Better Nate than Ever

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Mrs.N

Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle

Nate lives in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, PA where he leads a very gray existence, not the technicolor one of his dreams.  His parents have their own troubles and a rocky marriage, while his older brother is by all appearances an athletic untouchable golden boy.  Like many other boys in small towns across the country, Nate does not fit in.  He’s got an awkward, short yet heavy build, a deep love of show tunes and the vocabulary and sense of humor of an adult.  He does not conform to his peers vision of what a boy should be and therefore he is relentlessly bullied.   Specifically, he is bullied for being gay.  Just 13, Nate is not ready to deal with the question of his sexuality, but that does not stop others from making assumptions.  Nate’s brother calls the show “Gays and Dolls” instead of “Guys and Dolls”,  calls him a homo.  People call him “Natey the Lady”.  At a religious camp, Nate is beaten up and told “God hates fags”. Cyberbullying makes an appearance as Nate was taped singing in the school bathroom and it was put on the internet called “Faggot of the Opera”.  Even his best friend, Libby jokes about dressing as “a gay dude” for Halloween and then launches into a speech about how there’s nothing wrong with being gay.

But this book isn’t really about Nate’s suffering.  It’s about a boy who sneaks away to New York City to audition for a Broadway show.  And in the big city he finds that many things are not nearly as wonderful as they seem, but many things are so, so, very  much better than he ever could have hoped.

Upon reading this book, it struck me as desperately necessary.  If we talk about how books must be mirrors, offering readers the opportunity to see their own experiences in literature, this is one that many boys would love to read.  So many more LGBT books cover romance and love; the questioning time period, the one of accepting yourself is far less readily available.  It’s even harder when you consider that despite my lead paragraph, Nate’s sexuality isn’t really the main plot of the book.

I do worry about this finding the proper audience however.  The ALA lists it in the Middle Grade (3-5 category) and I pretty strenuously object to that.  It’s about an 8th grader with several mature themes.  In particular, the frequent use of hate language in relation to Nate’s sexuality is attention getting.  It is frequent, but Nate himself accepts his treatment and bullying as part of his life.  As such, the author does not highlight just how wrong it is to use these words.  It is important that the book be read by readers who are mature enough to understand the weight and significance they carry.

I have further concerns that the audience for this may be narrow.  This is more likely to be a book for students who are going through this themselves, rather than a book which will draw in many readers and show them Nate’s experiences.  The theatre world and auditioning process is a major part of this book and it will be outside the interest and understanding of many readers.

Age Recommendation: Mature Grade 6 readers and up.  I wouldn’t hesitate to give it to a sixth grader who had a personal connection to the material, but might hold off until a little older for others, particularly as a teacher or librarian.  As a parent, I would say to just be prepared to discuss Nate’s experiences with your children as needed.

Native Americans: There are just a few places in this where Native American stereotypes are mentioned.  I’m linking you to Debbie Reese’s blog so that you can see what parts of the book are problematic.  Click here.

Sex, Nudity, Dating –A kid at Nate’s school has a girlfriend in high school even though he is only in 8th grade.  A girl seems to be on the verge of kissing Nate.  Nate’s brother is called “girl-addicted”.  Nate calls his own sexuality off-topic and unrelated and undecided.  Nate’s father had an affair with an exotic dancer.  Boys discuss a “mondo rack” and Nate speculates they might be “discussing a Latina girl gain her first set of boobs”.  This isn’t really a “sexual” thing, but Aunt Heidi makes a weird reference to her “dusty womb”.  There is a sign for pole dancing class.  A girl is blackmailing a guy into taking off his shirt and flexing for her.  The kids played shirts vs. skins at school.  There’s a Museum of Sex in New York.  Nate sees two boys kiss.  Nate’s Aunt Heidi talks about her on-again off-again relationship with her boyfriend and how she saw him with another woman once.  She mentions getting married and having babies.  Aunt Heidi’s roommate comes out of his room with no shirt on.  Aunt Heidi’s roommate jokes that he used to wear lipstick in college.  A woman is dressed in a catsuit with “leather boobs”.   Nate asks a man why he doesn’t date Aunt Heidi and learns that the man dates other men.  Nate notices that a man looks really good in jeans.  A boy’s mother stands up an “thrusts her breasts” into a man’s face – she’s fully clothed.   A boy has a male porno magazine in his locker.  A lady’s skirt flips up and it is clear she is not a lady.
Profanity –”frickin”, “Oh God”, “God”, “Oh my God” and many similar iterations,  “homo”, “faggot”, “Fagster”, “suck”, “s__t” appears, with the space as marked, “fag”, “heck’,  “S-word” in place of the same blanked out s-word written previously, “faggot”, “SuperFag”, “jerk”, “a-hole”,
Death, Violence and Gore – People hunt in the woods and Nate’s mother says it will be his fault alone if he’s killed.  There’s a mention of handguns in New York.  A random kid’s teacher was killed in a hot air balloon in France.  A family has BB guns.  Nate’s dad once lost a family member in a drunk driving accident.  We learn that the architect of the Flatiron Building hung himself (as far as I can tell, this is not true). Nate was elbowed in the head and had a split lip bad enough that he needed to go to the hospital.  Nate jokes that his father will cut his head off with an axe.  Nate’s grandparents died when his mom was younger.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Nate’s brother has a fake id.  There’s a joke about a kid needing a cigarette before an audition.  During high school Nate’s Aunt Heidi spilled wine on a borrowed dress.  Aunt Heidi has a cocktail named after her. Nate’s brother has beer hidden in his room.  There are a lot of liquor stores in New York.  People at a bar drink cocktails and beer.  Nate tried a sip of beer once.  Aunt Heidi smokes.  Nate’s mother is drunk at one point and plans on driving him somewhere.  Aunt Heidi’s boyfriend drinks too much.
Frightening or Intense Things – Libby’s mom has cancer.  Libby gets called “a fat girl name” in the hall.  Nate’s parents have a rough marriage; he constantly expects a divorce.

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February – #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Mrs.N

On my Reader’s Choice post last summer, Mrs. Yingling suggested that I read more diverse books.  At that time, the #WeNeedDiverseBooks was getting a lot of attention and it is no less important now.  I wish I had a better link to this, but if you go to their FAQ page and scroll down to the question “What are the benefits of children seeing themselves in books?” they offer many links to articles and papers on the subject.  I strongly recommend reading them if you want more information why it is so important that books be available, recognized and read about people and cultures other than the mainstream.  If you only have time for one easy to digest article, try Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors which was written in 1990 (a solid 25 years ago, right?) and feel vaguely ill at how little has changed.

In this blog, I have tried to review books with characters from a variety of cultures, races and religions, but I will be the first to admit that it’s not always easy and I don’t always do a good job of it.  The book selection process where I find books to fit a theme each month, often highlights the lack of available diverse literature.  When I’m spending a month on pirates, or dragons or treasure hunts, it can quickly become apparent that it is downright difficult to find books about those topics that feature anything other than mainstream characters.  I do try to balance that by having whole months devoted books about African-American characters or characters with autism, but it simply isn’t enough.  I can tell you just by a quick scan of my tags list that stories featuring hispanic/latino characters are woefully underrepresented.   And that there have been very few, if any, books about Muslim characters written about here.  I owe both of those groups a dedicated month of books. And while David Levithan has done a solid job of providing me books with male homosexual protagonists, I am in dire need of more books about girls who fall in love with other girls.

This month I hope to make the statement that this is something I care about deeply.  I will continue to seek out books that feature characters of a variety of races, religions, abilities and backgrounds even after this month is over.

In the comments I’d love to hear…

What diverse books do you love and recommend to others?

What underrepresented group or groups of people do you want to read about?

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Fablehaven

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Mrs.N

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

Finally!  A pick for Laura and her daughter!  This has a very different feel from The Girl Who…Fairyland books but it’s of reasonable length and is any interesting story, I think it might be a good fit for a very advanced primary grades reader who love fairy filled adventure!

Fablehaven came recommended to me by fourth graders and a fourth grade teacher who tended to pick very difficult books for her students.  Subsequently, I was anticipating something much different.  Easier and less violent than Riordan’s Percy Jackson series and infinitely less complex and dark than Funke’s Inkheart trilogy, Fablehaven is a fun adventure with enough depth interest readers who aren’t quite ready for the other two series.

Kendra and her younger brother Seth are dreading spending time at their Grandparents’ house.  Their little visit starts off all wrong, with Grandma mysteriously visiting a sick relative and Grandpa running through a list of rules and chores that include taking care of a pet chicken, staying in their yard and out of the barn.  Seth isn’t much of a rule follower though, and soon discovers Grandpa’s got some secrets!  They soon learn they are on a special preserve for magical beings called Fablehaven and that they are in grave danger.  As the book reaches its climax, it’s mainly up to Kendra and Seth to save the day.

I found Seth to be an incredibly annoying character, because he is nothing if not a reckless rule-breaker.  Unsurprisingly, he ends up causing trouble.  Kendra ends up being responsible for most of the important problem-solving, so it’s always a pleasure to see a female character end up as the heroine.  I do think this book will appeal to readers of both genders.

Brandon Mull had a few off moments in the book – there are some weird comments about the housekeeper being half-Asian (she’s not? She’s a naiad?) But even more concerning is when fairies cover a golem (usually made of rocks and earth) with flowers, Seth comments that they “made Hugo look all fruity” which in the context seems very much like Mull is using fruity to mean “relating to homosexuals”.  He shouldn’t have done it and his editor shouldn’t have allowed it to go to print.

Age Recommendation: I would recommend this for Grades 3 and up.  There are definitely some scary parts, but the overall tone is fairly light.  Most of the violence occurs during one final battle, but the actual casualties are minimal as the fairies manage to heal most of those hurt in the fighting.  With some parental supervision and checks, it might be okay for advanced younger readers.  As mentioned above, I would also recommend this as an alternative to the Percy Jackson series which is both more violent and more complex.  It won’t feel like a step down to readers; the cover is cool, the adventure is real, the story has depth, the volume is plenty thick and the series continues.

caveat – I have not read the rest of the series and will not have time to before the end of the month as I have other books for you, so proceed with caution.  We all know by now that a series can get more scary or even harder to read as it progresses.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – A man falls in love with an naiad in a story from the past that is being retold.  A woman worked as a geisha (this seems to be a really, really odd detail to put in a children’s book).  She was always pursued by men.  Grandma gives a massage to a troll.  Strictly speaking, massages aren’t sexual, but she explains to the troll that the only person who has ever received a massage is her husband, “because I am his woman” which is weird.  Fairies kiss imps, but it is to restore them to their proper states.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – The book begins with the children’s grandparents asphyxiation.  They had died in a trailer with a gas leak.  They were shown in open caskets and Kendra was uncomfortable with the fact that they had makeup on.  There’s a sign saying “Beware the .12 gauge” which is a shotgun.  Another sign tells that certain death awaits.  An aunt is dying.  A woman chews on a rope until her mouth bleeds.  There’s a tiny skull.  The woods are supposedly full of deadly animals.  A groundskeeper is poofed into nothingness.   A woman says the day she’s too old to climb on a stool is the day she will throw herself off a roof.  Naiads try to drown people.  Someone is cruel to a fairy and the fairies retaliate by destroying a place where the person is.  The person is cut and bleeding as a result. The person is also partially transformed from human into beast. A woman talks a lot about her own mortality and a girl says she thinks she might die young because she can’t picture growing up.  A man is armed with a shotgun.  A boy looks for the shotgun. An axe is in the attic.  Grandma has a crossbow.  There is a discussion about the consequences that would fall if one were to commit murder, even if it was necessary.  A golem fights with imps.  Someone is shot with a crossbow and bleeds.  Many people are in mortal danger.  A girl is asked to get blood.  She cuts a cow on its udder with a shallow cut and collects the blood.  She uses a pin to prick herself to collect her blood.  Fairies arm them selves with swords, spears, axes.  Beasts and monsters are smashed and bashed.  A troll is armed with knives.  An octopus hybrid creature has its tentacles severed.  A fairy is swallowed whole by a beast, another is cut by its claws. A fairy is turned to ash.  A horn is ripped from a demon’s head.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – The house is wrecked after a meeting, although the children’s grandfather hasn’t been drinking, satyrs probably have.  The satyrs want to trade for booze.  Grandma warns against lotus blossoms which are more dangerous than drugs.
Frightening or Intense Things – A boy meets a witch in the woods.  On the solstice, nightmares and evil entities will hunt for prey.  The children are under attack from all sorts of evil creatures. People are kidnapped and cursed.  There are lots of exotic evil beings.  Some places like Fablehaven have fallen to evil influences and harm has come to the mortals there.  There is an evil three headed, three legged, three tailed beast.

 

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13 Treasures

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Mrs.N

13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison

After Tanya’s parents’ divorce, she’s become difficult and moody.  Where difficult and moody really mean “tormented by fairies only she can see and whom she can tell no one about”.  Fed up with Tanya’s antics, her mother sends her off to her grandmother’s for the summer.  For Tanya, there’s no escaping fairies and as she settles in, she learns there’s a lot more danger involved than she first thought.  With the help of her friend Fabian, Tanya is determined to get to the bottom of a mystery that is nearly fifty years old, but things are soon well out of her control.

The fairies in this book are very much not the flitting through gardens and simpering under bluebells types.  They are mischievous, dangerous, and often vindictive.  Also they steal children.  When you examine the parts of this book, it seems very dark indeed, quite scary and yet the tone is more that of a mystery with a magical twist.  It stood quite decently on it’s own, perhaps too much so, as it felt so complete I could see readers stopping rather than continuing the series, and yet I have a feeling that the author intends to reveal much more in the rest of the trilogy.

One of the aspects of this book that was particularly dark was Tanya’s personal rejection by those that should love her.  She is very much made to feel difficult and unloved, which goes a long way to explain her untrusting and sometimes defiant personality.  I did appreciate that unlike so many other books of this genre, in the end, the adults had a hand in helping resolve the conflict.  And it certainly demonstrated the damage that keeping secrets can do, whether the secret keeper is an adult or a child.

Recommended for: Grades 3 and up.  I would worry that readers younger than that might find it a bit scary.  It would be on level for many third and fourth graders.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – In the past, two people were dating.  The girl broke it off.

Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – A girl is pinched.  A woman cuts her foot on broken glass.  A girl sees a dead fairy on the windshield of a car. She has seen a cat hit by a car in the past.  In the past a girl went missing.  She was last seen with a boy at a known suicide spot.  There are gunshots when someone is hunting.  A boy speculates that a tree is sturdy enough to hang people from.  A woman died in an institution at age 23.  There’s talk that a boy might have killed a girl then disposed of her body in the catacombs.  A baby has cut itself with its own fingernails.  A girl has fairy wings branded on her back.  A boy has an unexplained bruise.  A girl worries she’ll find a skeleton.  A boy is attacked by something in the dark, it scratches his head and causes him to bleed.  There is something that can restore life to the dead.  Some fairies torture humans until they go insane.  A girl’s parents die in a car crash.  A fairy dies to save a human life.   A girl and a fairy struggle, then a cat kills the fairy; there is a lot of blood.   Salt causes a hag’s skin to blister and bubble. A dog kills a fairy creatures.  A bad person dies of a heart attack.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – A girl is tormented by fairies and blamed for their bad behavior.  She is unable to tell the truth about her situation and therefore is seen as mentally unstable by adults, untrustworthy and deserving of blame.  Children have disappeared from an orphanage (or Children’s Home as it’s called here).  Children are lost in the woods.  A child is abducted from a maternity ward after being abandoned there.  A woman is committed to a mental asylum for insanity.  A girl overhears people saying they don’t want her around.  Children are switched with fairy children.

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The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Mrs.N

The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente

This is the third book in the trilogy:
Book 1: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Book 2: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

I have to sort of shamefacedly admit my relief at being finished with this series. I had hoped some of the goodwill I had at the end of The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There would sustain me through this one and quite sadly, that was not the case.  I can understand why this series is so lauded.  Valente is an exceptional writer with a vast and impressive vocabulary, an ability to create breathtakingly beautiful worlds and weave all manner of societal commentary throughout.  But the ability to do that does not necessarily mean the book itself is particularly readable, especially for young audiences.  You have to be the type of person who likes this sort of thing, and then beyond that, you have to have, hopefully, both an excellent vocabulary and an incredible ability to make sense of text when you don’t even know the meaning of many of the words you encounter. As much as I have recommended this for strong readers in Grades 5 and up, as teacher, I would strongly advocate doing a very thorough comprehension check with a student before allowing it to be a book that is read in class.  In terms of recreational reading or for family read alouds, the stakes are different.

September had become accustomed to being summoned to Fairyland, so she was quite put out when the summer came and she found herself still very much in Nebraska.  But opportunity soon struck as she found a way in. Soon she is where she’d longed to be, driving a neighbor’s Model A Ford that somehow came along for the journey.  This particular journey takes us to the Moon, on a mission to deliver a package and stop the shaking which is causing great harm. The trip featured less action and many more lengthy speeches and wonderings which made it all the less exciting for me as a reader.  But if the question is about whether September, at 14, is suddenly having more mature adventures, the answer would have to be, no.  Nothing occurs that is not hinted heavily at already in the prior books, certainly nothing racy or lascivious in any way.  If a reader has gone through the first two in the series, to my mind, there’s nothing marking this third as out of reach.  Aside from all that philosophy.  And all those vocabulary words.

The vocabulary that particularly caught my eye included: incandescent, dastardly, persnickety, phlegmy, ululating, gasbagging (NB: googling this term will turn up an urban dictionary entry which is not suitable for children), stoicism, regimes, dissolution, deposed, hypocrites, chagrin, concatenating, traipsing, consternation, viridian, Numismatists, pecuniary, haughty, phrenologist, sedition, surreptitiously, cozen, chicaneries, diaphanous, dialectics, philippics, diatribe, harangue, edified, gnomon.  This books strange creatures include: psychopomps, klabautermann, dimetrodons (well, those are real at least), cyclops, basilisk, Naiads, strega, Marid and of course, yeti.

This spoiler refers to a plot point that is vaguely related to the maturity factor but I can’t imagine would really be a deal-breaker for anyone.

Spoiler Inside SelectShow

Age Recommendation: I’m tempted to go for Grades 6 and up on this one just because of the degree of difficulty but not really due to the content.  It’s far less violent than its predecessors frankly.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – Girls and boys are beginning to date.  A horse gets pregnant.  September reads about someone who is choosing a husband by admiring the legs of the men in question.  Saturday is shirtless.  September finds him beautiful. Two people kiss, it is brief.  There’s an “I love you.” Ell speculates that when September disappeared she might have grown up and “mated”. A pair of bugs are going to kiss. There’s handholding.  A yeti was going to kiss a mountain and marry it in secret.  The moon gives birth.  There is another kiss between September and Saturday.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – The war is still on (in the real world). A puffin carries a poleax. A girl is slapped in the face.  They recall that in prior books a Minotaur was shot and a Marid was wrestled half to death.  A yeti’s paw was caught in a trap so it gnawed its own hand off at the wrist and dripped blood everywhere.  People take to speeding up time and it is causing people to die of old age way ahead of time.  Someone has a bloody lip.  There’s a discussion of drinking blood.  September once burned someone with an iron.  September fears she has broken her leg.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – A girl smokes a pipe.  There is a cigarette seller. A creature’s pelt is the color of rum.  Wanderwhiskey is broken over a ship’s bow.  September drinks something that tastes a bit of brandy.
Frightening or Intense Things – September’s father was wounded in the war and continues to be in terrible pain from his injury. A piece of bullet remains in his thigh.  There are Yetis which are described in a scary way.  At the end, a parent is missing a child and is distraught.

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The Field Guide

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Mrs.N

The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles #1) by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

The set-up is juicy.  In a very convincing letter to the reader, Holly Black claims to have been approached by three children with a story to tell, a story about fairies and danger.  And just like that, the story begins.  (NB: Don’t skip these letters which occur before the beginning of Chapter 1.  So many children just page forward to find that first page, but they’ll miss some good stuff!)

Jared Grace has found things particularly difficult after his father left.  The strange old Victorian house their Aunt Lucinda is letting them stay in is just the latest in a string of not-so-pleasant happenings in his life.  So it’s no wonder that when odd things start happening his mother does not accuse his twin brother Simon, nor his thirteen year old sister, Mallory, she suspects him.  Jared knows he’s not responsible for the pranks and mischief and a series of clues has pointed him in the direction of the real culprit.  His siblings might take some convincing, but Jared’s sure they’ll come around.

This book is a bit of nothing, but I mean that in the best possible way.  It goes so quickly that I dare kids to not want to read on after the first book finishes.  It’s a teacher’s dream as well.  The reading level is right at a third grade level, but the writing is so much better than similarly leveled books and the content is safe for even younger students who might be reading above grade level.  I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to read the second in the series this month, but it’s a task I would not mind in the least.

Age Recommendation: This is on-level for third grade readers.  The writing is straight-forward but there are some excellent vocabulary words as well.  There are frequent, interesting illustrations to help lure readers along.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – “crappier”, “shut up”,
Death, Violence and Gore – Mallory uses a sword and Jared thinks there’s a possibility of her stabbing someone with it.  One of the boys has a black eye.  Mallory threatens to give him another.  A girl has bruises.  Tadpoles are frozen in ice cubes.  A boy got into a fight and broke someone’s nose.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – A child is trapped in a dark room with no door and something that leaves threatening messages.  A girl is tied to her bed frame by her hair.

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The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Mrs.N

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

This is the second book in a trilogy:

Book 1: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.
Book 3: The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two

September returns to Fairyland and finds that things are not at all how she left them and her dear, dear friends whom she has missed so much are not in fact, waiting desperately for her to appear.  There’s trouble in Fairyland because of Halloween, the Hallow Queen who rules Fairyland below has been liberating people’s shadows, thus stripping them of magic.  September can’t help but feel responsible since Halloween was once her own shadow and so she embarks on a quest to wake a sleeping prince, restore order and ensure that Fairyland remains magical.

I found this far more likable than its predecessor.  Despite it being about Fairyland Below (with all the sinister connotations of below) I honestly felt it was less scary and creepy.  September’s journey is by no means easy, but I preferred the people she ran into, even those that betray her.  Maybe I’m just getting used to Valente’s style.

I would say this is possibly slightly easier than the first book in the series, but the vocabulary remains impressive.  I marked down hereditary monarchs, iridescent, ziggurats, gargantuan, marionette, carnelian, crystalline, languorously, disconsolate, bailiwicks, progenitors, obsidian, narrative matrix, all as words that would require extra attention.  Again, Valente introduces us to no end of magical creatures, some whom have evolved from myths and legends and others I’m sure of her own making, including, hreinn (some type of reindeer-person), selkies, imps, dwarves, gnomes, hippogryphes, nixies, nymphs, Lutin, hobgoblin, glashtyn, Scotch-wight, Ouphe, Mermen, hobgoblins, peris, centaurs, Monacielli, minotaurs, baku.

Age Recommendation: This is a very difficult book which requires a strong vocabulary and excellent reading comprehension.  Things do take a slightly more romantic turn than in the prior book so I would lean towards Grades 5 and up for this, although very strong fourth grade readers may be able to tackle it so long as their family is comfortable with the content.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – Girls who do not like September spread rumors that she goes behind the Chemistry building with boys.   Some hunters are looking to shoot themselves a wife. September thinks about her teachers, two who had been in love but had disapproving parents; two other women who hadn’t married but lived together and another man who had chased a woman over town singing her love songs and buying her presents. A girl makes men perform tasks before she gives them a kiss. September is kissed on the lips and finds it sweet, frightening and mysterious.  September’s hands are kissed repeatedly.  September is upset that her first kiss was stolen.  There is hand-holding. A Glashtyn is naked below its head.  There’s a mention of meeting a lover on a balcony in moonlight; it’s very hypothetical. A woman has a child with a bull.  A woman remarries.  Two girls kiss a prince and his shadow.  September kisses some that she wants to kiss.
Profanity – We’re told that wife is a curse. “damnable”,
Death, Violence and Gore – There’s talk of a cat eating a sparrow and a secret boiling your bones. There’s a type of creature that is hunted both for its meat but also for its skin, for he who possesses the creature’s skin may rule it for the rest of its days.  A room has swords, maces, cudgels and arrows, daggers and tridents.  A bench is made of bone. A friend of September’s died. A dodo’s heart burst during a race, and its jockey fell and broke her neck.  There’s a mention of throttling.  There’s a gun, but no bullets.  Someone chooses not to slide an arrow into someone else’s heart.  September has seen a veterinarians revolver that he used for putting down horses.    A bull dies in battle.  Another bull has his head bashed in. A radio reporting on WWII says casualty reports are grim. In dreams, someone shoots pheasants.  Someone is bitten and bleeds.  There are pistols.  September shoots something and learns it is her father’s shadow.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – The world keeps beers and liqueurs in its basement. A bear drinks honey-beer.  Two women takes nips of whiskey in their tea.  There’s a Baron of Port, a Pharaoh of Beer and a Dauphin of Gin.  There are liquor-fountains in the Forest.  A goblin stays up all night drinking pennywine.  Whiskey is referred to as a heady and dangerous business. Monks brewed beer.  A girl’s father has a liquor cabinet.  A cellar contains liquor including blackberry wine and whiskey.  A baku had too much to drink.
Frightening or Intense Things – September’s father is away at war.  Tea and coffee were once at war.  There’s a very scary thing called the Alleyman which comes and takes people’s shadows, but is written much scarier than it sounds here.  An Onion Man has bones for fingers.  September seems to be betrayed by those she trusts.  Someone has a near drowning experience.  A mother hides from her own child and decides to hide him so she won’t have to look at him.  There’s talk of fairies stealing children and eating souls.

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Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Mrs.N

Fairy Dust And The Quest For The Egg by Gail Carson Levine

When I was on the hunt for fairy books I was delighted to find that Gail Carson Levine (of Ella Enchanted fame) had a new series out!  Then when I received the book from the library, I noticed a small Disney insignia on the front cover and was dismayed.  I am not sure I want Levine through a Disney filter, but I guess we’ll see!

It borrows the (I assume Disney owned?) premise of Never Land, a place where fairies dwell and boy and girls never grow up.  Human children are rather annoyingly called Clumsies and the old “if you stop believing a fairy dies, unless you clap to show you believe” statement is trotted out.  And then, before any actual story is even established, the whole “fairy talent” appears, with an “animal-talent” fairy and “keyhole-design-talent” fairy which quite honestly has made me lose faith in the whole endeavor.

Prilla, our main character is something more than a fairy, a bit of child attached itself to the laugh that makes a fairy.  Subsequently she doesn’t seem to have a fairy talent, a very sad thing indeed.  There are of course, fairies who aren’t quite properly formed, being created from slightly less than a laugh, but the less said about them the better.

A hurricane comes to Never Land threatening the lives of all who reside there. In order to save the day, Prilla must join with other fairies to complete a quest to save a broken egg. And perhaps, in the end, she will learn her talent after all.

I feel a bit embarrassed now that I recommended this to Laura without having read it.  I was so excited that such an amazing author had fairy offerings on the table so I told her as soon as I discovered it.  It’s really just not like Levine’s other books at all.  It reads like it could have been written by anyone and has no real depth.  While it does not seem to be a part of Disney’s Tales of Pixie Hollow series, it is nonetheless related.  That said, it is a vast and epic improvement over the Rainbow Magic fairy books and I would strongly recommend suggesting it for readers who are stuck on a Rainbow Magic binge and need to be moved onto something more challenging and interesting.   It is also relatively benign in terms of content (there is some scariness, but nothing more than your usual Disney type danger) and therefore would hold interest for younger readers as well.

One other tiny complaint – there is no real mention of race throughout the book, so would it have killed the illustrator to make any of the fairies appear to be minorities?  Did they all have to be drawn white?

Age Recommendation: This would likely be on level for third graders.  I would recommend it even more for younger students K-2 who are reading well above grade level for something that feels safe, silly and innocuous and yet introduces some better vocabulary.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – A male fairy (called a sparrow man) likes everything about a fairy, from her her “bounce” to her bangs.  Tinker Bell has had her heart broken.  A sparrow man tries to get a fairy to like him.  Tink goes on about how she loved Peter and how sad she was that he brought over Wendy.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – Readers are told that if children (presumably them) stop believing in fairies, fairies will die. Hawks kill several fairies a year.  When Neverland was created forests burned and animals died.  We’re told too many fairies die of disbelief.  Fairies are injured in a hurricane.  A dove has its egg smashed and its wings broken.  Captain Hook lists the names of all the captains he’s killed and how he killed them.  A lark has bloody feathers.  Hook has a birthmark in the shape of a cutlass dripping with blood.  Hook does a lot of slashing about with a sword.  A fairy kicks someone in the face. Some fairies are armed with daggers.  A fairy bites someone in self-defense,  drawing blood. There are rumors that a hawk fixes his eye on you and you are half-dead before he sinks his talons into you.  A fairy breaks a leg.  A fox is stabbed in the neck.  A fairy dies of disbelief.    The Dove thinks about dying and is dying. A fairy slaps another fairy.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Hook has a cigar holder which the fairies must steal.
Frightening or Intense Things – There’s a hurricane.  A fairy is captured by a pirate. Fairies must steal something from a hawk, but hawks eat fairies.  A fairy passes out from lack of air.  A fox is planning to eat Mother Dove.

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The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Mrs.N

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

This is the first book in a trilogy.
Book 2: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
Book 3: The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two

This is a book for people who love words and worlds.  The Fairyland that Valente has conceived is beyond intricate, I can only think of Carroll’s Wonderland as a comparison point.  They both feature odd creatures and powerful capricious Queens and a host of rules that are complicated and difficult to follow.  Unlike Alice, twelve year old September does not fall down a rabbit hole.  Rather she climbs over her sink (losing a shoe in the process) to join the Green Wind who has come explicitly for her.  She is admitted to Fairyland without papers because the Green Wind indicates that he has taken her for the purpose of Ravishing (this is not expounded upon, thank goodness).

Once there, September finds a quest for herself (retrieving a witch’s stolen spoon from the Marquess), a friend in the form of a Wyvern and heads off for the capital of Pandemonium.  She meets the fearsome Marquess and then must begin yet another journey and then of course, terrible things befall her along the way.  But there is much magic and there are friends and magical creatures who help, so it is not all sadness and difficulty.

I found this to be a terribly difficult book.  In fact, I couldn’t concentrate on it unless I had absolute quiet.  The world-building was very complex, with an amazing number of magical creatures: djinni, Marid, Wyvern, wairwulf, spriggans, brownies, hamadryads, Jarlhopp, nasnas, goblins, Harpies, pooka, Tsukumogami and many others.  All apologies that some of the links go to wikipedia.  Some of these creatures have long established roles in folklore that Valente is drawing on while others function similarly but with her own twist.  At times the story includes other reference likely to go right over the heads of younger readers, such as mentions of Excalibur and Durendal and information that children get to fairyland by mushroom ring, tornado, wardrobes of winter coats and gaps in the hedgerows (making reference to other literature).

There is some terribly complicated stuff in here about fathers leaving and people making up stories to explain the loss and about the Marquess stealing a spoon vs. the government coming and taking September’s father away to war.  There are also asides to September herself which will be hard for the reader to process.

The vocabulary is very, very difficult.  I written down examples, some of which I wasn’t 100% sure of myself as well as many that I thought were way above the general vocabulary level of anyone not in high school; “widdershins, perish, hamadryads, spriggans, smelted, brambly, autumnal acquisition, tesseract, paisley cravat, verbiage, exeunt, purview,  wastrels, perverse and perilous, thaumaturgists, puissant, paladins, jacquard, bureaucracy, ledger, dilettante, beneficence, magnanimousness, comestibles, morbidity,  metamorphosis, indirect dative, cotillion, primordial, ”

Age Recommendation:
Despite its degree of difficulty, the plot seems more aimed at younger readers making this a pick more for very advanced middle grades readers and some tweens than teens.  It would also work as a bedtime read aloud for children that may feel they’re a bit old for that sort of thing.  I would say 4-6 graders reading above grade level would be able to tackle this.  I do believe there is enjoyment to be had from this even if you don’t pick up all the nuance and reference, but for thorough comprehension it will take very strong readers.

Good for:
As Valente herself intimates, this is really a book for lovers of magical worlds and would work for lovers of Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz (keeping in mind that I read the former more than 25 years ago and the later, never) rather than children looking for stories about fairies.

Please excuse my use of the word “people” and “person” below when in fact I am referring to all manner of magical, not quite human creatures.  I simply can differentiate them or enumerate them all for you.  Besides for the purposes of my write up, they might as well be the same.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – Latitude and Longitude kiss.  A girl’s cheek is kissed.  There’s mention of her having been ravished although I don’t believe she has been.  A girl chooses a path that tells her she will lose her heart.  Two witches are married to the same person.  A wairwulf kisses September’s cheek.  September tells a story about a girl whose father ran off with another lady and the girl’s mother sometimes tells her that she didn’t have a father.  A Wyvern insists his mother “mated” with a library and was not abandoned by “some brute bull”. Wyvern mating seasons are brief and infrequent.  September doesn’t want to be naked in front of anyone but she does take off her clothes in order to bathe.  September has known older girls who dream of going to cities and marrying well.  There are men with horses heads who are naked. Witches predict a couple will be unfaithful during marriage.  There’s a type of creature who looks for its mate once its children appear and then she looks for a mate that looks like them.  There’s a chance a panther will eat some characters. Some bicycles (velos) feel a mating drive. They mate then die.  A Marid kisses a woman’s hand in a courtly manner.  Some velos nuzzle each others handlebars and are in a rush to get home (presumably, although it is not stated, to mate).  September takes off her dress and sails naked.  Evidently the inanimate object in our home become alive when they reach 100 and have unhappy love affairs. A woman marries and finds she is with child.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – A leopard bites.  A girl is warned that if she breaks the rules she may be executed.  You cannot bring bullets, knives or maces to fairyland because iron is not permitted.  A rule of entering fairyland is that there must be blood so a girl pricks her finger.  The Green Wind threatens to thrash someone.  The Marquess killed witches, hunting them with a bow.  Someone perished in a spectacular display of Science (industrial chemicals).  September suggests someone be squashed or roasted.  A Pooka is worried she’ll be eaten and drowned. September bleeds and feels much pain when her shadow is cut from her. Witches predict a man’s early death.  People are chased with a whip.  A picture shows a woman with a hunter’s bow.  September asks the Marquess why she killed certain people.  The Marquess threatens to have a creature rendered into glue and perfume.  The Marquess threatens to have someone’s head on a thorn in her garden if she is not obeyed.  A creature can only grant wishes when it is defeated in battle and hurt nearly to death.   Some bicycles (velos) feel the dying drive.   It is suggested that the velos will go faster if they are whipped.  There’s a story about a boy who is betrayed by his bothers who cut him all up but he drank the water of Death and was fine.  September talks with Death.  Death takes off its skin and bones.  Saturday is snatched up in a lion’s jaws and bleeds.  Another lion slashes Ell across the face leaving a long gash and poisoning him.  In a dream, September holds something that is smeared in her friend’s blood.  In order to have bait for a fish, September cuts her own thumb and uses her blood to bait a hook.  She does succeed in catching a fish and talks to it a bit explaining how much she doesn’t want to kill it and then she has to bludgeon it to death and gut it and pull its “organ parts out” and then eat it raw pulling the flesh from the bones. September is attacked, scalded and cut and dropped into a hole by those who have been ordered to kill her. She bleeds and has broken a leg.  September slaps someone across the face.  Another character is shot with an arrow.  A girl is thrashed by her father until she tastes blood in her mouth.  A character threatens to throttle some other characters and then let someone eat them.  A pair of character have a terrible fight, they hit each other and end up bloody.   There is biting involved.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Parents are angry if they find their child has been to the local pub.  In Fairyland fennel beer is consumed.  A woman chews on a cigarette that smells at least partly of rum.  Wyverns drink wine. Lime liquor is brewing.  Djinni drink lightening beer.  A woman offers a child a puff of her pipe.  A child drinks hazelnut beer.  Death drinks red wine.  A man drinks brandy and then gives some to a child.  A girl’s father used almost all their money on alcohol.
Frightening or Intense Things – Young boys and girls are taken from home, both real human children and some of the children of Fairyland creatures.   A girl is a changeling, which is what happens when a fairy steals a human child (she was the human) and leaves a fairy in its place. She remembers her old family, but assumes she must have been sad.  The scene with Death is reasonably creepy and death does a lot of talking about how she’s small when she’s far from you but large up close.  September starts to turn into a tree or somethings similar, losing her hair, her fingers turning to twigs, etc.  There’s a mention of fairies stealing souls.

 

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The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland — For a Little While

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Mrs.N

I plan on reviewing the Girl Who…Fairyland series, but before I get there, I’m going to start with a short work, sometimes called a prequel, by the author, Catherynne Valente, which was published on Tor.com in 2011.  It’s called The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland – For a Little While and you can read it for free just by clicking on that link.

Mallow has been living alone in peace and quiet when the king announces festivities leading up to the first tithe in a thousand years.  As no one knows (or has long since forgotten) what a tithe is, the news is received with much excitement and anticipation.  Her companion on the journey is quite interesting and upon arrival introduces her to giant cats and winds.  It soon becomes apparent that King Goldmouth will stop at nothing and cause harm to whomever he pleases.  And Mallow, who has always wanted nothing more than to keep to herself and read and learn a few magics finds herself in a position to stop him.

This was a very complicated short story, made more difficult by my not having any prior experience with Fairyland or Mallow.  While it is a prequel, it might be of more interest to those that have already read part or all of the series.

Age Recommendation: Due to complex themes and vocabulary and lots of lovey-dovey stuff, I would say this would be best for advanced readers in Grades 5 and up.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – A girl is asked if she finds any youths attractive in a “marrying way”. Fairies “make…love if they can”.   Fairies love telling about their loves lost and won.  Mallow doesn’t mind picking up love for awhile when her friend is in town. Many have lost their loves to others.  There’s a kissing booth.  A couple embraces.  A girl thinks she won’t kiss someone. Lamias kiss.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – There’s a mention of heroines bleeding and fighting.  A girl carries a sword which is really a sewing needle.  A girl might be done in by pirates (hypothetically, of course).  There’s some mention of a Tithe meaning that people will lose a child.  There is to be a blood price.  There’s a game where someone guesses your death for a nickel.  Mallow is bitten by a giant cat.  Fairies are forced to do something that causes them to develop boils and bleed and scar.  Mallow thinks cattle will be slaughtered.  Someone is killed.  Blood washes over the killer’s hands.  The king grabs someone’s throat.  A man’s arm is severed.  Someone slips in blood while trying to remove a severed arm from her throat.  There is a great battle.  Someone is dying and will be dying for a very long time.  Someone is sewed up into a package, with seams running through the skin.  Mallow punches someone.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – A girl lives on the edge of a whiskey lake.  A textbook contains information on spoiling beer.
Frightening or Intense Things – The king reaches down someone’s throat, pulls out a topaz and eats it.  Magic and joy are stolen from other worlds.

 

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