Best of...YA Bloghop

"Best of" Books is a bloghop hosted by Diane Estrella at That's What I'm Here For

Picking the 5 best YA books I have read this year is no easy task, there were so many good books to chose from.  These are the ones I finally picked:

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
I loved Code Name Verity and was hesitant about this second WWII novel, but Elizabeth is genius and has written one of the most gripping novels about a young American female pilot who finds herself in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp.  Rose Under Fire is definitely my favorite book of 2013.
Read my review here

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
This was just such a fun novel to read, yet it opens up lots of questions about the legality/legitimacy of fan fiction.  When twin Cath gets to college, she has a hard time making real friends and leaving the world of fanfiction writing behind, while her sister Wren has no problem leaving it behind for campus partying.  Both girls have reasons to escape life, but both have some coming of age work to do.  Fangirl is a novel very much of today.

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
This is an edgy novel set in a Nazi-like dystopian 1950s England.  Standish Treadwell, 15, is a severely dyxlectic teen, with one brown and one blue and naturally, the brunt of bullying at school by both teachers and students.  But when he befriends Hector, a new boy, things change.
Read my review here

The Archived by Victoria Schwab
This first novel in a forthcoming series introduces us to a library of a different kind - a place where the dead are archived to preserve their stories.  But sometimes they wander out of the archive and it is the job of Keepers to return them to the library.  That's what MacKenzie Bishop, 15, does.  She is the youngest Keeper ever and has some real conflicts of interest that interfere with her Keeper duties.  Great science fiction, and I can't wait to read Book 2.

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz
Imagine surviving 1 ghetto, 10 concentration camps and 2 death marches.  In the novel based on a true story, this is exactly how Yanek Gruener spent his adolescence and survived to talk about it.  Despite the horrors witnessed by Yanek, there are some read heartwarming moments in his young life.  A definite must for fans of historical fiction.

Be sure to visit the following blogs to see what their Best of 2013 YA books choices are:

Best of..Children's/Middle Grade Bloghop

"Best of" Books is a bloghop hosted by Diane Estrella at That's What I'm Here For

Picking the top five children's/middle grade books that I read this year isn't an easy task, I have read so many good one and there are still some that I missed.  But of all there books that I did read, I think these are the best:

Top 5 Children's Books:

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
This was hands down a favorite.  It was delightful and laugh out loud funny.
Read my review here

The Story of Fish & Snail written and illustrated by Deborah Freedman
Done is soft pastels, this is a charming story of friendship and taking chances, and some meta-fiction thrown in for good measure.
Read my review here

This is the Rope, a Story from the Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by James Ransome
A multigenerational story of a family and how one simple piece of rope connects their stories together.
Read my review here

Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber, illustrated by Brian Lovelock
Follow Scout as she leaves her bee hive to collect nectar and pollen and learn about the serious disappearance/collapse of bee colonies about the world at the same time.
Read my review here

Building Our House written and illustrated by Jonathan Bean
This gentle story follows a family as they change and grow and as they carefully build thier house in the country over time.
Read my review here

Top 5 Middle Grade Books:

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt
The Bayour Tourterelle is in danger of being destroyed and it is up to one 12 year old boy and two raccoon brothers to save it.  When it came to MG books, this was my hands down favorite.
Read my review here

P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia
This sequel to One Crazy Summer brings the Gaither sisters back to Brooklyn and new adventures in the pivotal year1968.  Williams-Garcia depiction of the times is just so spot on.
Read my reviw here

Doll Bones by Holly Black
Normally, I hate doll stories because I find them to be too creepy, but this novel has just the right about of creepiness to make it a fun coming of age novel to read.
Read my review here

Africa is My Home by Monica Edinger, illustrated by Robert Byrd
Based on a true story, it tells the story of Sarah Kinson, formerly Margru, who was sold to slave traders at age 9 and taken on the Amistad to be sold to a Caribbean plantation.  The Amistad Revolt on board ship changed her destiny forever.
Read my review here

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
This was a fun mystery about finding your way our of a state of the art library using games, technology and literature.  Clever and entertaining, I couldn't put this book down.
Read my review here

Be sure to visit the blogs below to see what their Best of 2013 Children's and Middle Grade choices are:

The True Story of Christmas by Anne Fine

It is Christmas Day and 11 year old Ralph William Mountfield has been banished to his room and now, he wants to tell us his side of what happened.

It all begins on Christmas Eve with a houseful of visiting dysfunctional relatives, including tattle-tale Titania, Ralph's cousin, whom her mother swears is "gifted" but most of us would just say annoying and obnoxious with her parents; twins Sylvia and Sylvester, whirlwinds of destruction who show up unexpectedly with their parents; Uncle Tristtam, troublemaker par excellence and who gives each twin a wrapped up half a brick for Christmas; Mr. Fix-it Grandpa, who sings to the dog while he "fixes" things; crusty Great Granny who has a snarky word for everyone; bonkers Great-Aunt Ida who had an imaginary visit from the vicar as he floated past her window that morning; and of course, Ralph's mom Tansy, dad James and older brother Harry.  Oh, yes, and Albert the boy who lives next door but is always at the Mountfields home.

So, Christmas Eve goes relatively (no pun intended) well - just one megatrantrum courtesy of the twins, dinner gets on the table, and later some rather odd letters to Santa are written and Uncle Tristam wraps his bricks.

Christmas morning - Ralph and Titania get some strange responses to their letters to Santa; the oven door won't stay closed so the turkeys can cook, and Ralph's mom makes Ralph's dad sign in blood a promise that next year there would be no Christmas relatives because they will be away somewhere in holiday.  But presents get open, and dinner gets done.

So how did Ralph end up banished to his room on Christmas Day?  Well, it all began with Aunt Susan's suggestion of having Christmas Quiz about the family....Need I say more?

 I was reading this book on a long train ride and somewhere alone the line (again, no pun intended) I found myself laughing out loud.  Anne Fine has such a fine hand with irony, a wicked sense of humor and is a master at plots and subplots.  You may even recognize some of your own relatives in her exaggerated characterizations of Ralph's family as he unravels his Christmas tale.

Not everyone will like this book.  But if you enjoy Roald Dahl, you will probably like this story.  And unlike the Wormwoods in Matilda, for example, Ralph, Harry, mom and dad do form a very loving family, and you see it despite the dysfunction going on around them.   Still, I wonder how many of us can count a few relatives that remind us of some of our own?  I know I have a few.

The True Story of Christmas is a short chapter book, great for reading aloud to your kids.  And I think you will find that amid all the sweet, sentimental holiday books that make you go ahh and feel good inside (and don't get me wrong, I like those as well), this is a story that would tickle even Scrooge's funny bone.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

When I was a kid and I still went to Sunday School, I used to love Christmas pageant day.  There was something magical about performing the Christmas story late in the afternoon, in the semi-darkened sanctuary that made the holiday and all of it anticipation feel suddenly so exciting.

And when I picked up The Worst Best Christmas Pageant Ever again after all these years, that feeling returned to me - but only until I remembered the Herdman kids.  What was I thinking, I asked myself, when I promised to read this story to the kids this year?

The Herdmans are every teacher's nightmare - pranksters, cigar smokers, firebrands, just plain mean bullies and all still in elementary school.  There's Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie and Gladys - one for every grade.  It seems the Herdmans were everywhere with one exception Sunday School.

But, after Leroy began to steal our narrator's little brother Charlie's lunchbox dessert. he made the mistake of telling him that he didn't care, that they had all the refreshments they wanted every week at Sunday School.

So the next Sunday, there they were - all six Herdmans looking for refreshments and instead of scarfing up goodies, they ended up scarfing up all the best parts in the Christmas pageant.  See, our narrators mom had ended up with the responsibility of the pageant this year and didn't quite have the same business-like savvy as that of Mrs. George Anderson and her years of Christmas pageant experience.  But that worked to the Herdmans advantage.

When she realizes the Herdmans don't know why Christmas is important, well-meaning, gentle mom-turned-pageant director actually takes the time to read the Christmas story to them, managing to actually bring it home to them and unleashing a fascination about Herod (and not because they thought he was cool) that inspired them to go get library cards and read about him.

Slowly, and differently, the pageant comes together, to the anger and dismay some in the congregation who resented the Herdmans taking over and the pageant director not doing anything about it.  And yet, in the end the Herdmans, in their tough innocence, have something to teach everyone about the true meaning of Christmas and that is what makes this story such a nice book for the season.

Published in 1972, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has held up remarkably well over the years.  Robinson has really capture the true spirit of the season in the Herdmans interpretation of the Christmas story - all the fear, the confusion, the anxiety and even the fear that Mary and Joseph must have actually felt.  And they understood the importance of what was happening, even if they thought the Wise Men brought dump gifts and replaced them with what they considered to be a more valuable, more cherished gift in the true spirit of giving - the ham the Herdmans were given as part of the charity basket they received from the church.

So take a step back from the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping and all its trappings and take a little time to read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with your kids.  You might be very surprised at wheat they have to say about it.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was purchased for my personal library

Serafina's Promise by Ann E. Burg

Living in abject poverty in Haiti, 11 year old Serafina makes a secret promise to her deceased little brother Pierre that she will someday go to school and become a healer so that she can save little babies like him.  She wants to be just like her hero Antoinette Solaine, the healer who tried to save Pierre.

The only problem is that Serafina has never been to school and her parents can't afford to buy the necessary uniform to send her.  And it isn't just the money.  Her family needs Serafina's help to get water for them several times a day, to collect wood and charcoal so they can cook, to sweep their makeshift home, and anything else a young girl can do for her parents and grandmother, Gogo.

But Serafina comes up with a plan and presents it to her father on their way to Port-au-Prince for flag days events.  He tells her to talk to her mother about her plan, but before that can happen, the rainy season arrives and a flood sweeps Serafina's home, village and even some neighbors away.

Moving away to higher ground, they slowly rebuilt their home using pieces of metal and wood that Serafina's father finds and brings home.  And he even brings seeds for Serafina and Gogo to plant herbs and vegetables to sell in the market and make money for a school uniform.

And finally the day comes when Serafina gets her new school uniform and begins school.   But then the earthquake of 2010 happens and everything changes again.  It looks like Serafina's dream of becoming a doctor may have become a victim of this terrible disaster.

Serafina's Promise is a lovely story written in free verse, which seems so right for a girl who speaks in very melodic sounding Haitian Creole.  In fact, the novel is sprinkled with words and phrases in Haitian Creole to give the reader some sense of what it sounds like, along with a pronunciation guide and glossary.  And perhaps because I have heard Haitian Creole all my life, I didn't have a problem placing the geographic location of the novel as many seem to have had.  The time of the novel just as confusing to me as it was to others, until that terrible earthquake hit.  Both of these are drawbacks to an otherwise lovely story.

But of course Serafina's Promise isn't about current events, but how those events beyond our control bring out the true person that we are.  And for Serafina, just 11, that is a strong, generous, loving, caring person.  Since the story is told by Serafina, we are privileged to know what exactly what she is thinking at all times.  Though poverty surrounds Serafina and her family, she never slips into self-pity.  Instead, she shows us what a loving family she has, how they struggle on despite despair, disaster and disappointment.

Warm and uplifting, you will root for Serafina from start to finish.  Serafina's Promise is an inspiring  novel not to be missed.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was borrowed from a friend.

The Visit: The Origin of The Night Before Christmas by Mark Kimball Moulton, illustrated by Susan Winget

By now, we are probably all familiar with the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" or a most people call it "The Night before Christmas" by Clement Clarke Moore.  And some of us may be familiar with the controversy over whether or not Moore was the real author of the poem.  The poem was written in 1822, and published in 1862 and has been enjoyed by children and adults ever since.

In 2000, Mark Kimball Moulton has a conversation with Dinghy Sharp, the great great granddaughter of Clement Moore and in that conversation, she told Moulton the story about the origin of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" that had been handed down in her family for generations.  Moulton turned that story into a poem and The Visit is the result.

The story begins in December 1936, when Dinghy, along with her sister, brother and parents were leaving their home in Michigan to visit their grandfather in New York City.  They were excited and awed by the train ride they took, by Pennsylvania Station (the old one, not the ugly one there is today), the tall buildings and stores surrounding them, even by the taxi and elevator ride they took - all such new experiences.

Once settled in, their grandfather said he had a gift to share with them.  The gift turned out to be the story of how A Visit from St. Nickolas came to be written.  Clement Moore was a scholar teaching at Columbia University in 1822.  That year, on Christmas Eve, his wife asked him to take the sleigh and go to the butcher before it closed to pick up a Christmas goose.  On his way, Moore began to think about the poem he had promised his sick daughter Charity as a gift.

As Moore drove along, he pondered everything he noticed - the sparkling snow, the bright moon shining on the snow, and the white bearded woodsman dressed in red and leaving fresh tinder wood at the homes of the poor.  In the end, his wife got her goose and his daughter (and everyone else) got a lovely Christmas poem.

When I was young, I had a Little Golden Book version of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" that was actually called The Night Before Christmas.  Regardless, it has always been a favorite of mine, so it was fun to read about the origin of the the poem.  At the end of the book is a hand written 1862 copy of the poem, which is owned by the New York Historical Society (and which I have been luckily enough to see one year).

Moulton wrote The Visit using the same rhyme scheme and in the same anapestic trimeter as the original poem, although sometimes I lost the rhythm while reading.  Still, for the most part, it did manage to succeed for such a lengthy story.

The book's detailed illustration are phenomenal.  They are done in colors that seem to evoke Christmas of long ago, including the warmth of a fire and the chill of the snow.  The detailing was clearly done with great care to get it correct for the time frames that this books covers.

Whether or not you believe that Clement Clarke Moore is the true author of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," The Visit is a lovely story to read during the holiday season.

This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was an E-ARC from NetGalley

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt

Last October, I attended this year's Bank Street Book Fest.  It was, to say the least, a literary star studded event and I had a wonderful time.  During the day, we had breakout discussion sessions and out of the 10 group choices, I chose Mini Mock Newbery, led by Amy Sears from the Teaneck Public Library.   Amy chose 5 books for a Newbery discussion.  There were Doll Bones by Holly Black, P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia, Courage Has No Color, the True Story of the Triple Nickles: America's First Black Paratroopers by Tonya Lee Stone,  Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool and, last and the only one I hadn't already read, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathy Appelt.

Well, I have read The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp now and boy, am I glad I did.

Living on the Bayou Tourterelle, in a rusty old 1949 DeSoto Sportsman car, A/K/A Information Central, raccoons Bingo and J'miah have just been promoted to official Sugar Man Swamp Scouts.  As information officers, their job is to keep the Sugar Man Swamp safe and they receive their information from the car's radio whenever lightening strikes it.  Should the swamp be threatened, these newest information officers are to find the Sugar Man, a creature Yeti-like in stature, who has been sleeping somewhere deep within the swamp for the past 60 years.  Trouble is, no one knows exactly where to find him.  In fact, no one really knows if he even exists.

Now, the rumble rumble felt by Bingo and J'miah tells them that something is heading their way.  A gang of wild hogs, the Farrow Gang, is heading towards the Sugar Man Swamp in search of the delicious sugar cane found there.  They will surely destroy the swamp and everything in their path to get at that sugar cane.

At the same time, Chap Brayburn, 12, has his own Sugar Man Swamp problems.  He loves the swamp as much as his grandfather did, but his beloved grandfather has just passed away.   And now Sonny Boy Beaucoup, who owns the swamp, wants to pave over it and built a Gator World Wrestling Arena and Theme Park with the help of alligator wrestling champ Jaeger Smith.  But that means not only razing the swamp, but also all the sugar cane and the Paradise Pie Cafe, where Chap's mother makes her living baking and selling fried sugar pies made from cane found there.

But Sonny Boy Beaucoup is willing to not do any of this if Chap can come up with a boat load of cash.  And in fact, Sonny Boy will even sign over the whole swamp to Chap if he can find proof of the Sugar Man really exists and isn't just the stuff of legend.

Suddenly, the Sugar Man swamp and a whole way of life is facing environmental catastrophe one way or another and all there is between that and saving it are two raccoon scouts and one twelve year old boy.

What a story!!  It goes here and there, gives the history of things like the DeSoto, the Sugar Man, Chap's grandfather Audie Brayburn, all kinds of dissipate elements and in the end, Kathy Appelt ties them together so neatly, you scratch your head and say to yourself 'why didn't I see this coming?'  And she does it all with wit that can be at time dry, snarky, endearing, folksy, and just plain old funny.  The Bayou Tourterelle (not a real place) is in Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico and you can hear the southern accent even if you are a tried and true New Yorker like I am.  What a master storyteller Kathi Appelt is!

One of the women in my Book Fest discussion group suggested listening to the audio book version of The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp read by Lyle Lovett.  So, I borrowed it from the library.  If ever a book and a reader were made for each other, this would be it.  Lyle Lovett's smooth southern drawl is just the perfect compliment for telling this story and his delivery of the important cadences that make this such a great novel are just spot on.  I found myself laughing out loud in public while listening to it.

Now, here's the rub - I was reluctant to read this novel at first.   Oy vey, what was I thinking?  This just may be my very favorite book of 2013.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book and audio book were borrowed from the NYPL

Heaven is Paved with Oreos by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Sarah Zorn, 14, has been friends and science partner with Curtis Schwenk for a long time.  Everyone, except Emily Enemy, thinks they are a couple and there's lots of teasing about it.  So Sarah comes up with a plan called the "Brilliant Outflanking Strategy" in which they just tell everyone that they are a couple even though they really aren't.  End of teasing.

But just before Sarah is whisked off to Rome by her rather hippyish grandmother, Z, Curtis tells her he doesn't want to live a lie by letting people think they are a couple.  Still, when her grandmother gives Sarah a journal to records her Roman adventures, Sarah finds her thoughts often turning to Curtis.  But does she like him in a "boy-liked" way?

Sarah has lots of time to think about this in Rome.  She and Z are supposed to be do the seven church pilgrimage, but after they see church number 6, things begin to get odd.  On July 14, a Sunday and also Bastille Day, it is Z's 64th birthday.  She decides to buy herself a new lipstick and to go off the see another church, but ends up sitting on the famous Spanish Steps instead - for a long time, while Sarah walks around alone.  Z spends the next day in bed, listless.  Sarah and Z never get to see the seventh church to complete their pilgrimage before they head back home on Wednesday, July 17th.

I can't go further without giving too much away, but you do find out what happened with Z in Rome and also how Sarah resolves her friendship with Curtis.

It was nice to return to Red Bend, Wisconsin and revisit the Schwenks, even if D.J. played only a minor, but important role in Heaven is Paved with Oreos.

I wanted to like this book so much, but I just didn't.  This is too bad because Catherine Gilbert Murdock's Dairy Queen YA series is really good.  There are some humorous moments, but I can't say there was any part of the book that gave me a warm feeling.  I think the journal style means that we are too focused on Sarah and her thoughts and, Sarah's voice just didn't resonate as that of a 14 year old.  In fact, it felt a 12 year old Junie B. Jones pretending to be 14, and grandma Z didn't feel much older.

In addition, the Oreo theme felt really forced and as much as I love Oreos, I just didn't think it worked.  It was really purposeless.

I was also a bit disappointed to discover that the travel book that plays such a big part of the book, Two Lady Pilgrims in Rome by Lillian Hesselgrave, wasn't a real book.  It would have been fun to read.  And learning the she and her travel companion were lesbians, made me wonder why that information was included.  For future use, perhaps?

Even though I didn't care for Heaven is Paved with Oreos, the fact of the matter is that Catherine Gilbert Murdock is a favorite author of teens, and I suspect more than one middle grader has read the Dairy Queen novels and they will definitely find their way to this book, especially with that very attractive cover.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from a friend

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis

Clover, a young African American girl, has been told by her mama not to climb over the fence that runs through her town and separates her house from the one next store.  But now it is summer and Clover sees a white girl hanging out by the fence.  Not speaking, they simply stare at each other.

One day when Clover's friends are over, playing jump rope, the girl asks if she can play with them, but one of them just says no!

Whenever Clover sees the other girl in town, they both watch each other, but Clover thinks the other girl looks sad.  Sometimes, she sees the girl out playing in the rain by herself.

One morning, when Clover gets close to the fence, the girl asks her name and tells her that her name is Annie.  Not allowed to go over the fence, the girls decide to sit on it.  After all, they weren't told they couldn't do that.

Eventually, they ask if they can join the jump rope game that Clover's friends are playing near the fence.  And when all the girls get tired of jumping, they sit together on the fence, talking.  The story ends on a hopeful note for the future that one day the fence will be knocked down.

The purpose of a fence is to separate people, to make sure that those on either side of the fence stay where they "belong".   But, in The Other Side, it shows us how simple it is to bridge a fence, and how it can even become the site of understanding and acceptance rather than exclusion.  It made me thing of the words "And a little child shall lead them".

Clearly, in Jacqueline Woodson's story, The Other Side, the fence is a metaphor for segregation.  It is a story about race relations in this country, set in the 1950s, judging by Annie's saddle shoes and the dresses on the girls, just before the Civil Rights Movement really came into its own and began to tear long standing, racial divisive fences down.

Added to Woodson's beautiful words are the realistic watercolor illustrations of E. B. Lewis.  Lewis always pays such detail to the subject of his illustrations, and The Other Side is no different.  These important visual details help us to situate the time of the story, yet oddly enough, because no time period is actually mentioned, and despite these visual clues, Lewis manages to give the story the same timeless quality that Woodson achieves.

The Other Side will leave you feeling uplifted and hopeful.  Don't miss it!

This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL