Review of A Red Herring Without Mustard, by Alan Bradley

Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

A Red Herring Without Mustard

by Alan Bradley

Delacorte Press, New York, 2011. 399 pages.
Starred Review

Hooray! Flavia de Luce is back in this, her third mystery and adventure. She bikes around the family’s estate and nearby village in England on a bicycle named Gladys, and manages to find all sorts of trouble. The book begins with Flavia accidentally burning the tent of a Gypsy who tells her fortune. The next morning, Flavia discovers the Gypsy has been bludgeoned, and Flavia summons help — but not before she gets a good look at the evidence.

Flavia’s old friend, Inspector Hewitt, comes to the scene, and this will give you the flavor of why you shouldn’t trifle with eleven-year-old Flavia:

“‘You’ve got goose bumps,’ he said, looking at me attentively. ‘Best go sit in the car.’

“He had already reached the far side of the bridge before he turned back. ‘There’s a blanket in the boot,’ he said, and then vanished in the shadows.

“I felt my temper rising. Here was this man — a man in an ordinary business suit, without so much as a badge on his shoulder — dismissing me from the scene of a crime that I had come to think of as my own. After all, hadn’t I been the first to discover it?

“Had Marie Curie been dismissed after discovering polonium? Or radium? Had someone told her to run along?

“It simply wasn’t fair.

“A crime scene, of course, wasn’t exactly an atom-shattering discovery, but the Inspector might at least have said ‘Thank you.’ After all, hadn’t the attack upon the Gypsy taken place within the grounds of Buckshaw, my ancestral home? Hadn’t her life likely been saved by my horseback expedition into the night to summon help?

“Surely I was entitled to at least a nod. But no —

“‘Go and sit in the car,’ Inspector Hewitt had said, and now — as I realized with a sinking feeling that the law doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘gratitude’ — I felt my fingers curling slowly into involuntary fists.

“Even though he had been on the scene for no more than a few moments, I knew that a wall had already gone up between the Inspector and myself. If the man was expecting cooperation from Flavia de Luce, he would bloody well have to work for it.”

In this adventure, another murder follows, and past secrets surface. Flavia still is obsessed with chemicals and poisons, and in this book she actually finds a friend near her own age.

The best thing about Flavia de Luce is that I am confident that the Inspector’s worst fears will come true: She will not be able to stay out of further trouble. I hear that the next book is coming out this Fall!

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

Review of Red Glove, by Holly Black

Fantasy, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Red Glove

The Curse Workers, Book Two

by Holly Black

Margaret K. McElderry Books, New York, 2011. 325 pages.
Starred Review

Red Glove is the second book in Holly Black’s Curse Workers trilogy. And, yes, you definitely need to read White Cat first.

This is an alternate world where certain people are born with the ability to do magic with a touch. There are luck workers, emotion workers, dream workers, memory workers, physical workers, death workers, and the most rare of all, transformation workers. However, doing magic has been declared illegal, so the curse workers have gone into organized crime. Magic tends to run in families, and some powerful crime families rule the underworld.

Red Glove continues the absolute brilliance begun in White Cat. Right at the beginning, Cassel’s oldest brother Philip turns up dead. Who killed him? Did the head of the crime family, who promised not to kill him, go back on his word when he learned Philip had gone to the Feds?

I’m afraid I didn’t find Red Glove terribly satisfying. Cassel has no good choices. He’s in love with Lila, who plans to be head of the Zacharov crime family. Her family wants him to work for them. His remaining brother wants him to work for a rival family. And the Feds want him to work for them. But they also want him to investigate several disappearances — disappearances that Cassel learns he was responsible for himself.

Meanwhile, the government is pushing for mandatory testing, so everyone will know who’s a curse worker and who isn’t. And Cassel just wants to graduate from Wallingford and make a life for himself.

Cassel pulls some clever plans in this book, but I wasn’t completely happy about how things turn out. Yet I can’t imagine a better option — he’s set up in a world where he can’t win. I’m hoping that’s simply because this is the second book of a trilogy — when things are supposed to look black. I can’t imagine how Holly Black will come up with a triumphant end to this trilogy, but I am confident she’s going to pull it off, and I hope she does it SOON!

This is another exceptionally written book. The world of the Curseworkers is completely believable, and you will find yourself completely pulled in.

I should add that this is the kind of trilogy I prefer — where each book does come to a good stopping place, though all build together. Cassel’s solution is definitely clever, and weaves together several different problem threads that come up during the book. But he’s definitely got some new problems he’ll need to deal with in the third book. I can’t wait!

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Review of audiobook White Cat, by Holly Black

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 2

White Cat

by Holly Black

read by Jesse Eisenberg

Listening Library, 2010. 6 CDs. 6 hours, 41 minutes.
Starred Review

I already reviewed the print form of White Cat, but listening to the audiobook was the perfect way to refresh my memory of what happened in the first book before I got a chance to read the sequel, Red Glove.

My review still stands — this is an impressively plotted, suspenseful, and fascinating book — but I want to add a couple comments about the audiobook.

First, like so many books with a first-person narrator, this book is perfect for the audio form. Jesse Eisenberg gives Cassel a voice that sounds completely authentic. He’s a teenage guy trying to fit in, but he’s also the only non-curseworker in a family of curseworkers, a kid who’s been trained in the con since he was small, and someone who thinks he killed the girl he loves.

Second, I’d almost forgotten how good this book is! Even though I’d read it before, I was completely absorbed with the story, not wanting to shut off the audio when I arrived at work. I also found that, like Megan Whalen Turner’s writings, this book is even better the second time around. Because hints are dropped that you don’t appreciate or notice the first time.

You do know that Cassel is working on a con at the end, but when you reread it, you realize all the little things he is doing in preparation. One of the lines I appreciated more the second time was something like: “I’m the best kind of thief, who leaves something of equal value.” I don’t think it’s a spoiler to point out that line, but you do enjoy it more after you know what Cassel’s talking about.

Another good thing about an audiobook is that it slows me down. This particular book is too hard to stop reading once you start, so it was one of the many that kept me from a good night’s sleep. When I listen to the audiobook, I have to spread it out over many more days, which means I can live in that world longer and notice more details of Holly Black’s genius.

If you haven’t started this trilogy yet, there are now two books out, ready to devour. May the third book come soon!

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Review of All the Way to America, by Dan Yaccarino

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

All the Way to America

The Story of a Big Italian Family
and a Little Shovel

by Dan Yaccarino

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2011. 36 pages.
Starred Review

This is a picture book biography, but it’s not a book kids will use for school reports, so I feel a little sad that it will be shelved with the biographies rather than the picture books. First and foremost, this book tells an engaging story. It’s a story simple enough for preschoolers or young elementary school students to have read to them or to read themselves. That the story is true is an exciting bonus, which I’m sure will fascinate young readers.

In this book, Dan Yaccarino tells about how his great-grandfather Michele Iaccarino came to America all the way from Sorrento, Italy. His bright and distinctive illustrations add to this tale of family, food, and adventure.

“And so when he was a young man, Michele left Italy and went all the way to America in search of new opportunities.

“‘Work hard,’ his father told him, handing him the little shovel.

“‘But remember to enjoy life.’

“‘And never forget your family,’ his mother said. She hugged him and gave him their few family photographs and her recipe for tomato sauce.”

Each generation has a new use for the little shovel. And each generation, the family got larger. Each generation, they found uses for the traditional tomato sauce.

To emphasize that this is a true story, the author poses on the back cover flap with the actual little shovel his great-grandfather brought to America.

This would make a great addition to a storytime about family. It gives you a nice warm feeling of family traditions and good food.

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

Review of Little Princes, by Conor Grennan

Biography, Cross Cultural, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Little Princes

One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

by Conor Grennan

read by the author

Books on Tape, 2010. 8 CDs.
Starred Review

I was happy when I learned that Little Princes is the 2011 choice for All Fairfax Reads. I was captivated by the audiobook version and found myself listening as eagerly as to a novel.

I do like that the author doesn’t try to glamorize what he set out to do. He freely admits that he was planning to spend a year traveling around the world, and he decided to volunteer to help at an orphanage in Nepal to make himself sound less selfish. He didn’t know anything about taking care of children. When he meets them, they literally pile on top of him, and from there, you can hear in his voice how the children win him over.

I especially enjoyed hearing the author tell the story himself. That way, you know the names are being pronounced correctly, for one thing! He tells how he didn’t have the heart to tell the children he would never come back, and so a promise to them got him to return. Then he found out that these “orphans” were not actually orphans. That child traffickers told families in remote villages that for a steep fee they would protect their children from being conscripted as soldiers and give them an education and opportunities. Instead, the children are sold or abandoned in Kathmandu.

It began with seven children that Conor and his co-worker almost rescued. When they learned that those children had been lost, he had to come back to Nepal to try to find them. And along the way, he began a mission to find the children’s families.

The story is beautiful and compelling. Above all, it’s about bringing hope and joy to children, children who are like any other children in the world, playful and loving and deserving of a wonderful future.

I enjoyed the audiobook very much, but I did check out a copy of the print version in order to see pictures of the children, whom I felt I had come to know. A map in the front is also helpful.

www.nextgenerationnepal.org
www.harpercollins.com

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

Review of Monsters Eat Whiny Children

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Monsters Eat Whiny Children

by Bruce Eric Kaplan

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2010. 36 pages.
Starred Review

This book makes me laugh. I admit, I would not want to use it in a library storytime, for fear of scaring a child too young to understand that it’s a joke. However, parents will know at what age this will make a fun cautionary tale.

“Once there were two perfectly delightful children who were going through a TERRIBLE phase, which is to say they whined ALL day and night….

“Their kindly father warned them that monsters eat whiny children. They didn’t believe him. So they whined and whined until finally one day…

“a monster came and stole them away.”

The monster begins by making a whiny-child salad and pours dressing on the children. But his wife hates cilantro, so they have to start over. A neighbor comes over and suggests whiny-child burgers. Something goes wrong with each suggestion. Sharp-eared children will notice that the monsters are awfully whiny themselves.

Meanwhile, while the monsters are whining as each of their plans doesn’t work, the children get distracted and stop whining. Finally, the monsters hit upon the perfect treat: whiny-child cucumber sandwiches. But when they look for the children, they have escaped. They have to eat plain cucumber sandwiches (recipe included).

It’s so easy to imagine a “kindly father” reading this book to his children and maybe, just maybe, getting them to think about what whining sounds like and stop. The author never comes out and says that the monsters are whining, but it’s quite clear that nothing pleases them, and their constant objections are what allow the children to escape.

Children will enjoy the thrill of danger in this story but delight in the escape. And maybe, just maybe, they will be a little quicker to stop the next time their kindly parents point out that they are whining.

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

Review of Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, by Barry Deutsch

Children's Fiction Review, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Starred Review 0

Hereville

How Mirka Got Her Sword

by Barry Deutsch

Amulet Books, New York, 2010.
2011 Eisner Award Nominee
Starred Review

Here’s one more review of a book from School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. I hope I’ve convinced my readers to follow the Battle next year!

I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, but when I saw the caption on the cover of Hereville, I knew I had to try it: “Yet Another Troll-Fighting 11-Year-Old Orthodox Jewish Girl.” I’m sorry, but that’s one caption I can’t possibly resist.

Hereville gained high praise from Judge Susan Patron in Round One of the Battle:

“Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, a graphic novel by Barry Deutsch, must be the only book ever whose outside front cover made me laugh. “Yet Another Troll-Fighting 11-Year-Old Orthodox Jewish Girl,” it proclaims. Thick, shiny, paper painted in shades of coral, brown, black and white—changing to deep purples and grays in the scary night scenes—feel silky to the touch. Every page is vibrant with energetic pictures, dialogue, sound effects—and extremely minimal exposition.

“The story plays with genres, tilting them on their sides; using incongruity, it skewers conventions. Seemingly we are in the middle of a Hansel and Gretel pastiche, a fairy tale, in which the characters sprinkle their dialogue with Yiddish words, “A klog iz mir: Woe is me!” as well as expressions like “Yaaaah!” ”Mumph!” and “Aaak!” Mirka, one daughter in a large family of sibs and step-sibs, rebels against the traditional role expected of her in the Orthodox Jewish community of Hereville. Rather than learning such “womanly arts” as knitting, she wants to fight dragons. There is lots of very clever stuff here: visual jokes such as an illustration contained within an exclamation point, table legs morphing into trees, and a deliciously horrid troll.

“Wit and irony also abound in the text: a monster pig eats Mirka’s homework, Mirka and her clever, loving stepmother engage in wonderfully funny debates, and some Orthodox traditions are gently poked fun at (“preparing for all that non-working [on Shabbos] takes a lot of work!” and “In Hereville, kids aren’t allowed to have non-Jewish books. So Mirka keeps hers hidden”). I was hugely entertained, even as one tender scene brought tears to my eyes.”

I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, but I know that I will want to read absolutely anything Barry Deutsch writes about Mirka. The setting is utterly unlike any other book I’ve read (a small orthodox Jewish community in the country), but I can relate to Mirka’s fairytale dreams. I love the prosaic nature of her first nemesis — the giant talking pig. You can see she has the heart to fight a troll as well.

This book is funny, magical, insightful, and a joy to read. I can’t wait to find out what Mirka will do with her sword.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Review of Sugar Changed the World, by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 1

Sugar Changed the World

A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science

by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

Clarion Books, Boston, 2010. 166 pages.
Starred Review

I have two more books to review from School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. At least two that I’ve read. I also have two holds that have just come in for books that I decided to read because of the coverage in the Battle.

Sugar Changed the World was knocked out in the first round, but it was up against the eventual winner, so that loss was no disgrace. Judge Adam Rex had some glowing things to say about it:

“SCtW is my kind of history book. Relatively uninterested in kings and politicians, this is more of a Howard Zinn-style people’s history, albeit one which far more gently grinds its axe. Christopher Columbus gets mentioned, for example, on three separate pages. The longest passage by far is only fifty-seven words. Readers will learn far more about Olaudah Equiano, an enslaved African taken to Barbados to work in sugar, or even Thomas Thistlewood, a white overseer who wrote with a kind of nauseating jocularity about the cruelties he inflicted on his charges. They’ll also learn about the university of Jundi Shapur, which flourished fifteen hundred years ago in what is now Iran and which sounds so wondrous I can’t believe I’d never heard of it before. They’ll learn that the “whitest and purest” sugar of the ancient world came from Egypt of all places. Suddenly those sugar cube pyramids we all built in grade school are elevated above the level of busywork to some kind of totemic historical metaphor.

“It would be easy to call this a bitter book about a sweet spice, and there are unquestionably some difficult truths in Sugar Changed the World. There were also, for me, odd moments of pride–it was interesting to discover that the slave trade was focused so heavily in the Caribbean and South America, for example, and when I learned that only four percent of the slaves taken from Africa ended up in North America, and that these slaves had a comparatively low death rate, I chanted the feeblest U-S-A of my life. So why did I come away from this book inspired? A section on Gandhi didn’t hurt. Likewise sections on new (to me) heroes like the Haitian leader Toussaint, and English abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, a contemporary of William Wilberforce. This is an ultimately hopeful book, and I hope it finds a place in the classroom.

“Excellent period illustrations and photos abound, including sample pages from a grim old children’s picture book that painstakingly details how sugar got from the West Indies to your sweet shop, and unintentionally details everything that was wrong about the Victorians. The back matter of SCtW contains a great set of appendices that include, among other things, a timeline, a web guide to additional images, and an essay aimed at parents and teachers that explains how the book was researched.”

I had already purchased a copy of this book for myself. The reason was another blog from School Library Journal, Heavy Medal. They had a Mock Newbery committee vote among their online followers — but they wanted people to vote only if they’d read the books on the shortlist. My library didn’t have a copy of Sugar Changed the World, so I ordered myself a copy, and was not sorry. If I had read it in 2010 (I didn’t; I read it after the New Year.), I would have included a category in my 2010 Sonderbooks Stand-outs for Children’s Nonfiction, because this book is outstanding.

This is children’s nonfiction at its finest. And highly recommended reading for adults as well. You’ve got a huge topic — how sugar changed the world — and the authors cover it with great depth and good documentation, and they bring in the personal element, making it memorable. Any reader, child or adult, will come away from this book having learned a lot. But these aren’t dry, dull facts. You will be fascinated by what you learn.

I like the way the authors talk about looking at their own family histories and discovering how each of them was hugely affected by, of all things, sugar. They are not exaggerating when they say this is a story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Review of A Tale Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz

Children's Fiction Review, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy 0

A Tale Dark and Grimm

by Adam Gidwitz

Dutton Children’s Books, 2010. 256 pages.

Here’s another book that appeared in School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. To celebrate the excellent battle action this year, I’m posting reviews of books from the Battle, and including commentary from the distinguished judges. This will give you an idea of the stellar critiques that make sljBoB so entertaining.

In the first round, this book drew a judge whose readers I think are just perfect for A Tale Dark and Grimm: R. L. Stine. He talked at length about why he chose it to win:

“When I was in elementary school, I was already fascinated by the worlds of fantasy and magic and horror. I read every book of fairy tales in our school library. I then proceeded to our town library where I moved up and down the shelves of fairy tales, Norse legends, and Greek myths, devouring book after book.

“As a long-time devotee of these stories, I opened Adam Gidwitz’ A Tale Dark and Grimm with great anticipation. I’m happy to say the book provided a wonderful return to the Grimm world—the world of dark woods, unspeakable evil, not-so-innocent children, witches, dragons, and more—that had enthralled me as a child.

“Gidwitz has not only presented us with a masterful retelling and re-imagining of the original Grimm works. His book provides a wonderful lesson in story-telling—how stories are made, how they can be twisted and turned, and how they change over time.

“The book is inviting right from the start. The author warns that the old Hansel and Gretel story isn’t what you expect, that fairy tales aren’t for the faint-of-heart. His warning that “the one true tale is as violent and bloody as you can imagine” makes the book irresistible. Who could stop reading after a warning like that?

“He then presents a retelling of several Grimm tales, beginning with Hansel and Gretel and using them as protagonists for the ensuing stories. We follow the brother and sister from adventure to adventure, into the woods and out, into king’s castles and witch’s hovels, into deep darkness, and finally to redemption– and even a happy ending. Thus he has cleverly tied the stories together and turned them into a novel.

“Gidwitz’ writing is simple, clean, easy-to-read. In a word: delightful. He manages to capture all the dark feelings and atmosphere of the original tales in language appealing to kids today. He doesn’t modernize. He doesn’t camp it up. The writing is crisp and clear, and he takes the story-telling seriously.”

However, in the second round, A Tale Dark and Grimm lost to Trash, by Andy Mulligan. Judge Pete Hautman still had good things to say about A Tale Dark and Grimm. I love the way he explains why kids might enjoy it more than adults:

“I felt a little uncomfortable stepping into these books. Okay, I’ll admit it—I like happy books that make me glad I am who I am. Murderous parents, child-eating witches, orphaned trash pickers, and monstrously corrupt politicians do not make me feel good about being human. But that’s because I’m a grownup, all tender and vulnerable and fiercely protective of my comfort level. Younger readers are more adventurous. As was I, once upon a time. Clearly, to give these books a fair shake I would have to channel my younger self.

“In A Tale Dark and Grimm, Adam Gidwitz makes it easy. These fairly straightforward retellings are interrupted, frequently, by the author, who offers warnings (“This next bit is a bit gross,”) commentary (“No, I didn’t think the moon ate people either. But is says so, right in the original Grimm,”) and alternate endings to several of the tales. There is a forbidden fruit deliciousness here—like being a kid and having your most favorite and funniest uncle telling you stories that might make your overly-protective helicopter parents blanch.”

For me, I enjoyed the book. I like the way it reminded me of reading the Grimm fairy tales as a kid. The book is clever and well-written and nicely plotted — but it didn’t win my heart. The fact is, I like the original tales better. And I admit my favorites were the happier, princess-filled tales. I wasn’t ever really a fan of the ones with heads chopped off. This book ended up with a very different tone than what I remember from being a little girl reading fairy tales.

However, I think my boys would have loved it! When they were around upper elementary or middle school age. This would have made an excellent family read-aloud. And I’m looking forward to recommending this book to boys in the library, especially ones who like a little blood and gore. This is a perfect book to hand to a boy who’s been reading A Series of Unfortunate Events, or, yes, R. L. Stine’s books.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go enjoy a fairy tale or two.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Review of A Conspiracy of Kings audiobook, by Megan Whalen Turner

Adventure, Alternate History, Audiobooks, Award Winners, Events, Fantasy, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Conspiracy of Kings

by Megan Whalen Turner
narrated by Jeff Woodman

Recorded Books, 2010. 7 CDs. 8.5 hours.
Starred Review
School Library Journal’s 2011 Battle of the Kids’ Books Undead Poll Winner
2010 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book

Yes, I’ve already reviewed A Conspiracy of Kings, and named it my #1 2010 Sonderbooks Stand-out for Teen Fantasy Fiction.

But our library just got the audiobook version, so of course I had to “read” it again, on audio. In honor of School Library Journal’s 2011 Battle of the Kids’ Books, this is the perfect time to present a review of the audio version of A Conspiracy of Kings, another finalist.

The interesting thing in the Battle of the Kids’ Books, was that, despite being the best new book I read in 2010, A Conspiracy of Kings didn’t win a single round. Still, the judges admitted that this is a well-crafted book:

In the first round, judge Dana Reinhardt freely admitted that this isn’t her usual type of reading. She said:

“As I mentioned, A Conspiracy of Kings isn’t generally the kind of book I reach for, but Turner abruptly whisked me out of my comfort zone, (not an easy feat, as I’m quite comfortable in my comfort zone), and for this I’m truly grateful, because I did so enjoy spending time with Sophos. I found him companionable and clever. Decent and thoughtful. If times were different, and I lived in a fantastical monarchy, I’d surely want him as my king.

“A Conspiracy of Kings asks the big questions. The questions I want to grapple with as a reader. Questions about honor and duty and responsibility and friendship and loyalty.”

In the Big Kahuna Round, Richard Peck gave each book plenty of space. He said about A Conspiracy of Kings:

“Of the three A Conspiracy of Kings addresses the most adult concerns and makes the greatest demand upon the reader. It is about the altering alliances and dark diplomacy of power politics: palace pacts forged and broken. Betrayal. Betrothal.

“This chronicle of spilt blood, flying arrows and barons, and a stabbed horse makes resonant reading in the same season as “across the Middle Sea” the forces of Cyrenaica and Tripliana clash across actual geography. But this will ring no bells with the intended readers who don’t know where Libya is, and won’t be hearing about it at school.

“Megan Whalen Turner’s book is about the making of kings. Embedded in its many layers is a boy, Sophos/Sounis, coming of age parentless, abducted, enslaved, and that all-time favorite, misunderstood. Throughout, the ages of the characters are muffled. But there is the clash and passion of adolescent friendship, between Sophos and that major figure from earlier volumes: “He would have given Eugenides his heart on a toothpick if asked.””

Neither judge had read the earlier books, and neither judge felt that this one really stands alone.

But that brings me to a little pet peeve. So what if it doesn’t stand alone?

Many don’t realize that there is NOTHING in the criteria for the Newbery Award that says the book has to stand alone. Yes, it should only receive the award based on strengths in that particular book, but there’s nothing that says it can’t be part of a series or that all loose ends have to be tied up or that it can’t reference earlier books.

And of course, in this tournament, there was no criteria at all except the preference of the judges.

So, I’m concluding that it was simply unfortunate that the judges this book faced were ones who hadn’t happened to have read the earlier books.

No, the book doesn’t have to stand alone to win an award, but you can’t really expect a judge to read three additional books in order to give the one book they are judging the consideration it deserves. So by getting judges who hadn’t already read the earlier books, I didn’t really expect them to appreciate the true genius behind this book.

And, please, readers of my reviews, DO NOT read this book without reading the other three books first! All four books are exquisitely plotted. Why, oh why, would you want to risk ruining the surprises in the earlier books by reading them out of order? Start with The Thief and meet Eugenides and Sophos. Then move on to The Queen of Attolia, my favorite of all of them, with incredible plot twists and beautiful romance. Then read The King of Attolia, and finally you’ll be eager to read A Conspiracy of Kings.

Though A Conspiracy of Kings did not win a judged round, it was the clear, far-and-away winner of the Undead Poll. I found that interesting. So far, the Undead Poll seems to be about web presence. And Megan Whalen Turner’s books have a thriving fan site on livejournal. Now, I wasn’t absolutely sure that John Green’s book Will Grayson, Will Grayson, wouldn’t pull off the victory, since he has a huge online presence. However, John Green’s fan base is about his and his brother’s clever and amazing web videos. Whereas Megan Whalen Turner’s fan site is about her books. And since the books were what the poll was about, I wasn’t at all surprised that A Conspiracy of Kings won.

I’ve noticed that there are plenty of people for whom the books in this series are not “their type” of book. They don’t really like it, and aren’t interested in reading the series. But those for whom this is their type of book, well, we LOVE them all. The Sounis fan site shows that I am definitely not the only rabid fan.

And what type of book is it? Well, it’s generally classified as fantasy, but the only real touch of “magic” is a varying amount of involvement from the gods that the author has invented. It’s pseudo-historical, with a setting mirroring Greece just after the invention of gunpowder. I’ve filed the books under “Historical,” even knowing that’s not technically correct, just because they feel a bit more historical to me than fantasy books. Since the biggest issues are more about leading kingdoms than about using magic.

All I have to say is, try out The Thief. Read all the way to the surprising ending. If you like it at all, you are in for a treat, because you have three more books to read!

I should say that these books are my very favorite type of series book. I like each book in a series to have its own plot arc, and to have a definite ending of this episode. But I also like the books to build to a powerful whole. I just finished The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. It’s a lyrically written, magnificent work of fantasy. But it’s the first book of a trilogy, and I don’t think the author ties up one single solitary plot thread. Yes, it’s a good book, a truly great book. And yes, I will DEFINITELY be buying and reading the next two books. But I wish it weren’t just Part One of a continuing story. The same is true of Pegasus, by Robin McKinley. It’s only Part One. (This is probably a big part of why I haven’t heard it’s won any awards.)

And yes, there’s a place for long sagas like that. But I do have a fond and appreciative spot for series like The Queen’s Thief and The Bartimaeus Trilogy, where each book is a complete story that contributes to an even greater whole. You still should read them in order, and you’ll still want to hear more, but at least each book leaves you satisfied and happy, and with some plot threads resolved nicely.

And now I should say something about the audio version. Jeff Woodman has again done an outstanding job of reading this book. I like that he used the same voices for returning characters, so I could recognize the Magus, for example, by his voice.

One thing I love about listening to the book is that it slows me down. There’s no way I can spread out reading the book over more than a few nights, but listening, I am forced to take more time — and thus I can savor the book, and be delighted with what I am “reading” for quite a long time. Now, I did bring in the last CD to listen at home, when I couldn’t stand to wait any longer. But still, I spent much more time listening to the book than I spent either one of the two times I read it to myself.

And, like all of Megan Whalen Turner’s books, there’s so much to see and appreciate on later readings. You can more appreciate and delight in her plot-crafting. This time through, I especially noticed Sophos’ growth. He starts out the self-doubting kid we saw in The Thief, and we see him grow, realistically, through facing incredible challenges. We see and feel his real temptation to just settle down and enjoy life as a slave, without having to face the difficulties of trying to become a king. And then we see the consequences of his choice.

I love the way she plants clues to later surprises in full view of the reader. I think I can even mention one of them, without giving it away. She says that he doesn’t do a full bow, so the barons won’t notice a lump in his robe. Just beautiful to catch what that means on the rereading! And there are many of those little mentions, in each one of the books. Delightful to notice when reading it again! And it’s not just a gimmick or a trick — it actually reflects what Sophos was thinking about, how he was focusing on every detail…. I will say no more except to reiterate that I never get tired of rereading Megan Whalen Turner’s books.

So, I was sad that A Conspiracy of Kings didn’t win the 2011 Battle of the Kids’ Books, but I was proud that it won the popularity contest, the Undead Poll. And very glad that maybe these books will gain some more readers. But I hope they will listen to the judges saying that it doesn’t stand alone, and start with the very first book.

When I was following the links to the Sounis Livejournal site, I learned that Megan Whalen Turner is speaking, along with Jonathan Stroud, Rick Yancey, and Cindy Dobrez, at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival on the USC Campus. Although I can’t go myself, my youngest sister, Melanie Hatch, is a student at USC (in fact, she’ll be graduating soon and winning the Biegler Award for the graduating Electrical Engineering student with the highest GPA — Go, Melanie!), so I made sure she knew about it. Melanie was quick to point out that the event is actually happening on her birthday! So she’s looking forward to the best birthday ever! I’m so pleased for her! And I’m considering her my representative, so I can enjoy the event vicariously through her!

What’s more, it turns out that A Conspiracy of Kings is a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize for Young Adult Literature. It’s up against two other books that were in School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books, including the winner of SLJBoB, The Ring of Solomon, by Jonathan Stroud, and the also excellent How Sugar Changed the World, by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos. Two other finalists are Wicked Girls, by Stephanie Hemphill, and The Curse of the Wendigo, by Rick Yancey.

Will Ring of Solomon pull off the victory again? Will the judges appreciate Megan Whalen Turner’s true genius? We shall see, but however it turns out, these are some excellent finalists, and I’m really looking forward to my sister getting to hear these people speak — and telling me all about it!

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