ALA Awards Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning, the ALA will announce the winners of its numerous awards, and though I don't claim to have expertise in predicting what will win, I have fallen into the latest trend of making predictions for some of the bigger awards. I've read more than my normal quota of eligible books, and though I probably missed something in my efforts, I am prepared to offer my hopeful guesses.

For the Caldecott Award, I hope to learn that Dan Santat's Are We There Yet? was the big winner. I also hope to learn that Lisa Brown's The Airport Book, Deborah Freedman's Shy, and Beth Krommes's Before Morning received Caldecott Honors. All of those books were truly elevated by their illustrations. Often, without the illustrations, the story simply would not have worked as well as it did.

For the Newbery Award, I hope to learn that It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas has won. No book so deeply moved me as that this year. I also hope that The Seventh Wish by Kate Messner, The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes by Wade Albert White, and Alistair Grim's Odd Aquaticum by Gregory Funaro win Newbery Honors. This was good year for middle grade novels that were startlingly funny and/or heartwarming and thought provoking.

For the Geisel Award, I honestly have no idea what will win, but I wouldn't mind seeing Dan Yaccarino's I Am A Story or maybe Ben Hatke's Nobody Likes a Goblin take the award. They are both books that are entertaining and nearly perfect in their execution. Of course, there are so many great contenders out there, it's hard to say what should come out on top.

For the Coretta Scott King Awards, I really don't know, though I'd love to see Bryan Collier win the CSK Illustrator Award for City Shapes and Andrea Davis Pinkney win the CSK Author Award for A Poem for Peter. Trouble is, Collier has won the CSK Illustrator Award numerous times before, and Pinkney has won the CSK Author Award before. I have always thought that it's is nice to spread the awards around, so I'm kind of hoping for first-timers to take the CSK awards this year.

For the Pura Belpre Awards, I'd like to see the same book win both the author and illustrator award this year. That book is Maybe Something Beautiful, written by F. Isabel Compoy and illustrated by Rafael Lopez. Both the author and the illustrator did a tremendous job and I know at the very least that the book has been mentioned in a lot of potential Caldecott Award lists, so I know it has the attention of some members of the ALA.

Of course, I have no idea what will happen tomorrow. I can hope, but I've never been that good at calling this in the past, and I'm not usually that good at focusing on reading the books that came out in the past year anyway, so we'll just have to wait and see.

"I Funny" by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein

Before I even started to read this book, I wanted to hate it. I really, really did. I don't care if that seems unfair. I take issue with James Patterson's rapid descent on the world of children's books, his use of ghostwriters to write all the stories that he merely outlines and rigorously edits, and the fact that his name is usually the most prominent feature on his books' covers. I miss the days when the children's department didn't have an entire shelf dedicated to the recent offerings of a single person. On average, there are new installments from at least two of his series and a entire section of the shelving dedicated to James Patterson every time I visit a bookstore. I wish that he would give his ghostwriters top billing and change his role to editor. It seems like it would be a better fit. He could get his own imprint with a publisher. Then he could stop plastering his name across book covers in astronomical font sizes, that egomaniacal habit so pervasive among writers that come from the adult market. I don't have a problem with James Patterson personally. From what I've read about him, he seems to have his heart in the right place. He's trying to save the publishing industry from the seemingly inevitable Amazon monopoly. His writing methods are what irk me. They're what make me reticent to sing his praises. There, rant over. I'm glad to have gotten that off of my chest.

And now, I have a confession. I loved I Funny. For all my misgivings, this book was one of the most pleasant reading surprises I have had this year. I fell for Jamie's charm right away. I immediately disliked Stevie Cosgrove. In fact, I was hoping that Stevie would end up in jail before the story was over, the little monster. That might have been the one thing I thought was a little played out about this story. I'm kind of over the maniac bully character that too many authors plant in their stories about adolescents and preteens. These bully characters parade about in a reign of unchecked terror, and there is never any adult intervention. Stevie fit that stereotype to the letter. Jamie, though, was refreshing and unusual. 

The descriptions of his character might have been a little too reliant on phrases that children simply don't use, but I loved his depth. There were moments when I was thinking, "No kid would ever describe something that way!" but it was rare enough that I was able to let it slide, and I'd usually be rewarded for my tolerance with some glimpse into his inner psyche that would pull me into his character just a little bit more. Jamie had a reluctant underdog spirit that made him impossible not to root for. He sat on his backstory long enough that despite the main plot being reasonably compelling, I was dying to know his unspoken past before it was all over.

My other favorite characters were his Uncle Frankie and Cool Girl. Each of them played Jamie's go-to bastions of wisdom at different points in the story. It puzzled me that Jamie was adopted by the Cosgroves when he had such a close relationship with his biological Uncle Frankie. It's nice that Jamie had family like Uncle Frankie, but it was a relationship that tugged at the back of my mind as I read. Why didn't Uncle Frankie adopt Jamie? They had such a loving relationship, yet Uncle Frankie let Jamie be set up with a random foster family whose violent son torments Jamie endlessly.

Cool Girl, on the other hand, was the kid that was wise beyond her years. She seemed to come out of nowhere and just turn Jamie inside out. Everything she does changes Jamie's outlook on his life in Long Island. She kind of reminded me of Stargirl Carraway in that regard, so of course she was an instant success in my eyes.

When all was said and done though, I loved this book for Jamie's sense of humor. Jamie's defense mechanism for any mistreatment or sympathy he received was to crack a joke, and he had an endless supply of one-liners memorized. He also created his own material, and despite what you might expect to come from a middle school student, a lot of his material was alright. Though the book never shied away from its narrative element, the comedy was what set it apart from so many other stories of its ilk.

And so, I have to give I Funny its due. It was a good book. Though I'm tempted to give Chris Grabenstein most of the credit, I begrudgingly credit Patterson with playing some role in the book's creation as well. I'll probably read the other books in the series. As little as I like to admit it, I've been sucked into the Patterson fold with this series, or at the very least the Patterson/Grabenstein fold. I suppose I was wrong to want to hate it before I'd even tried it. Though Patterson doesn't conduct his writing career in a traditional manner, he can still lay partial claim to some entertaining books.

Oz, the Book and Movie Monster

I'm one of those oddballs who has read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and a couple of the sequels in the Oz series. Now, I know that in the world at large that hardly makes me unusual. Those books have been read by a lot of people. I'm not going to pretend that I have any idea just how many people that might be, but I know I'm in good company. However, among the people I spend my time with, I'm kind of alone in that capacity. Because of that, when I went to see Oz, the Great and Powerful with my wife and a friend, I was the only one who was quietly drawing comparisons between the book characters and the characters they'd developed for the movie. I knew being the guy that voiced all those comparisons to an unappreciative audience wasn't cool, so generally I tried to keep my thoughts on the matter to myself. In the case of this most recent movie adaptation, I was actually very happy not to bring it up. I was already aware that Oz, the Great and Powerful wasn't intended as an adaptation of one of the original books. If anything, I suspected this movie would do more to reignite interest in the books than draw comparisons to them. With that thought in mind, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was a beautiful film with astounding visual effects and a heartbreaking love story carefully woven into the plot.

A new movie is hardly a revolutionary incarnation for the series though. Oz stories have been produced in nearly major medium in existence, dating all the way back to the days of L. Frank Baum who dabbled in plays, silent movies, and various other formats for his famous series. Not every attempt to present the series in a new way worked even then, at the peak of Oz's popularity, and Baum was dealt many failures during his lifetime. Luckily, setbacks didn't stop his writing. He wrote the first fourteen volumes in the Oz series. That's twice as many books as J.K. Rowling wrote for Harry Potter. Essentially, Oz is the series that keeps on giving. And I like that. I also like that the series didn't end at the time of Baum's death. As terrible as it is to lose the original creator of any series, the decision to keep the series going with Ruth Plumly Thompson assuming the author role meant that by the time I came along to read the books, I had an overabundance to choose from.

This is a wonderful series to pick up today. Despite its being more than a century old, Oz is still highly readable. The text hasn't become so dated that casual readers wouldn't understand what was happening, and the plots of the original books are right on par with the popular fantasy series of today. Better than that, if you are among the growing number of readers that read electronic books, most of the Oz series is available for free online. Be aware that not every book will revolve around Dorothy Gale, Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion. While those characters do return to the series time and again, new characters become the focus in every volume. The Marvelous Land of Oz, the second book in the series, does not incorporate Dorothy at all. New characters have their own quests, ambitions, vices, and allegiances. Also, realize that the land of Oz won't always by the setting. Ozma of Oz, the third book, is set almost entirely in another magical land called Ev. Despite it being just across the desert from Oz, Ev is its own land with its own creatures and leadership. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz starts in an underground fairy world populated by vegetable people called the Mangaboos. Their city is called the Glass City.

All in all, this is the sort of series that you should try. If you're like many of my peers, the Oz you'll find in the books is a land that can allow that moment of escape when you need it. Not unlike Dorothy, you could probably use an occasional escape from the otherwise gray monotony of your lives. I know I do sometimes.

The Free Lance Trilogy by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

Most readers know the author/illustrator combination of Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell for their Edge Chronicles series, and rightfully so. That series is truly wonderful. However, Stewart and Riddell have collaborated on far more than that, and Free Lance (also called A Knight's Story) is a great example. Though it only amounted to a trilogy, it's a very entertaining collection that would be perfect for that reluctant reader who yearns for a rougher breed of adventure. There's blood, frightening villains, and a certain lack of sentimental wandering that many readers find profoundly off-putting.

It follows the story of an unbonded knight and his horse as they make their way through medieval life without the support of a lord. The knight has a strong personality and takes great pride in his free lance status, insisting that answering to a lord would only prevent him from doing what he wanted to do. Despite his rough exterior and his business-like approach which makes him seem more like modern police detective than a medieval knight, he is a genuine character that will completely win you over even as circumstances push him into one difficult decision after another.

The first book, Lake of Skulls, is decidedly dark and gritty. After unwittingly wandering into a rural tournament and unintentionally offending the local lord, a series of double crosses by some locals and some run-of-the-mill thuggery leads our protagonist, the wandering knight, into a perilous agreement to retrieve a cursed crown from a haunted island from which no one has ever returned. Our knight is adamantly opposed to superstitious belief, and refuses to accept that the curse of the crown exists, but he does begrudgingly embark on the journey to retrieve the crown. This, of course, is where the story takes a turn for the dangerous. I don't want to spoil it for you, but his quest to retrieve the crown is no walk in the park, and despite the fact that he succeeds the quest doesn't wrap up as cleanly as you might expect.

Book two finds our friend, the knight, in a big jousting tournament. He's the same bitter, independent character that we remember from his first adventure, but he's caught amid an entirely new crowd of deceitful swindlers. In this go-around, a money-hungry, corrupt nobleman is out to control the tournament through bribery and strong-arming the competitors into letting his champion win. In this book, there is a damsel in distress for the first time, not that the knight is all that excited to have to come to her rescue. In fact, he leans heavily toward letting her fend for herself. There's a whole internal battle for him about whether to do the right thing for him or for everyone else. I think the highlight of this volume is the squire that he takes on. He's kind of bumbling and goofy, but he's absolutely loyal and endearing.

The final book in the series takes us away from the jousting tournaments again. This time, our knight is hard up for cash and is escorting a skittish merchant from one city to another. His squire is laid up with a broken leg and Free Lance is on his own again. Of course, he's not transporting the merchant across your run of the mill countryside. Oh no, this is cursed land that is supposed to ensure untimely death to all who don't heed the warnings of an old legend. If you've learned anything about the knight though, it shouldn't surprise you that he doesn't buy the story despite his client's numerous pleas and warnings. After dropping the merchant off at his appointed destination, circumstances involving a new damsel in distress and some excessively superstitious townsfolk lead Free Lance back into the fabled field of death and an unintentional face-to-face encounter with the dragon creature from the story. Not surprisingly, a perilous battle ensues. Sadly, this encounter also brings about the conclusion of the series. Free Lance decides to give up the wandering knight life and settle down with the damsel and the newfound wealth he fell into during his fight with the dragon lizard.

We can hope for a series of stories revolving around the squire, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Chris Riddell and Paul Stewart have both moved onto bigger series since then, so these three books have to stand on their own. While they could support a few more volumes or at least a spinoff series involving the squire or the knight's child, I'm willing to give my vote of approval to this series without that. It's brief and bold, but also brilliant if you are the reader that holds out hope for a tough adventure with real grit. Free Lance is a singular sort of character in the genre, a medieval version of the Lone Ranger.

Wolven by Di Toft, OR I Conquer the Wilds

It was a weekend worth remembering; a disastrous attempt at building a fire with wood that just wasn't having it; a carefree jaunt through a flea market that redefined rockbottom pricing; an opportunity to dive headlong into a British paranormal adventures series about that most overdone of angles, lycanthropy. I couldn't be much happier. Okay, in certain respects my weekend camping trip could have gone much better. In others, it was pretty near perfect.

Let's choose to accentuate the positive though. That boils down to the number of stars that are visible in central Pennsylvania, good company making for good times, and Wolven by Di Toft. Before I dive into the depths of joy that Toft's book of a boy and his dog boy brought me, let me just thank my wife and my sister-in-law for pulling me along with them on their trip to the wilds of central Pennsylvania. I don't normally go for the whole roughing it angle. Don't get me wrong. I have no aversion to nature but, as Jim Gaffigan so eloquently put it, "I'd like to keep the relationship professional." You really don't get to see so many stars in my small suburban town. That was hardly the case in the pitch black of the campground I spent a few days in this week. The trick was finding a patch of sky unobstructed by the abundant trees to view the spectacle overhead.

In the daytime, between wrangling with an energetic niece and nephew (a nephew that could run even an olympic marathoner ragged), I read Wolven and what a pleasant reprieve it was. No vampire romances to be found in this one. In fact, neither of the characters are old enough to have any interest in that, though there was the one scene where the two of them were entranced at the carnival by a girl with a swirly gown and wild hair. Instead, this was more akin to Shiloh if Shiloh had been partially human. Toft writes a fair adventure, though I feel somehow uncertain after this first book. I know that there's a second adventure in store for those brave enough to plow forward, but I was kind of expecting the villains to be more lasting. You see, she killed all the baddies by the end of book one. Now she's going to have to introduce a whole new batch of rotten toads for book two. I suppose that's the way it works for some series. Each volume would stand on its own well enough that it wouldn't need a series to back it up.

We'll have to wait on that second one as I haven't seen it in any of my local bookstores, though it claims to be out and ready for reading already. In the meantime, I'm going back to the land of the shrouded night sky. I'll miss the constellations, but home is where your stuff is after all.

Well Wishes for Lois Lowry

Recently, I've been following the blog posts of Lois Lowry more closely than usual as she has recounted something terribly difficult, the slow decline and death of a dear friend of hers, Martin Small. I have great respect for her work and though I haven't read every book she has ever published, I've read enough to know that she is an author of great and varied talent. I feel true sorrow at hearing about this hardship. As with many of the writers whose work I've read, I feel a strange connection to her despite our never having met, as though we're distant cousins or long separated friends. I want to send condolences though I'm not sure that such a gesture from a complete stranger would be at all meaningful or even helpful.

I experienced something similar when I read about Jane Yolen's struggle with the passing of her husband. I truly wish that I could reach out to them since I feel that by sharing their writing they've reached out to me in some way. It's difficult not to feel compassion for someone who shared something as personal as a piece of their own writing. I feel protective of them, because I know how hard sharing can be. There is a degree of exposure that comes from writing that can't be paralleled in almost any other profession.

So even though Lois Lowry is a stranger, I feel a sense of loss for her. I wish I could take away some of her suffering. I won't be offering commentary on any of her work here. I've read a lot of it, but this is hardly the time for it. Right now, I just want to wish her well. I want her to know that I am going to keep her in my thoughts. I won't claim to understand what she's going through. I know that's unrealistic. I just want to say I'm sorry for her loss, whether she ever reads this or not.

If you'd like to catch up on the blog posts I referenced in this post, here is the link:
http://loislowry.typepad.com/lowry_updates/