Review: New Kid

New Kid by Jerry Craft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Had to read the first graphic novel to ever win the Newbery Award! I enjoyed it (4 stars) and I tried to read it as I would if I were on the Printz committee again (with my English teacher hat on). I did feel that there were some panels that involved some close reading to get the whole picture, but I also felt like there were a few plot lines that didn't go anywhere, like the financial aid on vacation kid and the kids who lived around Jordan's home. But I can see middle graders eating this book up! Pretty sure my own girl would have loved it back in the day. Entertaining, but you can get more out of it if you really want to.

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Review: Grass

Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sadly, a huge part of war is the raping of women. In this graphic novel, the author befriends Lee Ok-sun, an elderly woman who was sold by her starving parents and ended up in a "comfort station" for soldiers.

I'm not a huge graphic novel reader, and I don't know much about art, but I was distracted a bit by how some characters weren't fully fleshed out. At first I thought the "bad" characters were drawn badly, but that wasn't the case. Some noses are triangles, slashes or bulbous--there was no rhyme or reason or consistency that I could see. But then the darkness was used brilliantly--reminded me at times of David Small's graphic novels.

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Review: In Waves

In Waves by A.J. Dungo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Damn, this gave me unexpected feels while reading it over lunch today. I knew it won the Alex Award and that is looked like a graphic novel about surfing, so I wasn't expecting to tear up a bit!

AJ Dungo tells two stories here--the true one about two influential men in the history of surfing (Duke Kahanamoku and Tom Blake) and his own coming-of-age relationship with Kristen, a young woman who suffers from cancer. I wasn't expecting the book to focus so much on grief, but it WORKS and is very successful. I don't surf, but I understand how he makes the connection of being alone in an ocean as a coping mechanism. We all have something that works like that, and, for many of us, nature plays a huge part. You may hug your dog, or kiss you kid when she's sleeping, or take deep breaths in the shower. Whatever works. Grief hurts, but there is hope.

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Review: Valentine

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 stars

This is the second ARC I chose to read from ALA Midwinter, and I thought, "Hey, I love Texas music and westerns, so I'll read this cute little historical fiction" without reading the reviews.

Holy crap, this was dark and made me ANGRY.

West Texas is a bitch, especially to women and Mexican-Americans, and even more so to female Mexican-Americans.

And this book is LITERARY, which I honestly don't choose to read much on my own anymore because I don't like to put on my English teacher hat--I read to relax and escape. This book just pissed me off because the whole world of Odessa is horrible and unfair and ruled by dirty white men who earn too much money. But does this book make you emotional? Yep.

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Review: The Blaze

The Blaze by Chad Dundas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the kind of book I love to read for myself--not because it's going to win any literary awards or break new ground.

Matthew, the main character, is injured in Iraq during an explosion, but it's one of those that is difficult to see. His brain was rattled (this just happened to many American soldiers when our Iraqi military base was bombed by Iran), and Matthew lost his memory. He is able to fake it fairly well and seems to be a fast learner, so he listens to his friends and decides to go back to his hometown in Montana (I'll read anything about Montana!) when his dad dies to try to learn about his past. There's a mystery there--he had shut his dad out of his life, as well as many of his old friends.

He meets up with his ex-girlfriend Georgie, now a reporter, and the two of them become involved in a mysterious fire that happens as soon as Matthew returns home. Even Matthew is a suspect--he comes home and there is immediately a crime? Matthew is constantly getting flashes into his memories and the reader wants to know--why did he leave home? The end of the novel is a roller coaster--a lot happens and things wrap up nicely.

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Review: Beheld

Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had to read this book because it's family history. Yes, I'm quite proud to be descended from the first white man to be put to death in Plymouth!

My great-great-great-great grandfather married Elizabeth Welch. Her great-great-great grandfather was Francis Billington, the son of John Billington--the rabble-rouser this novel is based on. I love how the author used factual sources, but then used her imagination to guess WHY the Billington family was so hated by the hypocritical Puritans. It does make sense that if they didn't go to church in a religious colony that there would be problems. And if he broke the law by trading with the Wampanoag when he wasn't allowed to. It's telling how all the laws were created to help those in power and keep those in lower classes from rising--just like in England.

The novel is told through the point-of-view of many characters--John Billington, Alice Bradford (the governor's wife), Eleanor Billington (John's wife) and Newcomen (the man Billington kills). But, unfortunately, the novel just doesn't read very well. Scenes and paragraphs are rather choppy and don't flow easily, which is a shame because I find this time period fascinating. I did read the advance reader's copy, so some of this may be improved before printing, but there are times when I felt like I was reading primary source documents instead of a novel. Language is tough, too, because we know they spoke English differently then. With the different POVs, I felt like I skimmed the surface of the characters, but I think I would have liked a deeper dive into one of the characters, like Alice or Eleanor instead. And perhaps had the story been told as a reflection (and almost a confession), I would have been more emotionally involved. I didn't feel anything for the characters as I read this.

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Review: The Nowhere Child

The Nowhere Child by Christian White
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fantastic fast read about an adult Australian woman who discovers that she may have been stolen from her American Christian fundamentalist parents. Great crossover title for teens, too.

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Review: There Will Come a Darkness

There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I see why this is up for the Morris award--YALSA's award for a YA author's debut. But, whoa, I do wish she hadn't had so many chapters from different POVs. If I have to use a Post-It note with names and characteristics to remind me who is who, then I know many teens would abandon this book for its complexity. I really hope Book 2 focuses more on characterization instead of POVs, because that is what needs some fleshing out. If the characters had more distinct voices, then I wouldn't have been confused!

That said, I loved the world-building in this fantasy novel. Lots of prophecies and confused teenagers trying to save their world.

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Review: The Monster of Elendhaven

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a twisted little novella! If this were YA, I'd nominate it for the Printz Award. But it's adult. And freaking weird and evil. Fascinating.

The town of Elendhaven has always been failing--factories are closing, people are downtrodden, and life is hell. When little Johann crawls out of the ocean, he finds his evil master easily and the two of them wreck havoc. This isn't what I would call HORROR, but it's literary gothic and just twisted.

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Review: Long Road to Mercy

Long Road to Mercy by David Baldacci
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whoops. I reviewed Book #1 before #2. Great start to a new series by Baldacci, though I'm a little peeved by how fast the main character can crack a computer password.

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