SLJsBoB: Getting Ready for Round Two!

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The first round of School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books has finished up. I predicted exactly half of the matches correctly in both the first half and the second half.

However, up to Match 6, even though I only predicted half of the matches correctly, the one I did predict correctly was the one I’d picked to move on in Round Two, so at first it didn’t look like my picks in Round Two would change.

But a couple things have happened to change that.

First, I finished reading Endangered. Even though it plays havoc with your emotions as much as The Fault in Our Stars, it feels less manipulative as it does that. Not that I thought The Fault in Our Stars manipulated my emotions. But Endangered even less so, even though it’s every bit as weighty a book. Does that make sense?

I still want Code Name Verity to win the top bracket. But I’m reversing my pick for Endangered vs. The Fault in Our Stars. Now that I’ve read Endangered, I want it to win.

Admittedly, I still think The Fault in Our Stars or Code Name Verity, whichever one is knocked out, will win the Undead Poll. So I expect to see both of those in the Big Kahuna Round anyway. If they both get knocked out? I shudder to even think of that possibility!

But the second problem to my Second Round picks is that I hoped The One and Only Ivan would win the entire bottom bracket. This is clearly no longer going to happen.

I did, however, hope that one of Starry River of the Sky or Liar & Spy would get knocked out, despite my predictions, so I wouldn’t have to choose between the two. Well, I’m a little sorry my wish was granted.

But it does make my decision easier. No dithering here! It turns out that in every Round Two Match, there is one book I predicted correctly, and one book I didn’t. Except for Endangered (see above), I always want the book I predicted correctly in the Round One to win Round Two.

That means I want Starry River of the Sky to beat Splendors and Glooms. No question about it.

And Seraphina over No Crystal Stair. Easy-peasy choice, despite whatever judge Paul Griffin may say about it.

Round Three? If it goes as I wish, the top half is still all about Code Name Verity. In the bottom half? Well, can I cop out and say whichever of the Round Two matches I get right?

But if by some amazing miracle I guess both right, Starry River of the Sky vs. Seraphina? Well, I think Starry River is the more expertly crafted book, so I’ll go with it. But that’s one where I wouldn’t be as sad, because I did love Seraphina.

If I get the Second Round Bottom Half both wrong, I’d choose Splendors and Glooms over No Crystal Stair.

And I still want Code Name Verity to win it all!

Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Books I HAD to Buy…But Are Sitting on My Shelf Unread

Top Ten Tuesday 0

Today I just had to join in on this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

Because, Aaaargh, buying books I desperately want to read — and then not reading them — is my undoing.

I wasn’t bad until I started working in a library. Once I worked at a library, I got much much better at not blowing my budget on books. I only bought books I really really wanted to read. Then I didn’t read them, because they didn’t have a due date!

Sometime around 2010, I finally had a clue and made myself a new Reading Rule: I would alternate reading library books with books I owned. By then, I’d started getting Advance Review Copies, and it seemed unethical to have taken so many at ALA conferences but not read them. Not to mention the books I’d bought. So I started alternating between books with a due date and books without a due date.

That was good, and worked well for me. But it wasn’t complicated enough for this Lover of Rules. So last year, I made myself a much more complicated system. As far as books I’ve bought, it boils down to I read one of those every sixth book. But at least I get to them! Eventually.

So, currently, these are my Top Ten Books I HAD to Buy…But Are Still Sitting on My Shelf Unread:

1. The Far West, by Patricia C. Wrede

Don’t you hate it when you actually preorder book…and then don’t get around to reading it until a few months after it comes out. But this one is next up when I am ready to read a book I’ve bought.

2. The Fox, by Sherwood Smith. And The King’s Shield. And Treason’s Shore. And Banner of the Damned.

Sherwood Smith is unquestionably one of my favorite authors. She’s had Sonderbooks Stand-outs 12 times.

But here’s what happened: I read Inda and made it a 2007 Sonderbooks Stand-out. But that was the year I was finishing my MLIS, looking for a job, and trying to get my life together. I never got a review written. When the sequel came out, I eagerly ordered it. But then I thought I really should reread Inda first and write a review. Now there are four hardcover books waiting for me. They are large books. I know that if I tackle them, it will be a long time before I get around to library books again. Aaargh! I’m actually hoping, sometime soon, to make Inda the next book I reread in my six-book cycle. Then to get to the others….

3. Bewitching, by Alex Flinn. Also Cloaked

I loved Beastly and A Kiss in Time. Just haven’t gotten to these ones yet.

4. Alchemy of Fire, by Gillian Bradshaw. And The Elixir of Youth, The Somers Treatment, The Sun’s Bride, Bloodwood, Dark North, and The Land of Gold.

I bought these long before I made any rules about alternating with library books. And after there got to be a certain number, some kind of critical mass built up. I love Gillian Bradshaw! One of her books was in my very first issue of Sonderbooks! Must get these read!

5. Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy. Also League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, I Will Repay, Sir Percy Hits Back, Pimpernel and Rosemary, and The First Sir Percy.

I bought these with much delight when Amazon was relatively new. You could find books that had not been in print! Books in public domain now reprinted! I didn’t have to find the Scarlet Pimpernel novels in used bookstores any more! I read some, I admit, and I still mean to read them all. But somewhere around the fifth or sixth book, I lost steam.

6. Stewards of the Flame and Promise of the Flame, by Sylvia Engdahl

Another author I adore. Bought them, but they didn’t have a due date….

7. Seven Basic Plots, by Christopher Booker

This one’s particularly annoying. Because I had this checked out from the library. It’s a big fat book, and it was incredibly good, incredibly insightful. So I decided to buy my own copy, so I could read it at my leisure and really get a lot out of it. Well, then it didn’t have a due date….

8. Od Magic, by Patricia A. McKillip. And The Bards of Bone Plain and Ombria in Shadow

Another good author.

9. 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, by Jane Smiley

This looked so fascinating. Haven’t cracked it open.

10. The Pinhoe Egg, by Diana Wynne Jones. Also House of Many Ways and The Game.

There you have it! The perpetual problem: So many books, so little time. Sigh.

Bummer! Making this list did not make me feel better about these neglected books! Because I still really really want to read them! Sigh.

Review of Endangered, by Eliot Schrefer

Adventure, Contemporary, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

Endangered

by Eliot Schrefer

Scholastic Press, New York, 2012. 264 pages.
Starred Review
2012 National Book Award Finalist
2013 School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books Contender

Endangered is the only Battle of the Books contender this year that I hadn’t already read. I’m glad I finished it before it’s out of the Battle. And, dare I say it?, now I find myself hoping it pulls an upset over The Fault in Our Stars. Though I don’t want it to beat my favorite, Code Name Verity in the next round, and The Fault in Our Stars is bound to come back from the dead anyway, so this doesn’t feel like a very fateful prediction.

But Endangered is a gripping, powerful, and suspenseful story that feels like it’s teaching you at the same time. I knew nothing about bonobos and very little about Congo or life in Congo. Eliot Schrefer writes with authenticity that sure makes the reader think he knows what he’s talking about.

I already had an idea of the story. Sophie was visiting her Mom on a bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Without asking permission, she adopted Otto, a baby bonobo being sold on the side of the road. Later, her Mom heads out to release some adult bonobos at a safe location in the wild, but while she is gone, war erupts. UN peacekeepers try to take Sophie to safety, but Sophie won’t leave Otto to die.

What follows is an epic journey. Because war comes to the sanctuary. Sophie takes refuge in the electrified enclosure with the adult bonobos, so her first challenge is to be accepted by them. But when the electricity goes off, she knows she must escape before the soldiers come in to kill them all. Can she travel through the jungle and find her mother, miles away?

This book is a survival tale, a frightening story of war, and full of authentic details about bonobos and life in Congo.

At first, I was a little annoyed with Sophie for seeming more concerned about bonobo life than human life. But as the book went on, I came to feel that someone needed to care about “the least of these.” When another opportunity came up for her to go to safety if she abandoned Otto, but she had clear evidence he would die if she did, I was by then fully on Sophie’s side in continuing on with Otto.

Sophie’s journey takes her from one danger to another. But she never feels unduly lucky. There are many setbacks. Some she deals with better than others, and she does end up finding kind strangers who help along the way, after initial help from the bonobos. It’s hard to write a series of narrow escapes and still have the reader feel like it could happen, but Eliot Schrefer pulls it off. It all feels believable and terribly scary.

During a quiet moment it struck me that Congo was an easier country to survive in than most during a time of war. In peacetime the teacher couldn’t afford to buy food at the markets, which meant he had a field, and snares for wild game, and a well for water since the government had never run pipes out here. I tried to imagine getting by if the same thing happened in Miami and couldn’t. When a country was as primed for civil war as Congo was, when it came apart, the pieces weren’t as heavy.

eliotschrefer.com
scholastic.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/endangered.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Colors and Codes

Mathematical, Prime Factorization 0

I just got a tweet that made me prouder than I’ve EVER been of my Prime Factorization Sweater, and that’s saying a lot.

The tweet was from @milesmac, Miles MacFarlane, a teacher, with the words, “#LeilaN students deciphered @Sonderbooks Prime Factorization Sweater – Now making own code #7Oaks”

Here’s the picture that accompanied it. Even by the backs of their heads, you can tell those are engaged kids!

Yes! That’s what it’s about! Mr. MacFarlane, you made my day!

And the timing is lovely. Next week, at my own City of Fairfax Regional Library, I’m doing a program I’m calling “Colors and Codes” where we’re going to do exactly that. I’ll wear the sweater (or maybe my prime factorization t-shirt and bring the sweater. And the scarf). I’ll show them how we can assign each letter of the alphabet a number from 1 to 26. We’ll start with a factorization code, but move on to things like Base 6 or Binary. And I’m going to have foam shapes for them to make crafts with codes in colors or shapes.

Yay! See, we don’t have to make Math fun! Math is fun!

Review of My First Day, by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 1

My First Day

What Animals Do on Day One

by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Boston, 2013. 32 pages.
Starred Review

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Steve Jenkins’ work, having named three of his books Sonderbooks Stand-outs. I love the way he combines amazingly detailed and realistic cut-paper artwork with scientific facts about the world.

My First Day gets extra bonus points for being way too cute. The book features twenty-two specific types of animals — for example, not just a tiger, but a Siberian tiger, not just a turtle, but a leatherback turtle — and tells us what they do on their very first day.

The range is wide. A capybara can swim and dive when it’s just a few hours old. A polar bear cub sleeps in a snow den with its mother until Spring. A blue wildebeest trots along with its mother, because its herd is on the move.

One thing I love about this book is the pacing and pictures and subject matter are all perfect for preschoolers or early elementary school kids. Yet it’s serious nonfiction, and fascinating information that I didn’t even know until I read the book. What a wonderful way to get a child hooked on nonfiction!

Here’s an example set of pages, to give an idea of the gentle pacing:

On my first day, my mother held me close so I wouldn’t drift out to sea.

I dozed on her belly while she floated in the waves.

sea otter

On my first day, I raced to the water.

The beach was a dangerous place, and I was on my own as soon as I hatched.

leatherback turtle

Combined with the gentle text, imagine detailed, realistic, yet adorable illustrations of the baby in question with or without its parent, as appropriate. And to cap it all off, the last baby featured is the polar bear cub, who tells us, on its first day, “I fell asleep.”

For older, inquiring minds, there are end notes that tell a little more about each creature, so you don’t have to end on that cozy, perfect-bedtime-story finish. This book will work for a wide range of ages, but will be especially perfect for getting the youngest listeners hooked on nonfiction.

I’m posting this review today in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today by Pierogies & Gyoza.

hmhbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/my_first_day.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Sondy for Newbery!

Award Challenge 0

It’s official! I’m on the ballot for next year’s Newbery committee!

Here I am at the 2010 Newbery Banquet. I’m such a Newbery-geek, any contact with the awards process thrills me!

Here’s the scoop. Each year, a committee chooses the “most distinguished contribution” to American literature for children. The committee is made up of fifteen people, eight of whom are voted on by members of ALSC, the Children’s Services division of the American Library Association. There are sixteen names on the ballot.

Why should you vote for me, Sondra Eklund?

Besides being an avid reader of children’s books all my life, I’ve been writing book reviews in Sonderbooks since 2001, thinking about why certain books are good.

When I discovered Heavy Medal blog a few years ago, and they posted the Newbery criteria and guidelines, I couldn’t keep myself from printing out and reading every word. I realized then how much the whole thing fascinated me. Since then, I avidly follow Heavy Medal, and have learned much from Jonathan and Nina about the Newbery Medal and the process of choosing the winners.

When ALA offered online classes, I took one on the Newbery Medal, one on the Caldecott Medal, and one on the Printz Award.

Last January, I had the privilege of attending the William Morris Seminar, an entire day of training about the process of book evaluation committees. I’m ready to carry out what I’ve learned!

Last year, I joined Capitol Choices, a DC-area group that chooses about a hundred of the best children’s books of the year. They meet monthly to discuss great books, and it gave me practice being in a formal book-discussion setting.

Last year I also got to be a first round judge for the Cybils Awards, in the category of Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction. I figured it would help me find out if I like spending all my spare time intensely reading children’s books. (I loved it!)

I’m involved in ALSC, a member of the Children and Technology Committee for the past two years.

I am currently Youth Services Manager at City of Fairfax Regional Library, a large public library in northern Virginia. Last year, I started a Mock Newbery Club. I hope to keep it up to get feedback on how actual kids feel about the new books being published.

In 2008, 2009, and now 2013, I’ve been on our county’s Summer Reading Selection committee, selecting a list of books to promote for Summer Reading.

What’s more, this would be a great time in my life to devote to children’s books. My youngest son just headed off to college, so I’m living alone. I’m moving into a lovely new home next month. No more cooking and cleaning for kids! I am ready to devote all those spare hours to reading children’s books! 🙂

So, any ALSC members out there, make my dream come true! Vote for Sondra Eklund for Newbery Committee!

And Thank You from the bottom of my heart!

Review of Chloe and the Lion, by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Chloe and the Lion
by Mac Barnett
Pictures by Adam Rex

Disney Hyperion Books, New York, 2012. 48 pages.
Starred Review

Meta-fiction does not always work, but Chloe and the Lion is joining the ranks of great meta-fiction picture books, along with David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs, Mo Willems’ We Are in a Book!, and even The Monster at the End of This Book, by Jon Stone.

The art is ever-so-interesting, mostly a three-dimensional scene made from paper cut-outs, but it includes plasticine figures of the author and illustrator. They introduce themselves and tell us about Chloe, who saves nickels and dimes to ride on the merry-go-round on the weekend.

The story is on the bizarre side…

But one week, Chloe found a lot of change.
So she was able to buy a lot of tickets.
And she rode around and around and around.
Which was why she got very dizzy.
And that’s how Chloe ended up lost in the forest.

We read that a huge lion leapt out at Chloe from behind an oak tree, but in the picture we see a dragon, with smoke coming from its nostrils.

The author and illustrator have it out. Adam, the illustrator, thinks that a dragon is much cooler than a lion. In the end, Mac has no choice but to fire Adam and find someone else to illustrate the book. Once the illustrator has been changed, “The first thing the lion did was walk up to Adam and swallow him whole.”

Unfortunately, the new artist, Hank Blowfeather, just isn’t as good as Adam. And when Mac tries to draw instead? Disaster!

So, Chloe and Mac need to figure out a way to get Adam out of the belly of the lion and save the book. And a thank-you at the end would be nice, too.

This is another book where description simply doesn’t do it justice. There are visual jokes throughout, a wide variety of styles, and a lot of thought about how a story works. This is a book worth reading again and again.

Oh, and I’ll have to add it to my Pinterest board: Picture Books Where Someone Gets Eaten! (Even if it’s not permanent, getting swallowed whole counts. Maybe I should put it on the Eating Thwarted page, too.)

Meta-fiction at its finest!

macbarnett.com
adamrex.com
disneyhyperionbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/chloe_and_the_lion.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Battle of the Books First Week Report

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The first week of School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books has finished up, and the first half of the first round matches. I predicted these matches. How’d I do?

My success rate is only 50%. However, I am not discouraged! Because the two books I want to win the second round were the two I got right. So my hopes for the second round still stand.

What’s more, I only this week got started reading Endangered, the one book in the battle I hadn’t yet read. So I’m kind of glad it’s still around, and think I can safely say I’ll be finished before it competes again.

Once again this year, I made a display with little book covers, and I’m moving the book covers in the brackets based on who wins. (Sorry, it’s at the library. I should have taken a picture!) Losers go to the bottom, until one comes back from the dead. Today I wore my SLJ BoB t-shirt from 2010, when they gave t-shirts to anyone who blogged about the Battle.

I’ve enjoyed the judges so far. I forgive them for using The Format (see the first commenter at a Read Roger post), because they’ve had good things to say in the body of the decision.

Personally, I don’t fault the judges for praising both books in each match. They’re excellent books, okay? I appreciate that they took some time; they pointed out things about the books I hadn’t necessarily noticed. If you haven’t read the books, you’re going to find many reasons for doing so. If you have read them, you get to see them through another author’s eyes.

I do hope someone will mix it up a little and not talk about the losing book first, though.

I’m probably happiest with Margarita Engle, simply because she praised my favorite book, Code Name Verity, and quoted beautiful lines and reminded me of why I love it so much.

Speaking of judging books, (clever transition there?) today I saw that it’s really official: My name is on the ballot for next year’s Newbery Committee! Squee!

Now, mind you, there are 16 names on the ballot for only 8 positions. And voting opens next week and continues for more than a month, so I’m going to be tense about it for quite awhile. Sometime soon, I will make a post about why voting for me is a good idea and why I am a great choice for the job. For now, I’ll just beg: Any ALSC members out there, make my dream come true! Vote for me! Vote for me!

Review of The Fellowship for Alien Detection

Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction 0

The Fellowship for Alien Detection

by Kevin Emerson

Walden Pond Press (HarperCollins), March 2013. 428 pages.

Science Fiction stories with aliens aren’t really my thing, but they were very much my son’s thing, so I have a soft spot for them still. When my now-25-year-old son was much younger, Bruce Coville was his favorite author, particularly the My Teacher Is an Alien books. The Fellowship for Alien Detection has similar themes, with kids the only ones able to figure out an alien plot to take over the world.

The book was on the long side for me, but I think kids who like the alien theme will find that a bonus. Two middle-school kids from opposite sides of the country, Haley and Dodger, have been given a fellowship to spend the summer investigating their own theories about alien activity on earth. Haley has been investigating missing time events, associated with missing people. Dodger has been hearing strange broadcasts from a town called Juliette. The broadcasts are always from the same day.

As they travel to suspicious sites, soon they seem to be under suspicion by sinister forces. Neither Haley’s nor Dodger’s parents realize the danger their children are in for. If they investigate further, will they be kidnapped by aliens as well? What will happen to the missing people of Juliette? What will happen to planet Earth?

The plot of this book is fairly complex, with each kid piecing together clues before they come together, as well as the reader getting glimpses of what’s going on in Juliette.

I recently read lots and lots of Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy books for the 2012 Cybils Awards, and, believe it or not, I didn’t read anything like this book — a good, basic, kids-watching-out-for-aliens story that my son would have loved. If any kids at my library come looking for a book about aliens, I know exactly what to put in their hands.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/fellowship_for_alien_detection.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Review Copy sent to me by the publisher.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Glad No Matter What, by SARK

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Glad No Matter What

Transforming Loss and Change into Gift and Opportunity

by SARK

New World Library, 2010. 224 pages.
Starred Review

Even though this is a book about dealing with loss and change, this is a truly joyous and exuberant book. I love SARK’s use of color and art in her pages.

She puts it well right at the beginning:

This is NOT a book about feeling glad when you don’t.
How annoying.
This is a book about finding and living from the glad parts in all of your feelings.

There’s so much wisdom in these pages. Stories. Insights. Encouragement. I’ll post a few more excerpts to give you the idea, but remember that if you read the book, you have the addition of SARK’s wonderful colors and fonts and interesting emphases.

I’ve seen and experienced over and over that grief and loss are always doorways to transformation.

My experiences with both have showed me that we can more actively work with time as we process grief and loss, instead of just waiting for time to pass. We really can consciously practice integrating loss and grief and living with them more fully and beautifully.

I know now that this healing happens in spirals and layers and NOT in steps like a ladder.

We cycle back around and start over, get stuck in the middle, and sometimes get to what feels like the end quickly.

We can weave all of these experiences together into an eventually elegant tapestry. I’ve been speaking with lots of people about the subjects of loss and grief, and it’s clear that in every case, whatever has been lost — job, savings, home, health, money, life — has tremendous gifts and opportunities to offer

if

we do our transformational work.

When we are caring for ourselves, we discover that there is actually plenty of time and energy to care for others and the world too. It is not negatively “selfish” to care for yourself brilliantly and exquisitely. In fact, as you fill your own well from the inside and tend to yourself with great love, it will naturally and effortlessly “spill over” for others to appreciate and utilize.

When you see someone who radiantly glows from within, you are seeing a self-caring soul. This kind of self-care is a living example to be inspired by, so that you can live that way also.

The opposite of old is not young.
The opposite of old is new.
As long as we continue to experience
the new, we will gloriously
inhabit all of the ages that we are.”

In short, I was so happy and supported to read this book after dealing with the loss and change of divorce and then a stroke. So I am convinced this is a wonderful book for after you’ve experienced loss and change, but I believe it would also be wonderful to read during loss and change. And I’m convinced it would be beautiful preparation to read it before loss and change happen to you (and they will). So we’re left with the fact that any time is a good time to read this encouraging book. I recommend reading it slowly, like I did, dipping in to it a part at a time and savoring what you find there.

planetsark.com
newworldlibrary.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/glad_no_matter_what.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on my own personal copy, purchased via Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!