Doll Bones, Newbery Honor 2014

All right, in a desperate attempt to reboot for what, the millionth time? I'm back, and I've got another of the honors books. This one is one that I saw the cover for and read the description of before it won anything and said, "No thank you."
I've said it before and I'll say it again, kiddie horror ain't my cup of tea. But this book, this brilliant, brilliant book.
STOP.
Before we go any further, I'd like to give a slow clap for Holly Black. The kind that breaks into a wild frenzy at the end.

Yeah. That's what I'm talking 'bout.

She has done what many authors have tried, and few have succeeded in doing for middle grade fiction. (Others have probably succeeded, but I can't read everything.) She integrated modern technology into this book without making it stand out like a ridiculous welt. I'd of liked to see it go one step further, with maybe some internet usage. But that is explained away 90% by the speed with which this story proceeds once it gets rolling. Guys, there is a SMART Board in a classroom. I repeat, a SMART Board; and nobody gets excited, they just turn and look at it... because school, I guess. The SMART Board is such a familiar site to most kids in elementary schools nowadays that they look at it like any other writing surface thru the years. Moving on....

This is a pretty decent coming of age story. And a surprisingly realistic story, despite the kids following a quest they believe was set by a ghost girl. Yup, kiddie horror. This blew The Graveyard Book out of the water on the creepiness scale. I mean look at the doll in question:

What...

Creepy...

MAKE IT STOP!!!

So you spend most of the book wondering if Polly has perhaps gone off the deep end. Then you figure 'what the heck' and jump on the crazy train. But the longer you ride the crazy train, the less crazy it seems. You're Zach and you just don't know if you can ride any longer but you know that getting off will be the biggest disappointment of your life.

Someone needs to go over the moral compass of these kids to because running off, stealing a boat, and stealing bikes in the name of 'the quest' is a bad plan. I realize that heroes get away with this crap quite often in classic stories though so I'm letting it slide. 

What I cannot let slide is the awesome father-son moment that totally blind-sided me on page 206. Way too short. It ranked up there with Onion John in the father-son moments of literature, but was only a few pages. Yet I had to put the book aside for a moment and just breathe a sigh of relief.

This story is written to make you identify with Zach, but you know who I really identify with? The questionably crazy Polly. When I worked with kids during my college courses there were children that really got under my skin. You know those ones that are basically mini-versions of yourself: as in, carbon-copies. No one wants someone that is exactly the same as them to hang out with. You probably have lots of similarities with your friends, but it is the different little quirks that endear them to you. (Example: My best friend in college was heartless, you know, in a good way, but I'm almost sickeningly sweet and expect the best of humanity. People even said we didn't match, we are that opposite.)

It is natural law that opposites attract. Otherwise you'd end up marrying you and having little you-babies. And ain't nobody in the relationship want that. Anyway, Polly has a map of Narnia in her room, shelves full of fantasy books, plays little make believe games, and watches Doctor Who... I'm considering a lawsuit for Holly Black stealing my life story, I'll keep you posted. The character that I should love because we are so much exactly alike, drives me a little insane. She is one of those dear, dear, fictional characters that I want to smack in the back of the head and tell off.

Grammar has occasionally been dumped in favor of saying it like it is.

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, Newbery Winner 1933

Note: I somehow completely forgot to write this review. It has now been two months since I finished the book and... I had some brilliant ideas about what I was going to say in this post. But I've since forgotten most all but one of them.

Ahem. Young Fu's mother is a sass-master. (I'm fairly certain that is not a technical Chinese term)

I keep reading all these reviews about the women in this book being such flat characters, and obviously they were skipping over the parts where Young Fu's mother is absolutely brilliant. I wish I had a copy of the book here, but I'm telling you that most of her stuff was pure gold. Maybe I was just raised with the dry, subtle humor that she used. Because it wasn't in your face, rather it was the kind of thing that one says over a rice bowl, with one eyebrow raised and half a smirk being carefully concealed by chopsticks. She was hands-down my favorite character.

Looking back I also remember thinking that Young Fu is the luckiest fictional character of all time. He's basically King Midas without the unfortunate side-effects. Dude has a massive debt to pay off, runs away to the mountains and brings back snow. Sells snow as 'Dragon's Breath' and pays of his loans with enough left over for gifties.

I enjoyed the historical era that this was set in, gives a much different look at China than the 'Middle Kingdom' stuff one usually sees. This is a time of upheaval and transition, and the author shows that. Not only is the country in transition, but new peoples and customs are being introduced. Young Fu and his mother represent two sides of the conflict; neither being totally right, and neither being totally wrong.

Poor Unfortunate Souls...

It's sad, but true... there are books that I have started reading for this challenge and for some reason or another have... stopped. I still plan to read them, because I am a completist! But at the time it didn't seem worth the effort. So in an effort to be completely honest I'll reveal their titles to you:

Secret of the Andes - I own this book. I started this book right after reading Bud, Not Buddy for those of you interested in reading the review for that book go clear back to the beginning. You might be interested to know that Secret of the Andes is only 138 pages long. I tried coming back to it several times. Similarly you might be interested to know that I was more than halfway through (I can even give you the date, weather, and TV show watched on the last day I read it... I'm lame).

The Story of Mankind - Interesting, but not a real page-turner. I did not own this so it had to be returned. I graduated and haven't run across a copy since.

Rifles for Watie - I started but this was another library book that needed to be returned...

Up a Road Slowly - Started. Twice. I don't have the foggiest idea what to expect with this book. But it isn't gripping me.

Criss-Cross - Alrighty, I didn't get very far with this one. Like twelve pages. But it makes me very nervous just looking at it.

Shen of the Sea, Newbery Winner 1926

Hmmm.... I was actually expecting a cohesive story until I found the book and saw the subtitle: Chinese Stories for Children. Unexpected because the year before Tales from Silver Lands was the winner, apparently there was a taste for the exotic in the '20s. I found that I really enjoyed this book (though I don't believe for a minute that they are real folktales).
My favorite part was how funny the book could be. And they were subtle jokes, mostly clever wordplay and the like, in fact they reminded me of another old favorite...

Ittttttt's baaaaaack!!!

My favorite examples:
"Black fish scales covered his body; black feathers grew upon his limbs. Because of his color he was sometimes called Oo Loong. From that it would seem that Oo means neither white nor pink." ...that is the best definition of context clues ever.

"When Han Hsin beheld the soldiers approaching at top speed, there was no doubt in his mind as to what harsh errand brought them. He knew they intended to have his head. But Han, having lived so long with his head, had become fond of it, and preferred to keep it on his shoulders."

See? That's good stuff!

But there is the underrunning current of 'Look! See how exciting this is? See how different? China! Inventions! Chinese! Emperors!' While there is undoubtedly a Chinese style to these stories I should hope that anyone reading them realizes that they are not real folktales. When a character that only does things that please him is named Ah Fun you should probably wonder if maybe the author wasn't using -and I'm loathe to use this term, but for lack of a more familiar term- Chinglish. Pardon me now while I go gargle that word away.

Upcoming Titles

In an additional effort to keep myself motivated I'm posting the next seven (number until my countdown) Newbery Winners that you can expect to see posted here! In no particular order:
1. Shen of the Sea (1926)
2. Criss-Cross (2006)
3. A Single Shard (2002)
4. Shadow of a Bull (1965)
5. The Trumpeter of Krakow (1929)
6. Dead End in Norvelt (2012)
7. Walk Two Moons (1995)

These were chosen fairly randomly from my bookshelves... I actually have already started one and it is pretty good. To be honest though, there are a couple in here that I'm not getting real fired up over.

A Wrinkle in Time, Newbery Winner 1963

This one has been coming down the pipes for a while, a loooong while. I purposefully kept putting it off because I had no idea where to go with the review. Also, I know it is not technically Friday as I'm writing this, but I wanted to watch the film to give it the most equal comparing I could... I stand by my earlier advice - "Don't."
First off, what did Madeline L'Engle get right?
How about - EVERYTHING!
Her characters are among the most human in kid lit, I think at some point every adolescent girl more or less IS Meg Murry. If you don't relate to Meg you are probably someone on a dark planet... in which case, do you even read? And Calvin O'Keefe? I had once thought I only ever had one fictional crush but... I think Calvin might need to be one of my mental measuring sticks. Charles Wallace, he is a hard one to get a grasp on, purposefully though as he is supposed to be new.
Then there are the Mrs, Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which. When I was younger they seemed ancillary characters but now I realize that they are more secondary protagonists... and that the older I get the more I turn into some combination of the three. :)
(And of course there is Aunt Beast... whom I love in her uniqueness. She is everything an author could ever hope to create solely from their mind.)
The settings are wonderful. L'Engle is as fine a worldcrafter as Lewis and Tolkien; she can create two worlds where the primary color seems to be grey, but through words alone make them either good places or bad. But really the entire book can be chalked up as great literature due to her prowess with words, she is a builder and they are her tools.
Which brings me to the primary problem with the movie, as Aunt Beast would say, "Think about what they are. This look doesn't help us at all." Madeline L'Engle was a great writer because she knew the power of well chosen words, so much so that when she heard a good thing she put it in. Mrs Who is built upon quotes (every writer's' dream, a way to work in all those brilliant things someone has already said). And then there is the spiritual aspect of the book (which incidentally is not present in the movie), I really liked this spiritual part because it gave me something else to connect to, I felt like this world of science fiction and fantasy was so much closer. The movie was originally going to be a four hour mini-series. It was eventually cut down to a 128 minute movie... and I can think of no better example of 'trimming the fat' then when Mrs Whatsit asks Charles to translate what the creatures are singing. In the book: "Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise from the end of the earth ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift their voice; let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord!" A few verses from Isaiah do the trick, tying that world to ours in the process. What lengthy yet beautiful translation is given in the movie? "It's about joy."

ARGH!

Everytime I feel like I'm finally back in the swing of things I fall flat on my face! :(
I'm resolving to post every Friday from now on. It shall be so. Knowing that I have an obligation of sorts to fulfill might help me... consider this post my notice.