Claire Gross

The Other Normals (review)

outlined animals and objects are dynamically posed against a verdant background of meadow and forest, and the numerous small, significant details, as well as the challenge of following the story threads, will keep viewers poring over the pictures for quite a while. This will hold great appeal for many children (and their adults), especially those who enjoy Richard Scarry, Mitsumasa Anno, or Arthur Geisert and those who hate to read and/or write but love to draw. JH

Rock On: A Story of Guitars, Gigs, Girls, and a Brother (Not Necessarily in That Order) (review)

if only to wish her a proper farewell, and along the way are joined by the various people Beedy has affected. An award-winning book originally published in the Netherlands, this is an odd little tale that has more potential to appeal to adults than youngsters, particularly as the language becomes increasingly metaphorical in its imagery and allusions. Fortunately, the whimsy of the book’s premise will most likely be enough to get young readers’ attentions, and, like Michelle Cuevas’s recent The Masterwork of a Painting Elephant (BCCB 12/11), the book might provide a pleasing read-together possibility, prompting discussion about the differences between love and possession, imagination and reality. The translated prose is a bit stilted at times, but van Leeuwen’s line drawings, reminiscent of Shel Silverstein and Quentin Blake in their frenetic, dashed energy, bring a bit of levity to what is otherwise a quiet, contemplative tale. KQG

Thou Shalt Not Road Trip (review)

both giant and pink) and frightening (they also have very, very sharp claws). The motivation of the villain, a siren who must now lure tourists with ideal vacations after losing her voice, is a bit of stretch, but the snappy pace more than makes up for the somewhat lackluster antagonist as Marcus and his makeshift family battle maniacal clowns, epic tidal waves, and camping vampires. In a refreshing change from the horror genre’s typical early dismissal of parental units, Marcus’ mom is in on the adventure the whole time to offer support and guidance, making this a spirited and family-friendly tale. KQG

The Book of Blood and Shadow (review)

Nora’s independent study, helping an eccentric professor translate a sixteenthcentury book by a notable alchemist (and the letters left by his daughter, Elizabeth), seems like a great way to spice up her senior year at boarding school while spending more time with her best friend, Chris, and his roommate, Max, who are also working on the project. Just as quickly as Nora becomes invested in Elizabeth’s life, Max transforms from a slightly creepy tagalong to a sweet, solicitous boyfriend. Then Chris is brutally murdered, his girlfriend Adriane is left without memory of the night, and Max (the main suspect in the crime) disappears. With Adriane, Chris’ cousin Eli, and the manuscripts salvaged from an earlier attack on the professor in tow, Nora embarks on a globe-trotting search for Max, continuing her translation of the secrets encrypted in Elizabeth’s long-ago communications and uncovering conspiracies of legendary proportions in which she herself is apparently a key figure. Nora is a sympathetic heroine, studious and slightly wounded, and the supporting characters are vivid and appealingly quirky, making their gradually revealed loyalties and betrayals all the more gripping. This is a compulsively readable mashup of Twilight and The Da Vinci Code, tying together breathless first love and secret societies, codes and puzzles, deadly secret histories, and endless twists for edge-ofyour-seat appeal. CG

What's Left of Me (review)

It’s the first day of kindergarten, and our narrator’s mother is anxious (“What if you don’t have time to finish your sandwich at lunch? . . . Did I pack all your school supplies?”) while her son is all confidence—until he gets there and wonders momentarily if he really is ready for “big kids’ school.” With just a little reassurance from his mom and his new teacher, however, he jumps right into kindergarten and has a marvelous time, while his mother’s worries also lessen once he’s there. This goes beyond usual school-start books with its role reversal and emotionally powerful illustrations, in which the worrying mother is tiny and blue-toned in contrast to her strapping, ruddy-cheeked son; as her fears decrease, Mom’s color warms up and her size increases. The boy too shifts to blueness when anxiety strikes him at the door of his classroom (depicted on that page as an open door into blue-gray emptiness), but he’s quickly back to normal inside the cheerful, kid-filled classroom. Confident kids like the protagonist will be tickled to find that it’s the adult, and not the kid, who needs to be reassured, and they’ll be intrigued by the visual representation of the characters’ changing emotional states. Parents who are facing or who have survived their kids’ “first days” will easily sympathize with the mother. JH

Starting from Here (review)

Colby is about ready to give up on people: her girlfriend Rachel dumps her and immediately moves onto Colby’s opposite (a nice Jewish guy who does well in school), her mom is dead, and her dad is a frequently absent truck driver to whom she still hasn’t come out. Only her best friend, Van, can bring her out of her shell. Then she adopts Mo, a friendly but wary stray dog, and life starts to move again: the local vet becomes her mentor and surrogate parent, she develops a hesitant interest in Amelia, who writes a school paper feature on Mo, and she starts to get over Rachel. Colby’s tight-knit community is both a comfort (people look out for her when her dad is away) and a pain (Rachel’s new boyfriend, newly educated in LGBT issues, starts to participate in the same school organizations and online forums that have always been Colby’s safe spaces). Colby’s connections with other Rainbow Alliance members allow Bigelow to grapple realistically with the issues surrounding coming out from many different angles, but the book wisely keeps its focus on Colby’s personal journey, which unfolds in a haze of hormones, awkwardness, and sweetness. No one is all good or bad here—even Rachel is redeemable, while Colby is hopelessly mixed-up and often a terrible friend—and the story explores real-life problems with humor, warmth, and nuance. Any animal lover will be moved by the life and companionship Mo brings to Colby’s empty house, and they’ll root for Colby and all of her friends as they get their lives together and prepare for a more hopeful future. CG

For What It's Worth (review)

Blue has been reared in a house full of bona fide psychics, but her own powers are usually limited to enhancing the energy flow of the supernatural visitations. When she sees the spirit of a boy who is destined to die within the coming year, she fears that the prophecy that has haunted her since birth—that she will kill her true love with a kiss—might be close to fulfillment. A few days later she actually meets the boy of her vision, Gansey, who’s a student at the posh local boarding school. He and his friends are on a quest to find the precise location of a nearby ley line, and Blue joins their quest, which becomes fraught with danger and mystery as they get closer to finding the ley line and releasing its ancient power. Amid well-paced, suspenseful plotting intriguingly overlaid with history, myth, and legend, Stiefvater creates a compelling human drama of boys whose privilege or lack thereof colors all of their interactions. Gansey is especially poignant as the obscenely wealthy progeny of old Virginia money, a circumstance that propels him to find ways to make his life meaningful on his own terms. Adam, his closest friend, is equally focused on not allowing Gansey to use either his money or influence to rescue him from his abusive, poverty-stricken home life. Ronan is the group’s wild card, a loose cannon whose grief over the loss of his father explodes in temperamental outbursts of violence. Their fierce loyalty to one another survives anger over well-meaning but often clumsy interference in each other’s lives, but their fear that they might end up destroying one another adds another layer of intensity to their interaction. The band of brothers easily makes room for Blue, knowing that they need her talents—and her belief in both the supernatural and in them—to be not only successful but also wise in their dealings with the powerful forces they seek to engage. KC

Dreamland Social Club (review)

new Books for ChILdren And Young PeoPLe Christianity. Like Huck with his conflicted views on slavery, Billy never actually changes his view on homosexuality as a sin—his early training is too strong for that—but also like Huck, he decides that he is willing to brave hell to help his friend, and the tortured path toward Ruah’s ultimate freedom is what Tom Sawyer would call an adventure in “the regular way,” full of danger, violence, and excitement. Clearly, the book stands on its own merits as an exploration of one boy’s quest to understand the seemingly irreconcilable contradictions of his faith, his family, and his friendships, but it will also make young people better readers of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by helping them see the ironies and contradictions Twain explored in that book in comparison with present-day contexts. (Publication information appears on p. 479.) Karen Coats, Reviewer

Ghetto Cowboy (review)

When ten-year-old Flor Bernoulli stops into her neighborhood pie shop to pick up dessert, she instead gets a glimpse into the future and finds herself enmeshed in an intergalactic dilemma that may change the space-time continuum forever. Dr. Pi, the owner and baker of the Sky-High Pie Shop, has always been a bit odd, but when he starts talking to Flor about a magical spiral, the curve of time, and a precious fire, she’s convinced he’s officially lost it. Shortly after leaving his shop, however, she encounters Mr. It and Mr. Bit, two beings from another planet, in a meeting that was predicted by Dr. Pi. Soon she is traveling with the two alien brothers, along with her neighbor, the thin Ms. Plump, in a magical flying hat to Paris, where she will meet her estranged father and learn the secret history of her famous mathematically inclined family and their connection to the Spiral. The climactic scene, however, fails to deliver any serious revelations and instead clumsily shifts gears to focus on family dynamics, making an already messy plot even more convoluted. The cloyingly quirky names of the characters and the play on time and space add a bit of whimsy, but still, these fantasy elements feel utterly derivative and never hang together as a solid framework for the action. The true villain doesn’t even show up until the final pages, making the majority of this story no more than a tedious setup. Direct time travel enthusiasts instead to L’Engle’s classics or to John Stephens’ recent The Emerald Atlas (BCCB 5/11). KQG

This Dark Endeavor (review)

Twins Jaide and Jack Shields are none too happy when a sudden emergency forces their parents to ship the siblings off to their estranged grandmother. To be fair, the twins are not distressed simply due to having to stay with a creepy relative: the aforementioned emergency was actually the total destruction of their house after Jack and Jaide were pulled into a swirling vortex of wind and what appeared to be eyes. Their parents’ refusal to discuss the event is more than a little unsettling, and despite her vague references to their troubletwisting powers, their grandmother remains tight-lipped as well. Meanwhile, Jaide and Jack find themselves at the center of increasingly bizarre circumstances including being attacked by swarms of bugs, rats, and rabid dogs. It turns out the twins are from a long line of Wardens—guardians of the world against the Evil—and while Warden lore recommends that young guardians come into their powers without assistance, the Evil isn’t waiting for Jack and Jaide’s natural matriculation and has instead unleashed its chaos, threatening both the twins and their family. Despite its generic name, the Evil really is quite frightening, with its legions of skittering cockroaches, dead and mutilated rats, and other assorted cringe-inducing terrors. Unfortunately, the surrounding story doesn’t achieve the success of its villain, offering a rather uninventive take on the standard kids-save-the-world tale that lacks both foundation and depth. Jack and Jaide are utterly unremarkable, and the lack of detail regarding the backstory of their powers ensures that they remain so. Still, the action is intense, the villain evil (literally), and the ending happy, so that readers familiar with series adventure may find enough here to keep turning the pages. KQG