Talk about the kidlit you're reading!

Kitty Pryde · Jul 26, 2011

I just read Rules, which I loved. Great well-rounded characters, and very funny without making fun of anyone.

And then I read a book which was really Crummy McAwful. It was called Piggy, about a girl with autism who makes friends with a manipulative mean girl. This book was so rotten I don't know where to start. It had the f-word four times, as in "I'm really f****** thirsty." Why??? Plus some lesser bonus swears. I think the writer has never met a person with autism, or seen one on tv, or read a book by one, but rather, they got drunk and read the wikipedia article about autism one time. And then, the friend was evil. Not bitchy mean girl, not hyped up bully with tragic home life, she was straight up Bad Seed/The Omen pure evil. Hmm. The book also pointed out about fifty times how fat she was, always in conjunction with her evil. Because fatness always leads to evilness children, shun all the evil fat people with their beady eyes and cupcake-grubbing ways! Come on, now. Also, at the end, the best friend stabbed someone in the stomach with a dagger. For no apparent reason of plot nor character development. Just to make sure we knew she was evil. I don't know why this book exists.

timp67 · Jul 26, 2011

Wow, Kitty, thanks for that background! It sort of explains why the story is all over the place, at least to this reader. Despite some beautiful moments of clarity, it's become a bit of a slog. I'm determined to reach THE END, however, out of respect for its best moments.

Morrell · Jul 26, 2011

timp67 said:
I'm reading THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND IN A SHIP OF HER OWN MAKING. Whew! What a title. The vocab is SO advanced and the writing is SO dense that I resisted it at first, but now its charm is working on me. I'm having a hard time seeing the typical MG reader reading it without frustration, however, or at least having to skip over so many difficult words. It's challenging me as an ADULT reader!

I'm reading this, too. I've barely started, so I shouldn't comment until I read the rest. But ... spriggans! hamadryads! And the list of rules of Fairyland made me laugh, especially "Rubbish takeaway occurs on second Fridays" stuck in there along with the esoteric stuff.

My husband was telling me the same thing Kitty said (that this is her first MG). She's definitely playing around with the tropes. I think I'll enjoy it, but I'm withholding judgment on whether it's really intended for a MG audience.

Morrell · Jul 26, 2011

Kitty Pryde said:
I just read Rules, which I loved. Great well-rounded characters, and very funny without making fun of anyone.

I heard Cynthia Lord speak a couple of years ago. Interesting talk, and we chatted a bit afterward. I loved the book, too. She's been a teacher and she has a child with autism, so she gets it.

Kitty Pryde · Jul 26, 2011

RuthD said:
I'm reading this, too. I've barely started, so I shouldn't comment until I read the rest. But ... spriggans! hamadryads! And the list of rules of Fairyland made me laugh, especially "Rubbish takeaway occurs on second Fridays" stuck in there along with the esoteric stuff.

My husband was telling me the same thing Kitty said (that this is her first MG). She's definitely playing around with the tropes. I think I'll enjoy it, but I'm withholding judgment on whether it's really intended for a MG audience.

I enjoyed the book it's based on an awful lot, it's one of my favorites. It's called Palimpsest, and I should point out that it is not at all for kids. It's about a magical land you can only visit by having...adult relations...with a person who's been there before. A sexually transmitted city, if you will. Anyway, great read, if you want some excellent literary fantasy.

timp67 · Jul 28, 2011

MGlitchat is a terrific blog I've only just discovered. (Silly me? Um...no comment)

Check out this list of great MG books they've compiled! It's like my dream library.

http://mglitchat.blogspot.com/2011/07/list.html#more

sissybaby · Jul 30, 2011

I just finished Juniper Berry - it may just be me, but I thought it was much scarier than both Coraline and The Graveyard Book. It would have creeped me out as a kid.

But it was a great story, and the way he used balloons killed me.

Librarykelly · Jul 30, 2011

timp67 said:
MGlitchat is a terrific blog I've only just discovered. (Silly me? Um...no comment)

Check out this list of great MG books they've compiled! It's like my dream library.

http://mglitchat.blogspot.com/2011/07/list.html#more

We put together that list a week ago on Twitter! It was a fabulous chat ; I believe this week's topic is on middle grade voice. Thursday.

Librarykelly · Jul 30, 2011

sissybaby said:
I just finished Juniper Berry - it may just be me, but I thought it was much scarier than both Coraline and The Graveyard Book. It would have creeped me out as a kid.

But it was a great story, and the way he used balloons killed me.

I finished Juniper Berry a few weeks ago and I thought about that almost the whole way through. Some kids LOVE to be terrified, while others don't. (We all know this!) There are tons of kids at my elementary school that would really love the thrill of the creepiness with this book.

Eldritch · Jul 30, 2011

sissybaby said:
I just finished Juniper Berry - it may just be me, but I thought it was much scarier than both Coraline and The Graveyard Book. It would have creeped me out as a kid.

But it was a great story, and the way he used balloons killed me.

I'll have to check this one out.

Librarykelly · Jul 30, 2011

RuthD said:
I heard Cynthia Lord speak a couple of years ago. Interesting talk, and we chatted a bit afterward. I loved the book, too. She's been a teacher and she has a child with autism, so she gets it.

Rules was the book that got me into middle grade.

Kitty Pryde · Jul 30, 2011

I was talking to someone in my critique group about lower MG novels (I am trying really hard to get them all to read children's books, not just write them!) and she asked for a reading list. So if anyone's interested, some incredibly good (and short) lower MG novels, almost all recent:

Al Capone Does My Shirts (plus sequel)
Any book by Deborah Wiles
Bobby Yee Vs. Girls, Accidentally (plus sequel)
Coraline
Crash (by Jerry Spinelli)
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree
Highway Cats
Holes
Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key
Kenny and the Dragon
Love, Aubrey
Maniac McGee
Mr. Stink
Ninth Ward
No Castles Here
One Crazy Summer
Saffy's Angel (and Indigo's Star, Permanent Rose, Caddy Ever After, Forever Rose)
Skellig
The Graveyard Book
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place (plus sequel)
The Penderwicks (three books in the series)
The Thing About Georgie
The Underneath
Totally Joe
Twelve (by Lauren Myracle)

Librarykelly · Jul 31, 2011

Kitty, if I could add to that; Puppy Place series by Ellen Miles and The Sisters Club Series by Megan McDonald. Both 3rd-4th grade and very good!

jtrylch13 · Aug 1, 2011

I'm re-reading the Charlie Bone series. 1) because I like to re-read books if I haven't got them locked in my memory. (I just love to recall a story later!) and 2) because the first time I read these I didn't like them much. I think I was looking for something to fill my insatiable need for all things Harry Potter between novels and this didn't fill the void. Others on here have said so many good things that I had to go back and try again. Turns out, when you aren't expecting a book to be something it isn't, you can enjoy it much more. There are times when Nimmo writes such beautiful prose, I love it and times when it's a bit juvenille. I can't remember the wording, and I already returned the book, but there was a line in the first about Ingldew bookshop that just sang to me. Anyway, enjoying them much more this time.

Also reading The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flammel. I'm on book three and nothing much to say. They are an enjoyable read, but nothing I'd get excited over.

sissybaby · Aug 1, 2011

I just finished Then. It made me cry.

It's a fictional account of a young Jewish boy and a younger girl (whose parents are Nazi Germans) who escape from an orphan train.

Very touching, but not something I'd recommend for my ten-year-old just yet.

Librarykelly · Aug 1, 2011

I've finally gotten around to reading Scumble by Ingrid Law.

Morrell · Aug 1, 2011

jtrylch13 said:
I'm re-reading the Charlie Bone series ... enjoying them much more this time.

I'm one of the ones who raves about them, jtrylch. I like how she brings the characters, both good and bad, to life: Charlie, Uncle Paton, Grandma Bone, Olivia, Benjamin and Runner Bean, Mr. Onimous and the Flame Cats, Emma Tolly, Fidelio, Gabriel, Manfred... I love them all.

t0dd · Aug 1, 2011

I haven't read the Charlie Bone books yet, but I read the Snow Spider trilogy by the same author (a friend of mine in England mentioned that he'd read them as a child and enjoyed them). They lived up to his recommendation.

Kitty Pryde · Aug 1, 2011

Just finished Under The Green Hill. I thought it was a fun fairy story incorporating a lot of different myths. The characters were sweet and the writing was gorgeous (tho it had a lot of hard vocab words). And I'm pretty picky about my fairy fantasies. It was too long for my taste (like 85k) but I suppose that's what the big kids like these days

I feel like the author is maybe an AWer, I dunno tho.

And Peak, a highly entertaining adventure about a fourteen year old kid whose dad is trying to get him to be the youngest person to climb Mt Everest. Highly recommend, especially if you like sports/adventure stories with with some good social justice subplots thrown in. Good story, and I thought it was funny since a kid from SoCal just became the actual youngest person to climb Everest at age 13. He's got his own book but I haven't read it yet

t0dd · Aug 2, 2011

Kitty Pryde said:
Just finished Under The Green Hill. I thought it was a fun fairy story incorporating a lot of different myths. The characters were sweet and the writing was gorgeous (tho it had a lot of hard vocab words). And I'm pretty picky about my fairy fantasies. It was too long for my taste (like 85k) but I suppose that's what the big kids like these days I feel like the author is maybe an AWer, I dunno tho.

I've read that one as well; I don't know if the author is at Absolute Write, but I *have* seen her at Verla Kay's forum. (And I discovered there that she has a sequel which will be published this autumn. The final sentence of the book did make me wonder if she had one planned.)

And I enjoyed it as well, and recommend it to everyone here who likes stories about faerie-folk and British legend.

Smish · Aug 2, 2011

I'm getting ready to go to the doctor. While I'm there, I'm going to start Turtle in Paradise.

MJWare · Aug 2, 2011

I'm putting Juniper Berry on the top of my reading list. Sounds great!

MsJudy · Aug 2, 2011

Okay, I just finished The Penderwicks on Gardam Street. Now, I did enjoy it, and it is very well-written and charming. But did anyone else find it just a little TOO sweetly perfect at the end?...

But then, maybe I'm in a diabetic coma from it just because of the two books I read before it:
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (not kid lit) deals with a Jewish girl who survives--barely--being rounded up by the French police during WWII
The Bathhouse by Faroosh Mahiri (not kid lit) deals with a young woman arrested during the early Iranian revolution

And now I'm 3 chapters into the Hunger Games. So... yeah. Penderwicks seem pretty damn sweet by comparison.

Smish · Aug 2, 2011

You mean the grownups don't try to kill the kids in the Penderwicks? :Wha:

AngieBelle · Aug 4, 2011

I just finished The Runaway Princess- a delightful twist on the traditional fairy tale. The princess is trapped in a tower while her father holds a contest to get her married involving having princes rid the kingdom of the bandits, the dragon, and the witch. The princess isn't thrilled with the idea and sneaks out of the tower to go warn them!

I've also just finished El Lector about a girl living in a Spanish community in Florida around the beginning of the Depression. Her grandfather is a beloved lector who reads stories to the cigar factory workers- something I didn't know anything about. I wasn't sure how much I'd be into the story at first, but I ended up really liking the main character and her family.

Talk about the kidlit you're reading!

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

timp67

Guinea pig in the laboratory of God

Morrell

Morrell

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

timp67

Guinea pig in the laboratory of God

sissybaby

Librarykelly

Librarykelly

Eldritch

Librarykelly

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

Librarykelly

jtrylch13

Has semi-colon; will use it!

sissybaby

Librarykelly

Morrell

t0dd

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

t0dd

Smish

Reads more than she writes.

MJWare

Kidlit gang, Junior member.

MsJudy

Smish

Reads more than she writes.

AngieBelle