Feeling Sorry for Celia

I guess I’m not the only one who really enjoys novels that unfold through letters and other personal documents, because Jaclyn Moriarty’s Feeling Sorry for Celia (2001) is still flying off the shelves. Told entirely through letters, post-its, memos, anonymous love notes, faxes, and other bits of written communication to & from 15-year-old Elizabeth Carry, Feeling Sorry for Celia is a wonderful, funny coming-of-age story.

The details about Elizabeth’s life jostle for position like unruly puzzle pieces as we read messages from her Mom (always at work), her Dad (gone since she was a baby, now back in town and wanting way too much attention), her new penpal (Christina, a breath of fresh air from the wrong side of the tracks), her almost-boyfriend (and fellow long distance runner, Saxon), her secret admirer (let’s keep it a secret...), and, of course, her best friend, Celia.

Celia is a fairly unusual girl:

So anyway I really only have one friend here, that's Celia, and I promise you she is most DEFINITELY not a nice private school girl. She's kind of weird actually. She's always getting into trouble because she gets bored really really easily So she always wants to try something new, like shaving her head or chopping down a tree or taking apart the kitchen so she can put it back together (she did that to my kitchen actually, and it took us six months to reconnect the dishwasher).

My mum says it's because Celia has an attention span the size of a sesame seed.

Celia's mum says it's because Celia's identity is unfurling itself slowly, like a tulip bud, and it's a breathtakingly beautiful thing to see.

At the start of the book, Celia has run away to join the circus, where she is training to be a tightrope walker. Elizabeth and Saxon “rescue” her, and before we know it, Celia and Saxon are dating.

Uh oh. With her best friend dating the guy she has a crush on, Elizabeth is ready to branch out. Things happen, lives change, secrets are revealed, and, courtesy of Moriarty’s letter-by-letter style, we have a front row seat to what each character is up to.

My favorite letters are the imaginary ones: the earnest, hilarious exhortations to Elizabeth from Elizabeth, written by the likes of The Cold Hard Truth Association, The Best Friends Club, The Association of Teenagers, The Society of High School Runners Who Aren't Very Good at Long-Distance Running but Would Be if They Just Trained, etc.

Dear Ms. Clarry,

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to join our Society.

We have just found out about your holiday. It's so impressive! You had four assignments, an English essay, and a chapter of math to do. And you didn't do one single piece of homework!

Fabulous!

Also, we have a feeling that you have a history test today. And you're trying to study now? On the bus? With the Brookfield boys climbing onto each other's shoulders to get to the emergency roof exit? And with Celia about to get on the bus at any moment? And you think that's going to make a difference!!!

That's really very amusing, Elizabeth. We like you for it.

You're perfect for our Society and we're very excited about having you join.

The Society of People Who Are Definitely Going to Fail High School

Feeling Sorry for Celia is great stuff. Try it, if you haven’t. Tell us about it, if you have.

P.S. There are a lot of novels written in this format (aka epistolary novels), including Dracula, The Screwtape Letters, The Color Purple, The Boy Next Door, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Age 13 3/4, and among my very faves, The Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Uglies

Tally Youngblood, at 15 and 3/4 still one of the Uglies, is desperate for escape from the drudgery of waiting for that magic 16th birthday when she can redesign herself in the process of surgically becoming one of the Pretties. She'll be granted a whole new lease on life with a body of choice, including fresh, unblemished skin and re-ground bones, and the big move across the river to New Pretty Town, a city dedicated to the mindless pursuits of pleasure and decadence. How “bubbly!” What?! Yes, it’s true, it’s too true, but is it too good to be true? Only Scott Westerfeld knows for sure.

Tally’s new friend, Shay, who teaches her the thrills and chills of hover-boarding in their last days of ugliness, heads off to join the Smokies, who occupy land out west somewhere in a communal effort to remain true to themselves and live as nature intended. Tally is horrified but intrigued until the Department of Special Circumstances (yes, the Specials!) offers her a deal she can’t refuse: help them locate Shay and the other Smokies, or die trying. Well, it’s not that drastic, but if she refuses, she’ll remain an Ugly forever.

Talk about an adventure! Tally almost dies trying, having made the "big mistake" and slept among the white tiger orchids, but once she’s discovered Smoke, she doesn’t want to leave. One takes the rebels at face value, so to speak, no alterations necessary. David, who was born there (oh yes, she must meet his parents,) introduces her to a non-engineered society, that is, one built upon the tragic lessons of the Rusties but stopped well short of the plastic conformity of the Pretties, a place where work gloves and warm sweaters are worth a fortune in “SpagBol.”

And then, and then… as I said earlier, only Westerfeld knows for sure whether Tally will betray her new friends to the Department as promised. She does, after all, discover from David’s parents the secret of the lesions, and David’s kisses are quite warm, hmmm, yes. So…. what’s next? Some pretty special adventures hover just around the corner, if you know what I mean. Do you?

Inu-Yasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale

OMG -- can Rumiko Takahashi’s manga get any more popular? First, Ranma 1/2 was flying off the rack, and now it’s Inu-Yasha. (As soon as I finish this, I have to buy us some more copies.)

We start with Kagome, a typically sweet and dutiful Japanese school girl. She lives with her family and her cat, Buyo, in an old shrine, and everything is pretty normal until she falls down a well.

At this point, it’s good to strike from your mind any thoughts of Lassie (“What is it, girl? Has Timmy fallen in the well?”) or even Alice (“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”) No, Inu-Yasha is a bit more exciting than that. For instance, Kagome doesn’t exactly fall down the Bone Eating Well -- she is suddenly grabbed and hauled in by a centipede demon. No Wonderland, this, but ancient, feudal Japan, where demons and monsters and all the old legends are alive and well.

Fighting for her life against Centipede Lady, Kagome encounters the title character, Inu-Yasha. Half-human, half-dog demon, Inu-Yasha had been bound to the Tree of Ages until Kagome breaks the spell (cast by his first love, the priestess Kikyou.) As it happens, both the Centipede Demon and Inu-Yasha want the same thing: the power-enhancing Jewel of Four Souls, aka the Shikon no Tama, so Inu-Yasha joins forces with Kagome and the demon is a goner. In the process, Kagome is discovered to be the reincarnation of Kikyou; the jewel is discovered, struggled over, and smashed into shards; and the plot is set for what will eventually turn out to be a 33+ volume manga series.

Love & betrayal, blood & battle, monsters & magic, weapons & people of power, plus not a few screamingly funny lines, Inu-Yasha is a great yarn. Rumiko Takahashi has won 3 Shogakukan Manga Awards and the Inkpot, which is really no wonder. Inu-Yasha is also out as a television program, and a series of video games.

So, if you’re ready to meet the bloodsucking demon flea and the human monk with the wind tunnel in his hand -- or watch Kagome immobilize Inu-Yasha with the secret word, “Sit!” (too funny...) as he brandishes the magic sword, the Iron Crushing Fang, give this series a try.

And hey -- if you’re already a fan, who’s your favorite character?

Life As We Knew It

Miranda lives in a small Pennsylvania town where potential prom dates rule thoughts of spring. That and the fact that her best friend Megan is undergoing some “born again” alterations in her lifestyle and mindset are enough to occupy Miranda without TV news warnings of a potential asteroid strike.

Heavens above, an asteroid strike on earth?! No, silly, on the moon, no need to worry. Still, a certain frisson of fear ripples through her family as they stand outside one night, awaiting the event that will forever change Life As We Knew It. The asteroid actually knocks the moon a tad off its axis, thereby causing cataclysmic damage to earth: tsunamis destroy coastal areas, and earthquakes and volcanoes inflict damage beyond belief, the worst being clouds of ash which produce the dreaded effects of a nuclear winter.

What’s a girl to do? Susan Beth Pfeffer’s answer is what makes this story so appealing; she focuses on Miranda and her family, giving the Hollywood disaster scenes scant attention. Her quick-thinking mother enlists the aid of the children and their older neighbor, Mrs. Nesbitt, to stock the house with food, batteries, candles and water. Her younger brother is sent home from baseball camp that summer when they run out of food. Other brother, Matt, chops the backyard trees into so much firewood that the family is pushed out of the downstairs living spaces into the sunroom with the wood stove. We watch her father and his new wife bravely drive west after a tearful family reunion. With no school and no transportation, Miranda tries ice skating on the pond until the polluted air forces her inside, ever inside into a tighter and more confining space. A virus strikes the family, already weakened as their food supply dwindles, but the local hospital has become a dead zone. And then, in what seems like the nick of time, Miranda courageously ventures into town through the piles of fallen snow.

Stop. Slow down a minute and follow the domino effect of little sunlight and no power for electricity, water, and heat. No hints here; just think about it, all the way down the food chain….

If you’ve already read this, let me know if you think the story is plausible, and if there truly is a reason to be hopeful. What would YOU do?

(HHSLibrarian also podcasted on this title a while back.)

Parrotfish

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas of her junior year in high school, Angela McNair made some changes. Not just her hairstyle. Not just the sort of clothes she wore. Not just the people she hung around with. And not just her name. Nope, Angie changed way more than that. She changed her outside to match her inside: she changed her sexual identity. Sort of like the parrot fish.

Parrotfish, by Christine Wittlinger, has been on the shelf since last September. Well, not really on the shelf very much; it’s the number one most-taken-out new novel of the 2007/2008 school year -- beating out Bloodline, Life As We Knew It, and The Secret Hour by just 1 circulation. In a story all about family, and self, and coming of age, Wittlinger takes us on a rare journey through the early experiences of a female to male transsexual teen.

Angie tells her family first. Her Dad, with whom she has always done lots of guy stuff, is pretty zen. Her sister, Laurie, is mad and mortified. Her brother, Charlie, hardly looks up from his video games. Her Mom is absolutely stunned, and can’t even really look Angie in the eye. Angela, daughter and sister, is now Grady, son and brother.

When Grady goes back to school after Thanksgiving, he finds out pretty quickly that his spot in the pecking order has changed. He encounters equal opportunity harassment, from male and female alike. Some of his teachers can deal, and some cannot. People he never knew very well treat him better than most of his old friends. “ ‘Angela was my friend, but I don’t know who Grady is! I’m sorry, but I can’t call you that in front of people. I can’t be a part of this whole thing. It’s just too bizarre.’ "

In this novel, we spend a month in Grady’s head, silent observers as he grapples with the realities of his identity change. There are bad times, but nothing unspeakable. There are good times, but nothing ecstatic. There are a lot of uncomfortable, in the middle times. And there are the no-longer-mundane details associated with living a male life in a female body: where to go to the bathroom, changing before and after gym class, etc. Not to mention the complications of falling in love. And parts of Parrotfish are pretty funny. The wildly excessive Christmas prep at the McNair household and Grady’s wry inner monologs (“Does a Hamlet fish carry around a skull and ponder suicide?”) come to mind.

If you haven’t read Parrotfish, I have carefully not told you how everything comes out. If you have, why not take a minute to comment and tell us what you thought of it?

The Spellman Files

Voila! For my personal favorite, I'm sending you into detective fiction that goes beyond the normal, directly into the realm of ferocious fun and games. In fact, Lisa Lutz’s The Spellman Files is just plain outrageous at times. How can you not laugh aloud at a family whose hobby is spying on each other? I really cannot wait to get my hands on her new book, Curse of the Spellmans.

So, imagine a family run private investigation agency. Dad is an ex-cop, SFPD, as is Uncle Ray, who moves in shortly after the fun begins. Mom and Dad have raised David, Izzy and little Rae on a steady diet of surveillance and background checks, but David veers into the more profitable legal profession, leaving Izzy to follow her parents into the business. Izzy, after an adolescent career checkered with mischief, rebellion and arrests, really isn’t suited for anything else, and steps into adulthood, slowly acquiring a string of ex-boyfriends and suffering nights spent sleeping in her car.

The truth is, though, that it’s Rae who turns the whole family upside down with her natural talent for surveillance, and the inevitable consequences thereof. Negotiations that lead directly to blackmail govern Rae’s hold on the family. She’s got dirt on everyone, is addicted to sugar, and will stop at nothing in her quest to make the family pay for their minor infractions and take her seriously. Every week David pays her off so she won’t squeal on him. The parents negotiate everything from hair washing to sugar usage as Rae slowly builds her nest egg. But it’s Izzy who holds the line and forces Rae to pay for her sins.

Family conversations are enough to drive a sane person crazy, and Daniel, the dentist and soon-to-be ex-boyfriend # 10, can attest to that. Questions follow questions and half-truths abound. When Izzy gets fed up enough to try to quit, she finds she cannot let go of the Snow case, and everyone chips in to keep her under 24 hour surveillance. The principals in the case have threatened to sue if she doesn’t let go; her parents have had it with her; the boyfriend thinks she’s truly nuts, and then there’s Rae, at 14, who gets kidnapped. In one fell swoop, the book takes an abrupt turn and the chase is on.

Join in the chase, and grab this book before it disappears. Only, tell us what you found out, okay?

Paddle to the Amazon

If you like real-life adventure stories -- and especially if you’ve ever paddled a canoe or a kayak -- you’re going to like Paddle to the Amazon. (I found it spell-binding; and, since I’ve read just about every expedition paddling narrative out there, I’m a pretty hard sell.)

Don Starkell, looking to reconnect with his two teenage sons after a long period of separation, decided on a canoe trip. He did a lot of planning, learned a little Spanish, and loaded Dana, Jeff, and all their gear into a 21’ open canoe for an epic 2-year journey. (Don and Dana stuck it out; Jeff bailed in Mexico and returned to college.)

It was 12,192 miles by lake, river, and ocean, from Winnipeg, Canada, to the mouth of the Amazon at Belem, Brazil. Relying on the kindness of strangers, their own slim resources and fierce determination (plus a good measure of luck,) they prevailed. It was no paddle in the park, this trip. Dana and Don endured hunger, thirst, exhaustion, food poisoning, salt sores, near-drownings, asthma attacks, and hurricanes. They were lost, shot at, arrested, robbed, mistaken for smugglers, nearly murdered, and menaced by crocodiles, wild boar, sharks, piranhas, and pirates.

Did I mention all the yummy meals of coconuts and roasted ants?

Paddle to the Amazon is certainly not a run of the mill father/son bonding story. And in the interests of full disclosure, I have to confess that it is also not among the most popular books here in the Library. But, since I get a chance to push my own favorites once in a while, here it is!

Still undecided? Check out these trailers for a little more persuasion. And if you enjoyed reading Paddle to the Amazon, dive right into Starkell’s second book, Paddle to the Arctic. It won’t disappoint.

As always, tell us what you think. If you’ve read Paddle, tell us whether or not you liked it. If you’re a fellow “true adventure” jinkie, tell us what other books we should try.

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City

Boy oh boy, if you want to sink your teeth into a good adventure story that begins in a sinkhole, you’ve come to the right pocket park. Pocket park, you know, those tiny fenced in gardens carved out between two brownstones in a city like, say, why yes, New York City. The NYPD cordoned the sinkhole off with yellow construction tape before the morning was over, but that just increased its appeal. Go on, you know you want to find out why Ananka Fishbein went down the hole and whom she discovered there.

My goodness, I haven’t even mentioned Kiki Strike yet. Kirsten Miller has created an incredibly resourceful, undernourished, pale-haired junior spy who takes NYC by storm. In her debut novel, Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City, Miller sends us haring off into the underground tunnels with a troop worthy of their Holmesian appellation: the Irregulars. Dee Dee, Luz, Betty, and Oona, all ex-Girl Scouts, join Ananka and Kiki as they combine their many talents (forgery and explosives, to name a few) to explore the shadowy bowels of New York.

Just think what’s beneath Manhattan Island: tunnels for natural gas, electricity, water, sewer, subways, all interlacing beneath the great skyscrapers and heavy stone buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. Rats, bodies, vaults, opium dens…well yeah! Where do you think the criminal and moneyed classes hid their loot and drugs and bodies from the police? Underground! Although the other girls don’t realize it at first, Kiki is on a serious, international security mission but she cannot achieve success without their help. And who better to come to her aid, with bombs, costumes, and maps, than a crack team of girls?

Go ahead, be an Irregular and dig deeply into this one, and don't forget the next installment: The Empress's Tomb. You won’t regret it for an instant, except for the, uh, rats…. Drat, where is that pest repellent, Dee Dee?!

Ever had any "underground" adventures? Speak up!

Insatiable - The Compelling Story of Four Teens, Food and Its Power

Samantha, Hannah, Jessica, and Phoebe wrestle with their eating demons in the pages of Eve Eliot’s “self-help novel,” Insatiable. More popular at HHS than its sequel, Ravenous, Insatiable is second only to The Best Little Girl in the World among our eating disorder novels.

Samantha, the blonde, athletic cheerleader, starves, cuts, and vacuums compulsively. We meet her in the first 3 sentences of the book: “Samantha's heart nearly stopped as she realized what Brian was actually telling her. Because there were other students all around them, milling past carrying books and backpacks, she forced herself to breathe evenly, look normal, perfect as always. This is what was expected of her, the blondest cheerleader with the cutest boyfriend, the prettiest girl at Maple Ridge High.”

Phoebe, everybody’s pal and nobody’s girlfriend, is a great student who feels best when she eats. Her fashion photographer Dad has plenty to say about that, and with predictable results.

Jessica is artistic, rebellious, and captivated by style and fashion. She gets along on coffee and Diet Coke, and is now too weak to climb the stairs to English class. Her claim to fame? “I tell myself how special I am,” said Jessica. “I tell myself I’m different because I can be hungry and still not eat.”

And Hannah, another top student, swamped with grief over her Mom’s death, is a beautiful girl who binges and purges to keep herself that way. She is very good at keeping secrets.

Each story has been intertwined, girl by girl, chapter by chapter, to produce a work that is at once gripping, melodramatic, and clinical. Eliot is a practicing psychotherapist, and her novel is based on real case histories. She has also survived an eating disorder, which adds to Insatiable’s authenticity.

While many readers are very enthusiastic about this one, more than a few think Insatiable is too much therapy and not enough plot. What do you think?

Breathing Underwater

Author Alex Flinn interned after law school with the state attorney and tried domestic violence cases, then volunteered at a shelter for battered women and their families. When she gives us Nick’s story -- the anger, jealousy, violence, secrecy, and heartache -- she knows whereof she speaks. But it’s Nick as the narrator who speaks most eloquently for himself.

This is the tale of Nick’s relationship with Caitlyn, related in the journal he now has to keep, by order of the judge. It’s also the story of Nick and his abusive dad and Tommy, his friend for life. Finally, it’s an account of how he struggles to pull his life together, with the help of group counseling and a certain Ms. Wiggins, after he has made his big mistakes.

He told his new girlfriend she couldn’t hang out with her friends anymore, since they didn’t like Nick’s group. “You do want me as your boyfriend, right?” He ridiculed her. “You bitch, you’re just a fat cow.” He tried to keep her glued to his side. Sounds pretty awful, right? Still, Nick managed to charm Caitlyn enough so that they began to see themselves as two of a kind, unlucky teens from seemingly perfect families. Then a long planned group trip to Key West went awry, and our boy was derisive, possessive and drunk, almost killing them both as he drove home. Played the “Don’t you trust me?” and the ”My life is nothing without you.” cards. And then he hit her… and it didn’t happen just once.

Alex Flinn returns to Nick in her novel, Diva, which is actually more Caitlyn’s story. Try it. Life goes on for the two of them, just not together. And do post a response; like Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, this novel is certain to push some buttons.

Katie.com

Katie.com burst on the reading scene in 2000, just as national concern over child safety on the internet reached critical mass; since then it has remained a popular read here at HHS. In an emotional memoir of her experiences with an internet predator, 17-year-old Katherine Tarbox plunges us into the world of her 14-year-old self: wealthy and talented, lonely and naive.

So how does an 8th grader from upscale New Canaan, CT, an athlete competing at the national level, and a concert pianist, end up in a Dallas hotel room with a middle-aged groper? Easy. She falls in love.

How VALLLEYGUY met ATARBOX, paid attention to her and encouraged her in the face of troubles at home and at school, makes up the first part of the book. In what seems like no time at all, we are in that Dallas hotel, wondering just how badly Katie will be hurt.

More damage is done when Katie resumes her life in New Canaan. Her mother is wildly angry. Her step-father thinks she ruined VALLLEYGUY’s life. The folks in town who don’t think she’s a slut think she’s crazy. There’s a trial. And Katie blames herself: “I needed to say that I was guilty, maybe even as guilty as the man who was going to jail for our relationship.” Relationship.... Yikes.

Katie.com is a cautionary tale on many levels, perhaps the least of which is the threat of internet stalking. I take the “blame the victim” mentality exemplified in the second half of the book to represent the greater danger. Do you?

Maximum Ride The Angel Experiment

Okay, if you haven't been here yet, and I know at least one avid reader who hasn't, you need to get here fast! And speed is what it's all about in James Patterson's incredibly successful (according to all kid readers) first attempt at YA literature. Maximum Ride and her team of five fled The School, where they were "lab rats" raised in cages, to seek sanctuary in the real world. Well, the world has become all too real for Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel, and the "Erasers" are after them, and how!

Never mind always having to scavenge for food, improve their flying, and discover each others' talents. That's all in a day's work. Flying? Yes, these six are 98% human and 2% bird; products of an experimental recombinent DNA experiment back at The School, they sport wingspans of up to 14 feet.

But those nasty, flying, wolf-like "Erasers" won't give them a moment's rest, as the flock pursues two vital pieces of information: the identity of their true parents, and the location of Angel, kidnapped by some of the worst bad guys in teen fiction. Hang on for a wild ride because Patterson has indulged us with two more books, and you won't want to miss a single page.

Send us a post from your journey, IF you can catch your breath.

Peach Girl 1

Poor Peach Girl. As the first volume of Miwa Ueda’s shojo manga series begins, it looks like the book will be going out way more often than the girl. And, in fact, Peach Girl 1 is often out on loan, as reader after reader explores the turbulent world of Peach Girl’s school days.

Momo (“peach”) is our heroine. Blonde and tanned in a culture that values dark hair and pale skin, she is shy and uncomfortable around her classmates. And no wonder, since her appearance labels her as a “beach bunny” with questionable character and loose morals.

Momo loves Toji, but is afraid to tell him so. Sae, who pretends to be her only friend, is a rumor and gossip specialist who wants Toji for herself. And then there’s Kiley: handsome, older and dangerous. Here we go into a series of romantic cliff-hangers loaded with betrayal and misunderstanding -- the sort of thing that will sound a bit familiar to anyone who has ever struggled to fit in at a new school, learned the hard way that not all friends are true friends, or fallen in love.

There is wit amidst all the typical shojo melodrama. Momo, a swimmer and softball player (which accounts for the bleached hair and deep tan) slathers on the sunscreen to no avail. And in a subplot that has her coincidentally saving the lives of her love interests, Momo remarks “Why does my fate always take me to people who are drowning?” Why, indeed....

Ueda won the Kodansha Manga Award (Shojo) for Peach Girl, and no wonder. Her art is a compelling blend of realistic background scenes and fantastic, emotionally-charged character drawings.

The entire Peach Girl series is coming out on DVD, too.

If you like shojo, give this one a try -- and tell us what you think. I checked out a few collections of Peach Girl reviews, and I have to say that the reviewers either loved it or hated it. No one sat on the fence. Where do you sit?

Big Mouth and Ugly Girl

Wow, all he did was say he could set off a bomb or kill someone, and that was only because he was ticked off about his play and the spring competition. It was just a little artistic frustration, really. But "Big Mouth" Matt spoke a little too loudly in the school cafeteria and someone heard him, and before he knew it, Matt was pulled out of class by the police, no less. Sure doesn't pay to make enemies, does it?

"Ugly Girl" Ursula, of the fiery red moods and superstar athletic status, heard him, too, and tried to explain everything to Mr. Parrish, but he was only the principal. Although Matt was cleared and sent back to school, the whole community knew, and the rumors flew. It was all over for Matt except that Ursula caught him at the ravine edge after those jerks had beaten him up, and, well, they started this thing. You know, first it was just the telephone, and then it was going out. They got coffee, they went hiking, they went to the Museum of Arts and Design. All that was cool, but his parents had already sued the school, and Ursula, pressed for the truth by Matt, admitted to him that the suit was just plain wrong.

Joyce Carol Oates wrote her first young adult novel about some pretty hot topics. Sign on and answer the question truthfully: what would YOU have done?

Cut

I just went to check a detail from the back cover of Cut, by Patricia McCormick, and -- why am I surprised? -- it’s not there! Cut remains the most popular of our Library’s several novels dealing with the difficult topic of cutting. (Next most popular being Steven Levenkron’s The Luckiest Girl in the World, followed by Melody Carlson’s Blade Silver.)

Callie cuts herself to feel better, first with an Exacto knife, and later with just about anything that will get the job done. The more she cuts, the less she talks, and pretty soon she isn’t talking at all. As soon as the school nurse sees her scars, Callie is sent off to Sea Pines for treatment. (“The place is called a residential treatment facility. It is not called a loony bin.”) Most of the book then becomes a silent conversation, heard only by the reader, as Callie mentally responds to her therapist and the other girls in her treatment group.

And what a group! McCormick’s novel rings true as we meet the other “guests” and follow their struggles with food, drugs, alcohol, and the other self-destructive behaviors that have landed them at “Sick Minds” along with Callie.

Gradually, through memories and flashbacks, Callie offers up details of her life from before she started to cut. And when Amanda joins the group, proudly displaying scars of her own, Callie gets a life-changing jolt.

Cut is a real couldn’t-put-it-down sort of book, full of drama, insight. and vivid description (“a perfect straight line of blood bloomed up from under the edge of the blade....”) If you like realistic stories about teens in trouble, give it a try. If you’ve read it already, tell us what you think!

The Wee Free Men

OK, I promised you an occasional reading rave, so buckle up: here’s rave #1.

Terry Pratchett’s 30th Discworld novel, The Wee Free Men, is at the top of my list for the 2006/2007 reading season. Yes, there were other titles I particularly enjoyed -- The Glass Castle, The Book Thief, All Over Creation, Eventide -- but The Wee Free Men really left an impression.

How could it not? There’s 9-year-old Tiffany Aching, of Home Farm, The Chalk, who clobbers a big green water monster with a frying pan. And there’s her horrid, sticky little brother, Wentworth, whose constant cries of “Wanna wanna wanna sweetie!” perhaps explain why Tiffany used him as bait for Jenny Green-Teeth, but do not explain why he gets kidnapped by the Queen of Faerie.

There are the Wee Free Men, masterful brawlers, theivers, and drinkers, blue with tattoos, red-headed, and 6” tall, who’ve come down to The Chalk looking for the new witch. And wasn’t the old witch Tiffany’s Granny? And doesn’t it begin to look like Tiffany herself will be called upon to save Wentworth, the Baron’s son, and the Chalk Hills from the clutches of the evil Queen? Crivens! There are Grimhounds, Nightmares, and Headless Horsemen, a Queen who steals your dreams and traps you in them, and a creeping iciness devouring The Chalk. Will Tiffany, armed only with frying pan, common sense, and steely determination, be able to put things right?.

I guess it’s because I enjoy both fantasy and word play that I am besotted with The Wee Free Men. Tiffany’s tutor in the witchly arts is Perspecatia Tick. Miss Tick gives her a talking toad (he used to be a lawyer) and advises Tiffany to pay attention to her first sight and her second thoughts. The Wee Free Men, aka the Nac Mac Feegle, Pictsies, or “person or persons unknown, believed to be armed” sport delicious names, like Rob Anybody, No’-As-Big-As-Medium-Sized-Jock-But-Bigger-Than-Wee-Jock-Jock, and Daft Willie. And what do those ferocious Feegles shout when things are going badly? “Waily, waily, waily!” of course. Too funny.

If you haven't read Terry Pratchett, I recommend starting with The Wee Free Men. If you like it, there are two more in the series (s0 far): A Hat Full of Sky, and Wintersmith. Yum!

Welcome to the Monkey House

Welcome to the Monkey House, by Kurt Vonnegut, is one of the few remaining Vonnegut books on our shelves, and it's a beat up copy at that. What is it about this man that tickles our funny bones and makes us weep in frustration and nostalgia?

I asked two students that very question.

One replied that "Vonnegut knows what a reader wants to hear." Well, yes, especially if you believe that dogs are smarter than their people.

The other called him "the dark humor man, the funny grampa who embarrasses the bride on her wedding day with his views on everything." Too true, although whatever he uttered would be the truth.

Want a vision of the future? Read the first and last stories in this collection, and then, like Harrison Bergeron, treasure your imperfections in the face of mediocrity. Just be sure that, unlike Lou and Emerald Schwartz, you occupy a cozy bed in your own room while you read these wickedly funny stories.

And for Vonnegut's own words on whatever life throws at us? "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterwards."

Kurt Vonnegut, novelist and essayist, died this past April at 84.

My favorite? Miss Temptation, in which Cpl. Fuller, upon return from the Korean War, learns from an alluring and decent young woman how to be a human being again.

What's yours?

Speak

Most of us have been to at least one bad party. And I bet all of us have had a crummy day at school. (Remember Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day?) Well, Laurie Halse Anderson’s 1999 novel, Speak, takes the un-fun party and the awful school day to new heights. It’s one of the most-borrowed books in the fiction section. (It’s also a movie.)

Melinda starts off her ninth grade year under the cloud of something that happened at a summertime party. Something so terrible that she called the police, who broke up the party, which outraged the other party-goers. In the space of a phone call, Melinda has become an outsider, shunned and heckled by her peers -- even her best friend, Rachel, dumps her. “I am OUTCAST,” she realizes. Why did Melinda call the cops? She can’t think about it. She can’t talk about it. Soon, she cannot speak at all.

Speak is organized by quarters, like the school year. We see the students, teachers, halls and classrooms from Melinda’s point of view, reading her thoughts. We are outcast with her, and burning to find out what actually happened at that infamous party.

Lest you think that Anderson’s novel is one long, miserable slog, I have to mention how funny it is. Yes, really. Melinda has a wicked wit, and a spot-on take on almost every aspect of high school life. From the cliques (the Future Fascists of America, the Marthas, the Suffering Artists...) to the teachers (good old Mr. Neck!) to the ever-changing school mascots and the way her parents talk in post-it notes, you will find plenty of humor to break up the suspense and sadness.

If you’ve read Speak, we’d love to see your comments. Fire ‘em in!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Got an electronic thumb? How about your Sub-Etha-Sens-O-Matic? If you wanna' be a hoopy frood, grab a towel and let Douglas Adams guide you into outer, way outer, space.

Ford Prefect, seasoned traveler and man about space, has one more entry to make in the Hitchhiker's Guide but got stuck on Earth for far too long upon completion (of the entry, not of Earth!) Rescuing Arthur Dent in the nick of time as the Vogons blast the planet into smithereens in order to create their own freeway, Ford and Arthur hitch a ride out of destruction and into the wackiest version of space in sci fi lit.

Meet Zaphod Beeblebrox, galactic president and proud owner of two heads and three arms, his girlfriend, Trillian, former Earthling herself, and Marvin, their depressed, rather intelligent computer who so depresses the policeship computer that it commits suicide, but that's another story. Y'see, it turns out that Earth was really nothing more than an organic computer designed to formulate the answer to the question: "Well, what's the question to the answer, "42?"

Confused yet? Can't imagine why. Get a good night's sleep, tighten your belt, and let us know how you survived. Yes, yes, you clearly had a towel but write us a note anyway.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

There may be a few teenage girls in the USA who haven’t read Ann Brashares' 2001 novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, in which case, I’d better plug it now. Happy readers have worn out several copies from our library; the net is thoroughly populated with Sisterhood sites (including the Wikipedia article, Sisterhood Central, and a great author Q&A from Random House); and there was even a movie back in 2005.

The recap: four 15 year old best friends (Carmen, Lena, Bridget & Tibby) prepare to spend a first-ever summer apart. They’ve been together forever, and while they mostly look forward to spending time in South Carolina, Greece, Baja California, or (poor Tibby) right at home in Bethesda, Maryland, they also know how terribly they will miss each other.

These are no cookie-cutter friends: they have wildly different interests, personalities, backgrounds and body types. So it’s pretty weird when a pair of $3.49 thrift shop jeans fits all of them perfectly, making each one feel confident, sexy, and powerful . “These are magic pants!” And magic pants must be shared so that each girl will have the pants for one week, and then send them on in rotation, giving everyone two weeks of the magic by summer’s end.

Each girl’s summer story then unfolds, intertwined with the schedule of the traveling pants. Fear, happiness, anger, love, jealousy, suspense, grief -- it’s all there, and then some, as we experience not one, but four summertime comings-of-age.

Ann Brashares’ captivating first novel has something to offer almost any girl on the planet. The writing is witty and true to life; the characters are so well drawn you feel like you’ve known them for years; and each girl’s summer story is a page-turner in its own right. Like the movie trailer says, “Laugh. Cry. Share the pants.”

If you liked The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants as much as I did -- or if you really didn’t -- please say so. (My favorite character was Tibby; who was yours?)

Into The Wild by John Krakauer

Okay, here's the book everyone grabs when given the assignment: read an adventure story. Chris McCandless, fresh out of college, roamed the country for a year as he sought the kind of experiences Jack London invited and endured a century earlier. He ended up hitchhiking and riding the rails as he worked to equip himself to spend a season in Alaska...alone.

Chris turned out to be an incredibly stubborn guy who ultimately entered the Alaskan bush in late spring, ill-prepared and penniless by choice, determined to rely on nothing but native intelligence, rifle, and rice, of course. He left behind a map but carried a field guide to edible plants. The book's cover informs you that his decomposed body was discovered four months after he went in. You know how he ended. The question is: what happened?

Let us know what you find out by posting a comment and offering your opinion: was he just an arrogant rich kid, as many of the Alaskans thought, or did he have something else in mind, something to prove? Tell us, 'cause we want to know what you think!

The Lovely Bones

In December, when I hear the jingle bells, I remember The Lovely Bones: A Novel, by Alice Sebold. 14-year-old Susie Salmon (like the fish) died in December, raped and murdered by a neighbor as she took a shortcut home from school. Mr. Gilbert’s dog brought home her elbow.

Susie tells her story from beyond the grave -- from her afterlife, in her heaven. We follow as she watches her friends and family struggle with their grief, and as she imagines and mourns the life she will never live.

This book is at once gripping, powerful, and everyday. We grin as Susie describes the silly hat with pom-poms and bells she puts on to please her mom, but takes off when she's out of sight. We hold our breath as Susie fights to live, and gasp as she jumps to grab death by the hand when the battle is clearly lost. We understand her quest for justice, and her yearning for vengeance.

The Lovely Bones is one of the HHS Library’s most-borrowed books. I thought about it for weeks after I finished it. If you’ve thought about it, too, please leave a comment.

(And the jingle bells? The murderer jams that silly hat into Susie's mouth. When she screams, the only sound is the tinkle of the bells.)

Sojourn, Vol. 1: From the Ashes

What’s the most-read graphic novel here in LibraryLand? Yup. It’s Sojourn, Volume One: From the Ashes, written by Ron Marz, penciled by Greg Land, and inked by Drew Geraci. Here is epic fantasy, complete with heroine, wizard, quest, magic, mystery, trolls, and grand, bloody, chaotic battles between the forces of good and evil. It’s true that Sojourn starts out a little slowly, action-wise, while the author catches us up on 300 years of backstory -- but what fantasy junkie doesn’t love that stuff? The more we find out about that other world, the better.

Plus -- unlike its 800+ page counterparts on the fiction shelf (think Jordan’s Wheel of Time or Martin’s Song of Ice & Fire, etc.) -- this is a comic! The art is splendid. Aside from all the fantastic detail work, the action and emotion drawn into each character, creature, and scene really bring Marz’ storyline to life.

Fellow fantasy freaks, speak up! If you’ve read Sojourn, pop us a comment. If you haven’t, give it a try.

Fallen Angels

Written as a memorial to his brother, who died fighting in Vietnam in 1968, Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels is an accurate and revealing account of one soldier's tour of duty in Nam. If you want the sights and sounds of war, you've got 'em here: mortar and rocket fire, choppers, and the eerie noises of night patrol. And underlying the horrors, the loyalty and camraderie, is that omnipresent soldier's emotion -- fear.

Felt the fear? Thrilled during the skirmishes? Ached with a fellow soldier's death? (all in the story, of course.) Share your stuff here and post a comment.

Oh, and you might want to try Tim O'Brien's Vietnam books, Going After Cacciato, and The Things They Carried.

Go Ask Alice

Long the “number one most stolen book” on our fiction shelves, Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous, continues its 35-year reign as one of the HHS Library’s most popular reads. If you’re a fan of gritty, realistic, don’t-end-up-like-me novels, then Alice has much to offer: drugs (lots of them), promiscuity, running away, abuse, hospitalization, suspicion, and death (to name a few.)

Some think that Beatrice Sparks, “editor” of other cautionary tales (Jay’s Journal, It Happened to Nancy, Annie’s Baby, Finding Katie) is the anonymous author behind Go Ask Alice. Many think the book is poorly written and not quite believable. But the fact remains: years after its publication in 1971, it still makes a splash.

Do you have thoughts on Go Ask Alice? Send ‘em in!