Dislikeable likeable protagonists May 9, 2008

You’ve heard us talk about dislikeable protagonists in the past. But have you ever heard of a dislikeable likeable protagonist? If this type of main character intrigues you give the author Elizabeth Scott’s books a try. I recently read Bloom and Stealing Heaven which have many similarities.

Both protagonists in Bloom and Stealing Heaven feel like their lives are not theirs to control. Danielle in Stealing Heaven only knows a life of stealing with her mother. When she meets people she tells them lies about herself because she is a thief and does not want to reveal her true identity. She creates an identity for the purposes of getting information that she needs to help her mother burglarize a prominent household in the town which they are staying. Lauren in Bloom is living a life trying NOT to be her mother. She tries to be the ideal daughter for her father, the ideal friend for her best friend and the ideal girlfriend for her boyfriend. All these ideals are not really who she is and she starts to do what she really wants covertly. Lauren cheats on both her best friend and boyfriend-she has another best friend and love interest on the side. She thinks she can conceal this but the reality is she is more transparent than she thinks. Eventually the concealment and lies that these characters build up comes crumbling down in a relieving denouement. To step into the shoes of a dislikeable likeable protagonist read Bloom and Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott.

For the most part I thought Bloom and Stealing Heaven were well written and compelling however, one of the problems that I had with these books was the lack of character development. Danielle seems to have dropped out of the sky and even when there are allusions to her past, they are unbelievable and topical. Moreover her past does not flesh out her character. Instead of creating a believable multi-faceted protagonist we get a semblance of a character who is written for the purpose of moving a story forward. Don’t get me wrong, I like that the characters are flawed, but in that same regard I would like to understand why they are flawed. Is their flaw only because they are unable to think and act on their own, or does it run deeper?

Anyway for more takes on these books and some insight from Elizabeth Scott check out her blog http://www.elizabethwrites.com/. More reviews and commentary about Bloom are available at the following blogs: bildungsroman, bookshelves of doom, and teenreads.com. There’s even an interview with Elizabeth at bildungsroman.

One last note, Stealing Heaven hits the shelves May 27, 2008.

Trisha’s April Roundup May 8, 2008

If I were better organized, I would have finished reviewing these books earlier (because I do think they all deserve long reviews), before giving the ARCs to teens or returning the books to the library. But all I did was make really brief notes about them, and it’s been a few weeks since I read some of them, so…

Airman by Eoin Colfer
When Conor Broekhart is unjustly thrown into prison, his thoughts naturally turn to escape. But his jail is Little Saltee Island. It’s a miserable place, where prisoners are forced to mine for diamonds in brutal conditions, and the only way he can escape is to construct a flying machine. Simply surviving is difficult, so how can Conor even hope to build his machine?

To compare Airman to some of Colfer’s previous books (and for the record, I am a huge Artemis Fowl fan), although it’s not as funny as the Artemis Fowl books or Half-Moon Investigations, it still has moments of humor and wit, as well as their fast pace and excellent plotting. What I loved most about Airman is the characterization of Conor. Here’s a kid who has everything going for him—a place in society, brains, ability, etc.—when the book starts, and he’s still likable. When he’s thrown into prison, Conor gets darker, realistically so, but never crosses the line that makes us stop rooting for him. A fantastic book.

Among the reviews: A Fuse #8 Production, Shelf Elf

Fancy White Trash by Marjetta Geerling
Abby Savage doesn’t want to end up like her mother and older sisters, none of whom have made it to their high school graduation without becoming pregnant, all of whom have made disastrous choices in love. So Abby created rules, the One True Love Plan (based on knowledge gleaned from soap operas), which she thinks will enable her to break free from the romantic/procreative history of the women in her family. She wants her life, and potential boyfriends, to be safe.

Abby’s thoughtful narration grounds the book, turning Fancy White Trash from what could have been a print version of The Jerry Springer Show into an examination of the family and friendships that have shaped a young woman’s life. Reminded me somehow of Carolyn Mackler, though I can’t say exactly why.

Also reviewed by: Flamingnet Book Blog, Once Upon a Bookshelf

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
I liked Wicked Lovely but was enthralled by Ink Exchange. It’s darker, more intense than Wicked Lovely, terrible in the “exciting terror, awe, or great fear” sense of the word. The age recommendation on the ARC was for ages 12 and up, but I think I’d feel more comfortable saying 14 and up.

As much as she wants a tattoo, Leslie has not found the design that was meant to be applied to her body. Then she sees a design that calls to her, but she has no way of knowing that the tattoo she gets will draw her into the faerie world. Leslie was ignorant of faeries despite being a friend of Aislinn. Just as Leslie had been keeping secrets from Aislinn, not admitting to anyone the truth about her home life or the extent to which her junkie brother would go to get a fix, Aislinn has been determined to keep Leslie from finding about the fey and Aislinn’s place with them. But the tattoo Leslie gets connects her to Irial, the ruler of the Dark Court, because he needs Leslie—or rather, the sustenance Irial has planned for the tattoo-bearer to provide—for the Dark Court to survive.

Among the reviews: Angieville, Teen Book Review, Urban Fantasy Land

Wake by Lisa McMann
Another book I would have adored as a teen.

Ever since she was a kid, Janie Hannagan has been falling into other people’s dreams. It’s turned her life practically into a nightmare. At work and at home, Janie can often isolate herself enough to lessen the effects of other people’s dreams, but that’s not the case at school. When people fall asleep and dream in school, Janie experiences the dream with them, even though the dreamer has no idea that Janie’s in their dream, observing what they see (and even though I’m not sure how exciting the dreams of students who fall asleep in school would be, since most vivid and memorable dreams occur during REM sleep, and REM sleep doesn’t occur until we’ve been asleep for about 90 minutes. Although I suppose you could make the argument that most teens are sleep deprived and hence would fall into REM a lot sooner when they fall asleep in school.).

In any case, my one question about sleep science aside (which didn’t actually occur to me until after I finished the book), Wake is a compelling book that grabs the reader from the very first page, when Janie falls into a classmate’s dream. I am definitely looking forward to the sequel, Fade.

Among the reviews: The Book Muncher, A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

Ancient India by Anita Dalal (non-fiction)
Very attractively designed and includes everything librarians love to see in children’s and YA non-fiction, like a map, timeline, bibliography, further reading section, glossary, and an index. There’s even an interview with an archaeologist! But with all of that, not to mention all the photos, there wasn’t very much space for actual information. I hope this will get some readers interested in archaeology/ancient India, but anyone looking for specific info besides dates and locations, particularly past 7th grade, will probably be better off getting one of the books listed in the further reading section.

To Recommend or Not to Recommend… May 3, 2008

I’ve been wondering about Stephenie Meyer’s The Host.  An eighth grade fan of the Twilight series asked me about this book.  I’ve been apprehensive about recommending it to teens since it is deemed an adult title. 

 

Has anyone read it yet?  What do you think?  Definitely an adult title or does it have Young Adult crossover potential?    

Airhead by Meg Cabot May 1, 2008

Hmm, how to talk about this book without giving anything away and saying something besides, “It’s awesome. Read it!”? Let’s see…

Emerson Watts is smart. She’s a feminist. She loves playing the computer game Journeyquest. She is definitely not an airhead.

Emerson Watts is not an airhead.

Some people oppose megastores on principle. Emerson Watts has a better reason to oppose them.

Forget it, we’ll go with the publisher’s copy:

Emerson Watts didn’t even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister, Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs there—along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard.

How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her—and life as she’d known it—forever? One bizarre accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally.

Now getting her best friend, Christopher, to notice that she’s actually a girl is the least of Em’s problems.

But what Em’s pretty sure she’ll never be able to accept might just turn out to be the one thing that’s going to make her dream come true….

And it’s awesome! Read it!

Seriously, if you’re a Meg Cabot fan, you need to read this book. If Cabot’s previous books were too light for your tastes, give this one a try. If you’re a librarian, I hope you’ve already ordered it. Airhead combines the best of Cabot’s style with one of her most mature protagonists that I can recall reading (of her YA books, at least). Em is less flighty and impulsive, more of an intellectual, while remaining just as likable as Cabot’s previous protagonists. Her narration is not as voluble but is still conversational and recognizably Cabot (Cabotian?). Plus, the plot itself is entertaining. Combined with Em, it makes for a very pleasurable book to read.

The only bad thing? I have no idea how long we have to wait for the sequel.

Airhead will be published on May 13.

Among the reviews: A True Reality (Holly, I feel your pain), Teen Book Review, Trashionista. Visit Meg Cabot’s blog for more, as she’s been linking to blog reviews.

Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle April 27, 2008

I’ve been trying to write this review for a couple of weeks, but it’s been difficult because I think what follows will make it seem like I hated Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle when, actually, I didn’t. Nor do I think it’s a bad book, just unsatisfying, a little too superficial (in an I kept waiting for the author to do more with her characters and story kind of way, not a post-Regency/pre-Victorian lemonade-at-Almack’s brand name-dropping way because the latter thankfully does not apply to this book, a point in its favor), and without the need-to-keep-reading! compulsion that elevated a book like The Luxe.

Persephone Leland is not looking forward to making her debut. She’s shy, awkward with strangers, and, she thinks, not as beautiful as her twin sister, Penelope. Sephy would rather practice magic and study instead. Even the reappearance of handsome Lochinvar Seton does not persuade Sephy that going to London for the season will be enjoyable. But when Sephy and Penelope’s governess mysteriously disappears, it seems they and their younger brother, Charles, are the only ones who can find her and stop those who are a threat to the Princess (soon to be Queen) Victoria.

So here’s what kept me from enjoying Bewitching Season. First, Sephy and Pen often call their brother Chuckles instead of Charles, which constantly made me think of the TV show Chuck, probably not the best thing to be thinking of when reading a book set in 1837. My problem, not Doyle’s, and something I would therefore overlook, except I liked Charles. I wanted more of Charles’ interactions with his sisters and less Sephy pining for Lochinvar. Because Lochinvar was a nice guy, noble and idealistic, but he also didn’t have much of a personality. I’m all for reading about nice guy, beta males*, but he was the least interesting male character in the book. Which may be nice for Sephy, but considering how essential their romance is to the story, did not make for very compelling reading. Especially when there was a secondary romance and the male character in that subplot was so much more intriguing.

Also problematic was Sephy’s use of magic. It too often seemed a convenient ploy, a vehicle merely there to advance the plot instead of providing a simple demonstration of her ability, though this was not the case with some of the other characters. However, Sephy is the main character. Her magical abilities should have been better integrated with her character and the story. Finally, the description of how Victoria became heir to the throne was confusing. It was a complicated situation but could have been explained better, especially since I don’t think most of this book’s readers will be familiar with it. (I took AP European History and I still had to go look up Victoria on, um, Wikipedia.) Otherwise, Doyle did a pretty good job with history and the setting. I’ve read better historical fantasies (like Patricia Wrede’s Mairelon the Magician and Magician’s Ward), but I’ve also read much worse novels with historical settings. Ultimately, while I don’t think too much was going on in the book, I do think Doyle didn’t explore what was going on as well as she could have.

For a completely different take on Bewitching Season, read The Book Muncher’s review.

* I don’t think Lochinvar’s role is large enough to qualify as a male protagonist and I hate referring to protagonists in romances as heroes and heroines, hence beta male.

Kawaii Kon 2008: The Recap April 23, 2008

We had another successful outreach event at the 2008 Kawaii Kon. The Kawaii Kon is basically a convention where anime and manga fans come together to meet and greet industry celebrities and other fans.  This year we were able to get funding from our Friends group for an outreach table.

At the convention we passed out free stuff (read here, leftover summer reading incentives) and talked about library services.  Many folks were happy to get goodies from us, and we were happy to bend their ear about library services.  A great idea that one of the other librarians came up with this year was a prize drawing for a gift bag.  The entry forms for the prize drawing gave a good idea of how many folks we were actually talking to amidst the hubbub.  The winners of the gift bags were quite enthusiastic about winning and those who didn’t win got other good stuff from us.  Of the goodies that we passed out, the buttons that we laboriously made were the best received.  Folks were happy to show us their library card in exchange for a 2.5 inch button featuring various manga and anime characters.

The coolest thing to me is the folks cosplaying (dressing up as anime/manga characters).

Here’s my favorite cosplayer: Kon.  I ran up to this guy and asked if I could take a picture of him.  Then I barraged him with questions about his costume.

Me: How long did it take you to make your costume?

Kon: 1 month.

Me: What is it made out of?

Kon: Foam, material, paper plate (for the bellybutton).

Me: It’s awesome!  Nice job.

Kon was really nice, and he’s already planning for his costume next year.  I can’t wait to see what it will be.

Another draw to the convention are the artists and vendors.  If you have an affinity for things anime/manga related the convention is a dangerous place to be.   You can spend your money in a multitude of ways.  I personally have a weakness for cute things and the Kawaii Kon has many a cute product.  From commissioned art pieces to t-shirts to Gothic & Lolita costumes, the Kawaii Kon has many a way for you to spend your weekly allowance or in my case my weekly allowance and a half.  I’ll be paper bagging lunch for the next couple of weeks.

I saw this table and couldn’t resist!  I bought a couple of octopi from this craftster and wish I bought a cupcake and a kitty.  I hope she’s there next year!

Photo by Cindy Ellen Russell of the Star Bulletin http://starbulletin.com/2008/04/21/news/photofinish.html

Interview: Robin Benway April 22, 2008

Robin Benway is the author of Audrey, Wait!, published earlier this month by Razorbill (my review here). It’s a fabulous, funny, music-loving book, and Robin was kind enough to answer a few questions about the book. And a lot more about music.

First things first, what are you listening to now?
Well, well, well. Right now, I’m days away from finishing my second book, so I’m listening to the playlist that I made for it whenever I’m writing or in the car. (I don’t want to say what the songs are yet, but don’t worry, I’ll post it when it’s time!) But if you look at my last.fm page, it should give you an idea of what some of them are.

Other than that, though, I’ve found that I’m in a “song” mood rather than an “album” mood lately. I’ve been listening to a lot of earlier R.E.M., and I’m especially obsessed with “Leave” off of “New Adventures in Hi-Fi”. Other songs are Saul Williams’ “List of Demands”, The Shins’ “Australia”, and What Made Milwaukee Famous’s “Prevailing Wind”. Also, it’s spring in Los Angeles, which always makes me want to listen to Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers, so those have been on rotation in between everything else.

For nighttime, though, it’s a lot of softer, folkier stuff: the Weepies, Ray LaMontagne, and AA Bondy. I have a playlist on iTunes called “Exhausted” and that serves me well.

I loved how every chapter began with song lyrics. Why/how did you decide to do this? And how did you go about picking the lyrics that ultimately appear in the book?
When I first started to edit “Audrey, Wait!”, my publisher asked if I would create titles for each chapter. I came back and said, “What about song lyrics?” because not only would that fit the theme of the book, but there were so many songs whose lyrics I felt described the book’s varying moods. So my publisher agreed, and I got started. However, I hadn’t realized that there were OVER FORTY CHAPTERS, haha!

I’ve always kept a Word document filled with my favorite song lyrics, even before I started writing “Audrey,” so I consulted that and then just started listening to even more music. As far as the different types of artists, it made me so happy that I could feature words from some of my favorite musicians. I loved the Belle & Sebastian lyrics, and the ones from Patti Smith (“amazed to stumble where gods get lost”) have always been some of my all-time favorites. When I heard the Arcade Fire song “Windowsill” that says, “MTV, what have you done to me?” I was like, “YES! THANK YOU, ARCADE FIRE!”

I just wanted to show as many different types of music as possible. What if a reader decides to listen to Belle & Sebastian or The Smiths or a band they’ve never heard before, just because they liked the lyrics? That would be amazing, I would absolutely love that!

Now that Audrey, Wait! has just been published, what song lyrics would head this chapter in your life?
Hmmm….I would have to say lyrics from the New Pornographers, “July Jones”: “Behind the daylight / Who knew what it could feel like?”

I just feel like I’m seeing a whole different side of my life, one where I get to do what I love, and it’s revealing facets that I never thought I would see. It’s like I’ve peeked behind the curtain and been able to live in a world that I had only imagined up until now. And it’s fantastic! (But for all I know, the songwriter meant the lyrics to be really depressing or something, haha).

How difficult was writing the lyrics to “Audrey, Wait!”?
Surprisingly easy! I just figured I needed a couple of rhyming words and it grew from there. I didn’t even really think about it, the lyrics just happened. Thank goodness! The last thing I am is a songwriter.

If someone were to write a song about you, what would it be about?
Hopefully, it’d be a long 12-minute rambly ballad about my life adventures. My friends would sing the chorus and Bob Dylan would write the lyrics and Neko Case would make a guest appearance. Another option would be if 50 Cent and Kanye started some sort of rap battle about who could write a better song about me. That would be awesome! Hee!

I think the plot of Audrey, Wait! could also work in an adult novel. Why write it as a YA novel?
I wrote it as YA because that seemed like the perfect audience for the book. I wanted readers who were completely limitless in their enthusiasm, and I know from personal experience that sometimes that enthusiasm gets tempered in adulthood. Also, sometimes I think that when teenagers are written about in adult novels, there’s a certain self-awareness about them that you don’t have as a teenager. I wanted “Audrey” to be written in the moment of being sixteen years old and loving music more than anything in the world and being on the precipice of having the rest of your life happen to you.

What kind of music did you listen to as a teen? In other words, was your taste in music as cool as Audrey’s?
My musical experience blew up when I was about sixteen years old for several reasons: I got “Automatic For the People” by R.E.M. for Christmas and listened to it obsessively. I also heard “The Downward Spiral” by Nine Inch Nails and could not BELIEVE what I was hearing. That album, more than any other CD, changed how I listened to music. I also used to send away for live Smashing Pumpkins bootlegs in the mail, haha!

Then my friend Anna-Lynne Williams (who’s now in the band Trespassers William) started making me mix tapes during our junior year of high school. I still have every single one of them. One the first one, she put songs by Velvet Underground, Nico, The Smiths, The Cure, Tori Amos, Peter Gabriel, and Patti Smith. And that was just one side of the tape! It was transformative and I’m always grateful that she gave me that music.

So I don’t know if it as as “cool” as Audrey’s, but it was certainly varied.

Audrey, Wait! is such a fun book to read. Was it also fun to write?
Definitely! After writing the first chapter, I had no idea what was going to happen to Audrey, so I just kept writing and the plot started to unfold. But there were moments & scenes (such as the part with the Lolitas and the last few chapters of the book) that were such a joy to write. I also loved listening to music and all of a sudden thinking, “That song has GOT to be in the book!” That’s how “Mama Said Knock You Out” by LL Cool J snuck in there.

Guilty pleasure (music) you don’t actually feel guilty about enjoying?
This is actually a good question for me, since I’m trying to do away with referring to some music as a “guilty pleasure”. Few things annoy me more than musical elitism, so I try not to contribute to it. That being said, I really enjoy Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. I always get crap for liking them (from both teenagers AND adults) but I can’t help it! I saw both of them live last year and they were great shows. People were dancing everywhere! It was way better than going to see some “cool” band and having everyone stand there with their arms folded.

One song that I just love John Denver’s “Take me Home, Country Roads”. And I can also sing the entire “Annie” soundtrack from start to finish. I will NEVER feel guilty about that!

What is your writing routine like?
A lot of procrastination, followed by a lot of panic!

No, actually, it’s pretty good, and I’ve learned to just be patient and let the characters sort themselves out. Some days I can write 20 pages, while other times I’ll only have 2 or 3. What I try to do is get some coffee, put on some music, and re-read the last ten pages or so. Then I just say, “Okay, what would happen next? What is the very next thing they would do?” and I take it from there. I don’t write an outline until I’m about 75 pages away from the end of the book, and I never know what’s going to happen. It’s like traveling down a long road. You know you’re going to get to your destination, but you can’t see it yet. It’s the same for me & writing: I can only see so far ahead.

Thanks, Robin!

Robin Benway has also been interviewed at Teen Book Review. Visit Robin’s blog to see what’s on heavy rotation on her iPod, the five songs that are currently saving her life, and more.

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen April 21, 2008

It’s been a few days since Ruby was living on her own, weeks since her mother abandoned her, and ten years since she’s seen her older sister, Cora. But after being reported to Social Services, she’s forced to live with Cora and Cora’s husband, Jamie, an internet millionaire. Ruby doesn’t want to live with them or deal with all the changes her new life entails, but now it’s not so easy for Ruby to remain as isolated as she wants to be.

Lock and Key is a very satisfying read. Though not quite as good as some of Sarah Dessen’s previous books, her many fans will not be disappointed. For longtime readers of Dessen, a plethora of characters from her previous books pop up in Lock and Key, a few by name, including one in particular that surprised me, and many more by inference (e.g., “For the really obscure ones, I had to enlist this guy one of my employees knows from his Anger Management class who’s some kind of music freak.” Awesome.), adding to the pleasure of reading Lock and Key.

The hallmarks of Dessen’s books appear in this one, with some new twists I appreciated. It’s thoughtful, understated yet powerful, with a focus on character and relationships, not plot. But while Dessen’s previous novels have centered on upper middle class protagonists (as far as I can recall, the only exception is Keeping the Moon prior to the mother becoming famous, though I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong), girls facing challenges in their relationships, Ruby has spent much of her life poor and avoiding relationships. Although Ruby may be a new type of protagonist in terms of socioeconomic status and family background, her character and voice are similar to previous Dessen protagonists, which made the book even more enjoyable to me than it might have otherwise been.

Lock and Key will be published tomorrow, April 22.

Also reviewed by:
Becky’s Book Reviews
Bookshelves of Doom
Little Willow
A Patchwork of Books
A True Reality

Kawaii Kon April 18-20, 2008 April 19, 2008

Just a little reminder folks, the Kawaii Kon is this weekend: April 18-20th.  For more information go to their website: www.kawaii-kon.org.  We’ll be posting some pictures and a recap of this year’s event on the blog sometime next week.

Craft! Make your own journal April 18, 2008

Look what I made!

Since I haven’t blogged much about crafts recently, here’s the teen craft we did on Wednesday, a National Library Week special. As usual, the teens’ journals were more creative than mine, but I still like the one I made. I think I’ll use it as a reading journal, someplace to take notes as I read and for books I don’t blog about.

And some of the pages inside:

This is an easy, fun, and creative craft for teens. I only had to buy the chipboard for the covers and one pad of 12” x 12” scrapbooking cardstock expressly for this program, so it wasn’t too expensive, either. However, it does require some special equipment, namely a Zutter Bind-it-All machine to punch holes through the chipboard covers and paper we put inside, and to put everything together. If you know someone who scrapbooks, see if they have one you can borrow. My library’s children’s librarian borrowed the machine we used from a friend, and the wire for the binding was leftover from an adult program. I had additional scrapbooking paper leftover paper from previous programs; gluesticks, paper trimmers, and other supplies on hand; as well as die cuts (which someone donated to the library) and punches, which the teens always enjoy using to add decoration.

The price of this program will vary depending on what, and how much, you need to purchase. If you’re looking for a just plain cheap teen craft program, there’s always shrink art, which we did on Monday, again, but with an entirely different set of teens than last year’s NLW, all of whom (guys and girls) enjoyed it. Or try the marbled paper—Coolest. Craft. EVER.—or make your own sticker ideas. But I am definitely doing this journal program again, probably during Teen Read Week or a future National Library Week. Next time, though, I’ll get a teen volunteer to punch holes in the cardstock before the program.

Additional thoughts about this program:

• Buy 8½” x 11” chipboard. It’s a lot easier to cut a couple of sheets of 12” x 12” scrapbooking paper to fit the chipboard than to cut your interior pages to the dimensions of the chipboard.
• Use cardstock or heavy weight paper instead of regular 20 lb. paper for the interior pages so teens can also decorate the inside of their journal. Plus, I think it makes the journal seem a little more special.
• I’ve had teen guys at other papercraft programs, but none came to this one, other than the guy who was just there watching two female friends. In any case, there are a few scrapbook paper sets, like this one, that will appeal to teen guys and girls.
• Try it as a two-day program. One day for making the journals, the other day for a journaling/writing program.

So what else did folks do with teens for National Library Week?