try:
Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logstad (Beauty and the Beast)
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan (Snow White and Rose Red; new in paperback in February)
Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev (Shakespeare)
The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott

Make sure to revisit our retold fairy tale round-up for some of our other best-loved takes on these traditional tales.


We hope that slakes your thirst for the time being...