2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs: Other Children’s Fiction

Children's Fiction Review, Stand-outs 0

Tonight I’m posting about my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs in the category of “other” Children’s Fiction — all except Fantasy and Science Fiction, which was the category I judged for the Cybils, so had a lot of books.

This category includes most of my Newbery hopefuls, though I didn’t choose them for award winners, but just ranked in terms of how much I enjoyed reading them. I’m posting this category tonight because it’s the only category where I have all the reviews already posted. I’m getting to this late tonight because today I went and looked at a townhome that I’m going to make an offer for! I found that the best way to make such a big decision was to take a nap!

Anyway, here are my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs for Non-Fantasy Children’s Fiction:

1. Summer of the Gypsy Moths, by Sara Pennypacker
2. The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate
3. Wonder, by R. J. Palacio
4. Liar and Spy, by Rebecca Stead
5. Twelve Kinds of Ice, by Ellen Obed Bryan
6. The Lions of Little Rock, by Kristin Levine

You may have noticed that I don’t have the same number of stand-outs in each category. That’s because these are the books that stand out in my mind after a year of reading, and I try to hold the same standard to all categories. So some have more choices than others.

This list does have one book, The One and Only Ivan, that was on our Cybils shortlist for Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction, by virtue of animals talking to each other. But I maintain that in spirit, it’s not a fantasy novel at all, so for my purposes, it’s on this list.

Come to think of it, all of these books are on our Mock Newbery Book Club shortlist for voting on January 14th at 4:30 pm at City of Fairfax Regional Library. I guess that makes sense, since I made the shortlist! Also on our shortlist are two other Sonderbooks Stand-outs: Palace of Stone and Starry River of the Sky, and two books I haven’t read yet: Bomb, by Steve Sheinkin, and Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage. If any of my readers live in the area, please come join us, even if you haven’t read all the books!

Tonight I’ll update the review pages for all these books to reflect their Stand-out status. If you haven’t caught these books yet, I recommend them all highly. And who knows, maybe you can beat the crowd for checking out some Newbery honorees!

Review of Sleeping Beauty, by Mercedes Lackey

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Sleeping Beauty

by Mercedes Lackey

Luna, 2010. 345 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Sonderbooks Standout: #3 Fantasy Fiction

I do so love Mercedes Lackey’s Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms! They are fairy tale variants, but for once they are written for grown-ups. They appeal to the reader’s intelligence, and a vast storehouse of Tradition powers the magic in the tales. It’s so much fun the way she looks at the way the Tradition would affect real people’s lives.

Take the princesses that get awakened from sleep by a prince’s kiss, for example. There’s Snow White. There’s Sleeping Beauty. And who knew, the Siegfried saga involves him waking a sleeping shieldmaiden who’s actually his aunt surrounded by a ring of flaming roses.

Chapter One of The Sleeping Beauty opens with Princess Rosamund fleeing from a Huntsman and mourning her situation.

It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair. Why did her mother die? She had been so good; she’d never done anything to deserve to die!

But of course, the part of her mind that was always calculating, always thinking, the part she could never make just stop, said and if it hadn’t been that, it would have been something else. You just turned sixteen. You know what that means in the Tradition.

Oh, she knew. Sixteen was bad enough for ordinary girls. For the noble, the wealthy, The Tradition ruthlessly decreed what sort of birthday you would have — if you were pretty, it was the celebration of a lifetime. If you were plain, everyone, literally everyone, would forget it was even your birthday, and you would spend the day miserable and alone. Traditional Paths went from there, decreeing, unless you fought it, just what the rest of your life would be like based on that birthday. For a Princess, it was worse. For the only child who was also a Princess, worse still. Curses or blessings, which might be curses in disguise, descended. Parents died or fell deathly ill. You were taken by a dragon. Evil Knights demanded your hand. Evil Sorcerers kidnapped you to marry you — or worse.

Fortunately, Rosamund’s kingdom, Eltaria, has a powerful fairy godmother who is trying to divert all the magic swirling around Eltaria into less harmful channels. But her task isn’t easy.

To add to the fun, Siegfried wanders into the kingdom. I love the summing up Mercedes Lackey gives of Siegfried’s story. When he drank dragon’s blood as a boy and learned the language of beasts, he picked up a bird as a traveling companion who warned him about The Tradition and the fate planned for him.

At ten years old, Siegfried of Drachenthal learned that he had been a game piece all of his life in the metaphorical hands of The Tradition. That he was supposed to go and wake up a sleeping woman, that they would fall in love, and that this was going to lead to an awful lot of unpleasant things. And that if he didn’t somehow find a way around it, he was Doomed.

At ten, Doom didn’t seem quite as horrid a fate to try to avoid as a Girl was. But it seemed that by avoiding that one particular Girl, in those particular circumstances, who would be the first woman he had ever seen who was not an aunt, he would also avoid the Doom. So he did. He got away from Drachenthal, had the bird scout on ahead so that the first woman he ever saw was not his aunt but someone’s lively old granny, and began searching for a way to have a Happy, rather than Tragically Heroic, ending.

At twenty, the idea of a Girl all his own seemed rather nice, but Doom was definitely to be avoided. He had begun to think about this, rather than just merely avoiding all sleeping women in fire circles wearing armor. Other Heroes ended up with Princesses, castles, happy endings, dozens of beautiful children. Why couldn’t he?

The bird had been of the opinion that he ought to be able to, if he could trick The Tradition into confusing his fate with some other sort of Hero’s. That sounded good to Siegfried. . . .

“So in order to hoodwink The Tradition, all I have to find is someone blond, asleep in a ring of fire and flowers, who is not a Shieldmaiden demigoddess, and wake her up?” he was asking the bird, as he hacked his way through the underbrush with his eversharp, unbreakable sword.

It’s an easy to get an idea where this is going, but you will only get an inkling of how much fun and humor is to be found along the way.

Another thoroughly enjoyable offering from Mercedes Lackey.

LUNA-Books.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/sleeping_beauty.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 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 The Actor and the Housewife, by Shannon Hale

Chick Lit, Contemporary, Fiction Review, General, Literary, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Actor and the Housewife

by Shannon Hale

Bloomsbury, New York, 2009. 339 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 Non-fantasy Fiction

This is the one book by Shannon Hale that I don’t own, and that I didn’t read as soon as it came out. Why? Well, I knew it’s about a Mormon housewife who becomes good friends with a heart throb actor. I’ve always believed that men and women can be friends without hurting their marriages. But when this came out, I had just been burned. My own marriage had imploded. My husband claimed he was friends with a young female co-worker, and it turned out that was just a cover for something else, and our marriage didn’t survive.

But this book is not a treatise on marriage and friendship. If you want that, I highly recommend NOT “Just Friends,” by Shirley Glass. (A nice rule of thumb: Where are the windows and the walls? If the walls are around the marriage and the windows around the friendship, good. You should be able to talk with your spouse about the friendship, rather than the other way around.) This book is a story. It’s a story of a good friendship, but most of all, it’s a story about a great marriage.

Now, it’s not easy on the marriage for Becky Jack to be great friends with a handsome actor. She wrestles with what’s right. Her husband wrestles with what’s right. She even talks with her bishop about it. But let me say it again: This is a great story! These people seem real and alive and this is about a funny, poignant, and difficult situation and how it affects two families and the people around them.

As a matter of fact, I hadn’t decided which book I was going to read next when I checked it out. I brought several candidates upstairs, and thought I’d just read a few pages to decide if I wanted to read this next. . . and ended up finishing the book at 5:30 am the following morning. This was NOT what I had planned. It wasn’t remotely a good idea. But wow! What a good story!

Becky and Felix Callahan meet, by a fluke, when she is in Hollywood, looking over a contract for a screenplay she’s sold to his producer. She is hugely pregnant and not at her best. Then they end up being at the same hotel. They share a ride, have dinner. One thing leads to another, and they become friends.

The book is about a long and wonderful friendship. It covers a span of many years, with high points, hilarious moments, awkward times, and big setbacks. In the long run, the book is even more about Becky’s marriage. Becky thinks a lot about how she can be friends with this Hollywood star, yet still be fully and completely in love with her husband. It works.

Here’s a bit where Becky has just met Felix and ends up sharing a ride with him to the hotel:

Becky sneaked a glance at Felix before returning her gaze to the window. That whole exchange had felt as unaccountably familiar as Felix’s presence. She had an ah-ha moment as she thought, Augie Beuter! That’s who Felix reminded her of — well, actually, the two men looked and acted about as much alike as Margaret Thatcher and Cher. But the way she and Felix had followed each other’s lead, the way their conversation flowed together, tuned for an audience, that’s how she and Augie used to be. He’d been her assistant editor on the high school paper and partner in debate club. Their five-year best friendship ended when they both married other people. Augie Beuter — she hadn’t seen him since her wedding, and she still missed him.

I don’t have room to insert one of the many scenes of their back-and-forth banter. You can tell they are indeed friends. Their two worlds are completely different, but their story is truly a delight.

squeetus.com
bloomsburyusa.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/actor_and_the_housewife.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 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!

2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs: Fiction for Adults

Fiction Review, Stand-outs 0

Let’s face it. The reason I split my Sonderbooks Stand-outs into so many categories is because I have so many favorites. My “other” favorite book of the year was Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale. Or, wait, maybe it was Heir to Sevenwaters, by Juliet Marillier. Okay, I give up, and that’s why I separated Fantasy Fiction from Other Fiction for adults. Let’s just say that I love, love, loved both books and, well, all the others on these lists.

Here are my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs in Adult Non-Fantasy Fiction:

1. Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale
2. The Call, by Yannick Murphy
3. 1222, by Anne Holt
4. Gold, by Chris Cleave
5. The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz
6. The Actor and the Housewife, by Shannon Hale

And for Fantasy Fiction:

1. Heir to Sevenwaters, by Juliet Marillier
2. Beauty and the Werewolf, by Mercedes Lackey
3. Sleeping Beauty, by Mercedes Lackey
4. Blood Spirits, by Sherwood Smith

These lists draw attention to the fact that I have my favorite authors. In all the Stand-outs, Shannon Hale’s books appear three times, and Juliet Marillier, Mercedes Lackey, Sherwood Smith, and Anne Lamott all have two books on the lists. What’s more, many of the authors honored here have been so honored in earlier years: All of the ones just named, as well as Immaculee Ilibagiza, Steve Jenkins, Chris Cleave, Grace Lin, Stephanie Burgis, Sara Pennypacker, Katherine Applegate, Rebecca Stead, Elizabeth Wein, Diana Peterfreund, Patrice Kindl, Garth Nix, John Green, Jasper Fforde, Mo Willems, and Jon Klassen.

I don’t think I’m biased once I like an author. I just think that certain authors write in a way that touches my heart every time. These people are good at what they do, and their books stick in my mind long, long after I’ve read them.

I only read 19 novels for adults, so choosing 10 stand-outs might seem excessive. But bear in mind that when I was reading for Capitol Choices and the Cybils, an adult novel had to be outstanding to seem worth my time. There were many others I checked out but ended up setting aside. All of these listed stand out among all my reading of the year.

And if you missed any of these books, consider catching up! Speaking of catching up, tonight I’ll post the two reviews of these books I hadn’t posted before, and put the Stand-outs seal on all of their webpages.

How about you? What were your favorite adult novels you read in 2012?

Review of Shadowfell, by Juliet Marillier

Fantasy, Romance, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Shadowfell

by Juliet Marillier

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2012.
Starred Review

Juliet Marillier’s writing is wonderful. She evokes ancient Celtic magic, and her heroines must face formidable odds with courage, wrestling over what’s right, and then holding onto that. This book reminded me greatly of her Sevenwaters books for adults, and that’s high praise.

At the start of the book, Neryn has been unable to keep her father from gambling away their last coins, and then he decides to use her as his stake. She’s won by a quiet stranger who gets her off the chancy-boat in time to see it destroyed by the king’s Enforcers, meaning her father’s certain death. The man doesn’t harm her. He asks her to travel with him:

“Listen,” Flint said, not meeting my eye now but stirring the fire with a stick, making sparks rise into the night. “You know, and I know, how hard it is to make a journey like that alone. Summer’s over and the Cull’s under way. You should be safe enough here for a day or so; this spot’s well off the known tracks. Tomorrow I have to attend to some other business, but I can be back before dark. It happens that I’m going north too. Travel with me until our paths part ways and you’ll have protection on the road.” He sounded diffident.

He had been kind tonight, in his brusque fashion. But everything in me rejected this suggestion. “I don’t know you,” I said. “I’d be a fool to trust you.”

“You’d be still more of a fool,” Flint said, “to go on alone. I said before, I want nothing from you. This is a simple offer of help. You need help.”

“Thank you, but I’ll do well enough on my own.”

Neryn does go on on her own, but the reader isn’t too surprised when Flint turns up again. We are surprised when we find out all the reasons Neryn has not to trust him.

Neryn has a “canny gift.” She can see and hear the Good Folk. But canny gifts are forbidden in Alban under the reign of King Keldec. Only those in the king’s close personal circle are allowed to use them. Others are killed, or their minds bent to serve the king. Neryn’s own Granny had her mind destroyed when the Enforcers attempted this on her.

But she’s heard of a place in the north, Shadowfell, where things are different, where Keldec’s arm doesn’t reach and canny gifts are welcome. However, to get there requires a long journey.

Along the way, Neryn learns that her own gift may be far more important, and far more powerful, than she realized. She also must wrestle with whom she can trust.

Now, in some ways Juliet Marillier’s romances follow a formula. There’s a very capable, strong man who’s a sinister stranger, but somehow the heroine gets in his power, and he proves to be gentle and kind, takes care of her when she’s sick, and doesn’t take advantage of the situation. Come to think of it, Sherwood Smith’s books also tend to follow this pattern, though in her books the stranger usually kidnapped or captured the heroine for some reason, but still ends up being kind and nurturing. I’m a little ashamed of myself that I inevitably find these books incredibly romantic, but what can I say? I really do. The heroine’s in a vulnerable position, at the mercy of someone who’s rough around the edges, but really good at what he does. But what he does is apparently at odds with everything the heroine holds dear. Should she trust him?

Summarized like that, I know I’m not expressing the magic of these books. Her language pulls you right into ancient Alban. Here are the first two paragraphs. See how quickly she weaves her spell and sets the stage!

As we came down to the shore of Darkwater, the wind sliced cold right to my bones. My heels stung with blisters. Dusk was falling, and my head was muzzy from the weariness of another long day’s walk. Birds cried out overhead, winging to nighttime roosts. They were as eager as I was to get out of the chill.

We’d heard there was a settlement not far along the loch shore, a place where we might perhaps buy shelter with our fast-shrinking store of coppers. I allowed myself to imagine a bed, a proper one with a straw mattress and a woolen coverlet. Oh, how my limbs ached for warmth and comfort! Foolish hope. The way things were in Alban, people didn’t open their doors to strangers. Especially not to disheveled vagrants, and that was what we had become. I was a fool to believe, even for a moment, that our money would buy us time by someone’s hearth fire and a real bed. Never mind that. A heap of old sacks in a net-mending shed or a pile of straw in a barn would do fine. Anyplace out of this wind. Anyplace out of sight.

The worst thing about the book is also the best thing. It’s the first book of a new trilogy. The story comes to a good stopping place, but it’s by no means finished at the end of this book. So I will snap up the next book as soon as it’s published, but I simply hate having to wait.

JulietMarillier.com
randomhouse.com/teens

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/shadowfell.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 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!

2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs – Teen Fiction

Stand-outs, Teen Fiction Review 0

Last night I announced the 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs.

Now I’m going to feature the different categories I split the books into. I decided to start with Teen Fiction, because my favorite book of the year was Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein.

Usually I break Teen Fiction into Fantasy and non-Fantasy, but this year there simply weren’t enough of my favorites (except *the* favorite) in the non-fantasy category. The books at the top of this list are all books I know I will read again and treasure each time I do. I don’t use criteria for making this list, but I can tell you simply that all of these are books I loved.

You’ll see two books on the list, Palace of Stone and The Last Dragonslayer, that were under consideration for the Cybils Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy shortlist. I tend to put books with teen protagonists, especially if they’re thinking about marriage, in the Teens category. But when the writing appeals to younger teens, they tend to be put in the Middle Grade category rather than Young Adult. You’ll find the rest of the books I read for the Cybils in the Children’s Fiction category.

Here’s my list of my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs in Teen Fiction:

1. Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein
2. For Darkness Shows the Stars, by Diana Peterfreund
3. Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers
4. Cinder, by Marissa Meyer
5. Shadowfell, by Juliet Marillier
6. Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale
7. Keeping the Castle, by Patrice Kindl
8. A Confusion of Princes, by Garth Nix
9. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
10. The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde

Now, my next job will be to post the reviews of the Stand-outs I haven’t posted yet. I currently have 80 reviews I’ve written but haven’t posted, and 10 books I’ve read but haven’t reviewed. As well, I want to modify all the review pages of the Stand-outs to add the Sonderbooks Stand-outs seal. So I’m going to try for one category at a time, but may have to settle for one more review at a time.

But while I’m doing all that, you can read these books!

And what about you? What were your favorite Young Adult books that you read in 2012? Is there any overlap with my favorites? I’d love to see links to other people’s lists in the comments, or just lists themselves. What did I miss that I should try to catch? (And there were some that came out at the end of the year which I didn’t get to read because I was reading for the Cybils. I plan to make up for that very quickly!)

Review of Audiobook Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein

Adventure, Audiobooks, Historical, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

Code Name Verity

by Elizabeth Wein
read by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell

Bolinda Audio, 2012. Unabridged. 10 hours 9 minutes on 9 compact discs.
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out, #1 Teen Fiction
Starred Review

In my mind, Code Name Verity is easily the best book written in 2012. It’s not a pleasant story. It’s not even a happy story. But Wow! It blows you away.

I’m already thinking about how to booktalk the book. Spies. The Resistance. A British pilot stranded in France during World War II. Nazi interrogators. Think that will do it? It’s also a book about friendship.

I already reviewed the print version of the book, which I devoured as soon as it arrived via Amazon. But as soon as I finished, I knew I’d want to read it again. There are lots of things in the second part referred to in the beginning part, and I wanted to see if I would have a new perspective having already finished the book. Besides, I wanted to enjoy it again! So when the audio version was nominated for Capitol Choices, that seemed like a good excuse to reread the book in a different format.

And, Wow! Okay, I realize I’m not being even slightly eloquent. Let me simply say that this is an outstanding audio production of an outstanding story. They got someone from Scotland to read Julie’s parts, and someone from England to read Maddie’s. And they were magnificent. It felt like I was really listening to the two friends talking about their wartime service and their friendship.

I still love this passage. I almost burst out crying in the car when it came up in the audiobook:

Then she hitched up her hair to its two-inch above-the-collar regulation point, swabbed her own tears and the grease and the concrete dust and the gunner’s blood from her cheeks with the back of her hand, and she was off running again, like the Red Queen.

It’s like being in love, discovering your best friend.

I wouldn’t have thought there was a way to improve this book. But listening to Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell made me feel like I was listening to Julie and Maddie tell me their thoughts.

Now, I suppose I should add that there’s torture that happens in this book. It’s set during wartime, and it isn’t pretty. Julie and Maddie are adults, young ones, yes, but adults serving during wartime. So although Code Name Verity is published as a young adult book, “old” adults won’t feel the least bit like the book is too young for them. And this isn’t a YA book I’d want to give to the youngest teens, because the subject matter is deadly serious. This audiobook is wonderful for listening in the car, but I wouldn’t call it a “family” audiobook if there are young kids around.

But Wow. Code Name Verity is a story of wartime, yes, but it’s a beautiful one. The story of the friendship, of these amazing young women, far outshines the ugly details of wartime.

elizabethwein.com
bolinda.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/code_name_verity_audio.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 audiobook from the Fairfax County Public Library.

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!

Cybils, Stand-outs, and My Reading Year

Cybils, General, Stand-outs 0

2012 was an exciting reading year for me.

It started off in January when I got to attend the Invitational William Morris Seminar in Dallas at the ALA Midwinter Meeting.

At the seminar, we learned from experienced members of ALSC’s book evaluation committees. They trained us how to look at books from an award committee’s perspective.

Of course, that experience made me want nothing more than to be part of a book evaluation committee. In March, I decided to join Capitol Choices, a DC-area group of children’s book lovers who choose a hundred outstanding children’s books each year. They meet monthly, and I learned so much from being part of this group — and was made aware of so many outstanding books published this year.

But the culmination of all this was getting to be on the Cybils Panel for Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy. I can’t begin to express how much I enjoyed this. Yes, it did take all my free time for the past three months. Yes, it was worth it. And today all the shortlists are announced!

Our list was hammered out with a whole lot of give and take. This is not the list I would have chosen on my own, but I think that makes it all the stronger, and gives it more broad appeal.

Glancing at the other shortlists, the thing that tickled me most was that the Easy Readers panel chose both Penny and Her Song and Penny and Her Doll. Yes!

And I encourage librarians and parents to use the Cybils shortlists as lists. In our panel, we strove for a certain amount of variety. In the first place, many different types of books are represented. But then each list gives you a nice variety of the best books published last year in that particular category. And the winners? Those will be announced on Valentine’s Day.

But what list would I have chosen myself? I’m glad you asked!

Because on January 1st, I also announce my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs!

You’ll see there’s a lot of overlap between the Cybils shortlist and my own Children’s Fiction: Science Fiction and Fantasy list and also my Teen Fiction list. (Titles that appeal to tweens are hard to place. If they have teen protagonists, I tend to put them in Teen Fiction, but some of those were placed in our Middle Grade group.) Of course this should come as no surprise.

But my Sonderbooks Stand-outs are carefully chosen with no criteria at all. I don’t consider literary merit or artistic value or child appeal. I simply remember back over the year and tell about which ones brought me the most enjoyment. These are my favorites, the books I loved most out of all the books I read this year. All this practice on award committees was fun, but I do find it refreshing to list the books I enjoyed without having to defend my choices. I loved these, okay?

My son asked what my very favorite book of the year was, and I have to go with Code Name Verity, my Teen Fiction #1 book.

You may think these are an awful lot of stand-outs. To put it in perspective, let me give you my stats for the year, as far as I was able to count them. These are the books I read in 2012:

Adult Fiction: 19 (A lot less this year, since I was reading so many new children’s and teen books)
Teen Fiction: 38
Children’s Fiction: 78 (Yes, this was all about the Cybils. Capitol Choices, too, though.)
Adult Nonfiction: 48
Children’s Nonfiction: 37
Picture Books: 45 (At least that’s the number I thought worth noting.)
Rereads (All genres): 15

Grand Total: 280 books. Not bad….

And my plans for next year? Last year, I presented my crazy elaborate reading plans, and then joining Capitol Choices rather threw them off. But I am not daunted! I love the system I worked out, which keeps me reading a variety of books. Here is my slightly modified plan for 2013:

First, I will alternate between books for Capitol Choices and other books.

When I’m reading the non-Capitol Choices book, I’ll go through these six types of books in order:
1. Reread a book
2. A book I own
3. A new library book
4. An award winner (like something from a Cybils shortlist)
5. A prepublication Advance Reader Copy
6. An older library book

Mind you, this doesn’t count nonfiction or picture books.

Of course, if I get on a Cybils committee again, I’ll just read Cybils books from October through December. (Whee!)

What can I say? I’m a list-maker and I love organizing my reading this way. I’ve already finished my first book in 2013, a Capitol Choices nominee, Jepp, Who Defied the Stars, by Katherine Marsh, and next I plan to reread The Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rae Carson, in order to get ready to read the sequel…. Onward!

Review of Liar & Spy, by Rebecca Stead

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Liar & Spy

by Rebecca Stead

Wendy Lamb Books, 2012. 180 pages.
Starred Review

Georges has just had to move; his Dad lost his job; his Mom is working extra shifts at the hospital; his best friend started sitting at the cool table; and he’s dealing with more and more bullying at school. Then there’s a post in the laundry room: “Spy Club today.” When Georges investigates, he meets a kid named Safer.

Safer and his family aren’t much like the other kids Georges knows. Safer plans to train him to be a spy. It starts with things like watching the lobbycam but goes on to checking the laundry of Mr. X, the man who dresses only in black, and progresses to breaking and entering.

I think Safer pictures a little box of evil in a corner of Mr. X’s apartment, and he thinks that if he can find it, he’ll save the world, or at least a small part of Brooklyn.

And who am I to say that he’s wrong?

This is a quiet book, but has more of what Rebecca Stead does well: quirky characters who feel just quirky enough to be real; group dynamics of classes of kids; the strange details of middle school; and especially making new friends.

This book is a lot like When You Reach Me, but without the time travel, so it’s a quieter book. The result is not as flashy, but still excellent, about an ordinary kid coping with a lot of things, and doing it with some stumbles, but coming out on top.

randomhouse.com/kids

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

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

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 One Dog and His Boy, by Eva Ibbotson

Animal Characters, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary 0

One Dog and His Boy

by Eva Ibbotson

Scholastic Press, New York, 282 pages.

This book could have been named, A Poor Little Rich Boy and his Adventures with Five Dogs, but the actual title does tell you about the central story of one boy finding the dog who’s right for him, and that dog finding the boy.

The book begins with the boy:

All Hal had ever wanted was a dog.

He had wanted one for his last birthday and for the birthday before, and for Christmas, and now that his birthday was coming around again he wanted one more desperately than ever. He had read about dogs and dreamed about dogs; he knew how to feed them and how to train them. But whenever he asked his mother for a dog she told him not to be silly.

“How could we have a dog? Think of the mess — hairs on the carpet and scratch marks on the door, and the smell. . . . Not to mention puddles on the floor,” said Albina Fenton, and shuddered.

And when Hal said that he would see to it that it didn’t smell and would take it out again and again so that it didn’t make puddles, she looked hurt.

“You have such a beautiful home,” she told her son, “I would have thought you would be grateful.”

This was true in a way. Hal’s parents were rich; they lived in a large modern house in the suburbs with carpets so thick that your feet sank right into them and silk curtains that swept to the floor. There were three new cars in the garage — one for Albina, one for her husband, and one for the maid to use when she took Hal to school — and five bathrooms with gold taps and power showers, and a sauna. In the kitchen every kind of gadget hummed and buzzed — squeezers and coffeemakers and extractors — and the patio was tiled with marble brought in specially from Italy.

But in the whole of the house there was nothing that was alive. Not the smallest beetle, not the frailest spider, not the shyest mouse — Albina Fenton and the maids who came and went saw to that. And in the garden there were no flowers — only raked gravel — because flowers mean earth and mess.

When Hal persists in asking for a dog, his father gets a bright idea. He will rent a dog from Easy Pets for the weekend. After all, “By the time the dog has to go back, Hal will be tired of him — you know how quickly children get bored with the things you give them. He only played with that indoor space projector we got him for Christmas for a couple of days and it cost the earth.”

Well, you can imagine how well it goes over when Albina has to bring the dog back. (Hal’s father was so conveniently scheduled to leave on another trip before Easy Pets opened.)

Hal ends up running away with his dog, heading to his grandparents, who live in the north of England. But he ends up traveling with a girl whose sister worked at Easy Pets and four other dogs who also were not where they belonged.

The story includes lots of coincidences, but it’s sweet and happy and funny. Spoiler alert: All the dogs end up where they should be, but the process is reminiscent of the great adventure in Dodie Smith’s The 101 Dalmatians.

Here’s a story of great love between a dog and a boy, and best of all, no dogs are harmed in this story! Here’s a dog story that doesn’t end in tears, but with lots of smiles. Okay, maybe it’s not the likeliest of stories, but it’s a fun read.

scholastic.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/one_dog_and_his_boy.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 Reader Copy I got at an ALA conference.

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!