Tag: newbery

2009 Newbery Medal: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I would be the first to admit that I’m no Neil Gaiman fan (I find his books to be an acquired taste), but The Graveyard Book is one of the best books I read last year, and I’m glad it won the Newbery Award.

The story unfolds in a house at the foot of a hill, where a family has just been murdered. The cold-blooded killer methodically executes the sleeping family, except for one – the toddler, who manages to escape his family’s fate as he crawled out of his crib, up the hill, and into an unlikely refuge: a graveyard.

The book pays tribute to Kipling’s The Jungle Book, where Mowgli is raised by wolves in the jungle. In a similar fashion, The Graveyard Book tells the story of finding love and family in an unexpected place: the toddler, who grows up to be Nobody “Bod” Owens is raised by the graveyard ghosts and the mysterious caretaker Silas.

Bod finds plenty of room to grow within the graveyard, but the soon longs for the the world of flesh and blood. Little does he know that his life is still in danger, as the man who killed his family has been waiting thirteen years to finish the heinous task.

The book is a bit like a slightly more sinister version of Eva Ibbotson’s books, which usually have ghosts in them. I loved the characters in this book: they’re quirky and humorous and endearing. Other than Bod, my favorites are Silas (who reminds me of my favorite HP character Severus Snape) and Miss Lupescu, who turn out to be more than meets the eye.

The highlight of the book for me was the danse macabre, because it perfectly expressed the book’s major theme: the juxtaposition of life and death, and the celebration of both.

Of course, Dave McKean’s two-tone illustrations deserve special mention, underscoring the eerie atmosphere they helped create for the entirety of the novel.

Neil Gaiman announced on The Today Show that a film adaptation is in the works; that should be something to watch out for.

Perhaps I shall read another Gaiman book after all. I do hope this has a sequel.

***

(images from www.thegraveyardbook.com)

My copy: US trade paperback (harr, the UK edition looks much better)

My rating: 5/5 stars

If you liked Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief… (Holocaust review series)

You’d probably like these:

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Book #15 for 2009
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
Book #16 for 2009

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief was one of my best reads for 2008 (read in October). I waited it a bit to read it because it was really hyped about for a while, and I’m glad that the hype turned out to be well worth it. It was such a charming novel and I loved every bit of it, and I was crying buckets (rivaling the amount of tears I cried while reading Deathly Hallows) throughout the last third of the book.

The characters were so alive, and so lovable — Liesl, Rudy, Papa, Mama, Max — that you can’t help but feel for them. The most compelling thing I found about it was that it was told from the point of view of Death, which was so amazing — an abstract thing, personified! I never thought I’d feel sorry for Death, but in this book I did, especially in the parts when Death was saying he didn’t necessarily like taking lives, that it was just something he had to do… I’m getting sniffy just thinking about it.

I used to avoid Holocaust-themed books because I knew they’d i nevitably be sad, but The Book Thief got me into a Holocaust phase and I ended up getting other books with similar themes.

While not as lengthy or as deep-seated in emotion as The Book Thief, the three books in this selection are also well-written young adult novels, and offer additional insight into the Holocaust.

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas (read last December) is actually subtitled “A Fable,” and it reads like one too, with a matter-of-fact tone. It is the story of nine-year old Bruno, son of a Nazi commandant, who is bewildered at having to move to a new neighborhood because of his dad’s new assignment. They move to a strange place, where their house is the only house for miles. But when Bruno looks out his window, beyond the chain-link fence, he sees thousands of people in blue striped pyjamas. Unbeknownst to his family, Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy from the other side of the fence, and life is never the same again for Bruno.

I liked this book because of the truly ironic and ohno-ohno-ohno-inducing twist (I swear!), and the innocent naivete of Bruno is heartrending amidst the terrible events happening around him.

Now they’re making it into a movie — David Thewlis as Father, egads! — I’ve got to stock up on the tissues!

Number the Stars is a Newbery-award winning book by one of my favorite authors, and it does not disappoint either. Annemarie and Ellen are best friends in WW2 Denmark, which was trying in vain to resist the Nazi invasion. Ellen’s family is Jewish, and when the hunt for Jews begin, Annemarie and her family must do what they can to help their friends escape.

The book was not as sad as I thought, and it was in fact quite positive and hopeful — unexpected for a Holocaust novel. It seemed different from Lois Lowry’s Anastasia series, and I appreciate that Lowry could write books outside of the series, and win a Newbery while she was at it.

Finally, the biggest surprise came from Milkweed. I’ve never read any books by Jerry Spinelli, although I knew his work is highly acclaimed. I used to think his works were too street, but this one seemed different so I decided to give it a try (not to mention it was P10, hardbound, at Book Sale).

Like The Book Thief, it’s hard to explain Milkweed in a few sentences. Insert deep breath here. I would say it’s a hard-hitting story of friendship, hope and survival about an orphan with no clear identity, who grows up in Nazi-occupied Poland. I can’t explain much more than that, because it gets complicated, but it was like a precursor to The Book Thief (Milkweed was published 2001)– a blend of whimsy, poignancy, and stark reality — and I couldn’t put it down once I started it. I ended up reading most of it in the car on my way to a meeting in QC and then back again to the office (sometimes traffic has its benefits).

The Holocaust is one of the most popular topics for both fiction and non-fiction, but I’m glad there are more books about it in the young adult genre, as its target readers do not usually see history beyond textbooks and classroom lessons. This way, they see history from another person’s point of view, and share the reality that the victims and survivors of that time experienced.

***
My copies: The Book Thief, paperback mooched from the UK, upgraded into hardcover bought for P160 at the NBS booth at the MIBF; The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, bought for P40 at Book Sale, upgraded to hardcover with dust jacket from NBS Booksak Presyo sale bought for P100, paperback on its way to the US (mooched from me); Number the Stars, paperback, received as a bonus mooch; Milkweed, hardcover, bought for P10 at Book Salei

My ratings: The Book Thief 5/5 stars; The Boy in Striped Pyjamas 4/5 stars; Number the Stars 3.5/5 stars; Milkweed 5/5 stars

***
Phew, four books in one review!

Holes by Louis Sachar

Again, this is another book that I’ve seen since I was a kid but never got around to reading. My cousin Dianne convinced me to get my own copy after she bought hers, and I decided to read it one afternoon.
It turned out to be a pleasant surprise right from the first page.

Holes is about Stanley Yelnats IV, a kid who has the knack of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, thanks to a family curse cast by Madame Zeroni on his ancestor Elya Yelnats.

Because of the curse, Stanley gets wrongly convicted of a juvenile crime and is sent away to Camp Green Lake for some disciplinary action, except the camp isn’t all that he expected it to be.

Stanley is in for a great adventure that allows him to put the family curse to rest, find buried treasure, survive yellow-spotted lizards, gain wisdom and inner strength, and forge the friendship of a lifetime, along with a chain of coincidences and quirky twists of fate that are delightfully tied in with the story.

The 2003 Walt Disney movie stars Shia Le Beouf and Sigourney Weaver. Let’s hope Disney channel airs this one soon; I think that except for the body type, Shia fits the character perfectly.

Postscript: someone from one of my book clubs read the book recently and commented that it didn’t exactly present something new for the YA genre.

I think that’s exactly why the book is so charming– it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. The best young adult books for me are those that succeed without trying to impress you, dealing with issues its readers can relate to but still making it fun.

***
My copy: trade paperback movie cover, upgraded into hardcover with dustjacket
(I also have the hardcover sequel, plus Stanley Yelnats’ guide to Camp Green Lake in my TBR.)

My rating: 5/5 stars

Photos courtesy of http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk
http://www.tribute.ca

From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

This is a book that I remember seeing a lot when I was in Grade School at the LRC, but I don’t know why I never got around to reading it. Maybe it’s because of the long title, haha, or maybe it’s because the cover isn’t appealing to kids.

Most people have probably had dreams of running away (if they didn’t actually run away) as they were growing up. Haha, I remember I used to plan my escape when my siblings ganged up on me, or when I got scolded (except I couldn’t stand the thought of roaming around on the streets in rags, with matching gunky hair and kariton). I think this is why I liked this book so much, because it’s a story about two kids who run away and actually succeed at it.

The book has a Home Alone quality to it, except that they’re at a museum and there are no bad guys, but they do have a mystery to solve.

I loved that of all places that Claudia and Jamie could run away to, it was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art… Now if only we had a museum like that, maybe I’d have run away a long time ago. Haha, Jamie reminded me a lot like my brother, because he was the money shark and like Claudia, I used to be the brains that thought up ways of getting us into trouble when we were kids (uh, like the brilliant idea to polish the parquet with baby powder! boy, did we get punished for that!).

The characters are endearing, and I love that the book shows how smart kids can be, in a way adults would never expect.

There’s an old movie version (1973), with Ingrid Bergman as Mrs. Frankweiler, and a 1995 TV movie with Lauren Bacall as Mrs. Frankweiler. I wonder if I’ll ever get to watch those; I think the book makes for a really fun movie.

***
My copy: mass market paperback, wanting to be upgraded haha

My rating: 4/5 stars

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Thirteen year old Salamanca Tree Hiddle is on the trip of a lifetime — a trip that will reunite her with her mother after a whole year of separation. Together with her grandparents, she retraces her mother’s steps to Lewiston, Idaho, where her mother is.

On the road, Sal entertains her grandparents with tales of her new friend, Phoebe Winterbottom. And as she tells them about Phoebe, her own story unfolds.

***
I first read this 1995 Newberry winner when I was in high school. Many years later, I finally found a copy of the book and I remembered why I loved it so well.

The book mainly deals with loss, a feeling everyone is familiar with, and how different people cope and come to terms with it. Sal is so candid at telling her story that you can feel the truth in what she’s saying, whether they’re hilarious observations about the things happening around her, or her deepest emotions that she tries hard to conceal.

Here are some favorite lines from the book:

“Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.” – the lunatic

“Everyone has his own agenda.” – the lunatic

“Everybody is just walking along concerned with his own problems, his own life, his own worries. And we’re all expecting other people to tune into our own agenda. ‘Look at my worry. Worry with me. Step into my life. Care about my problems. Care about me.” – Gram

“In a course of a lifetime, what does it matter?” – the lunatic

“…I wished that my father was not such a good man, so there would be someone to blame for my mother’s leaving. I didn’t want to blame her. She was my mother, and she was part of me.” – Sal

“I had brought a chicken in from the coop: ‘Would Mom leave her favorite chicken?’ I demanded. ‘She loves this chicken.’ What I really meant to say was. ‘How can she not come back to me? She loves me.’ “- Sal

“Sometimes you know in your heart you love someone, but you have to go away before your head can figure it out.” – Gram

“You can’t keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.” – the lunatic

” I knew that sometimes you had to be alone with the birds of sadness. Sometimes you had to cry by yourself.” – Sal

“I tried to picture what the room was like and what room we were in and what she was wearing and what precisely she had said. This was not a game. It was a necessary, crucial thing to do. If I did not have these things, and remember these occasions, then she might disappear forever. She might never have been.” – Sal

“Our heads moved together and our lips landed in the right place, which was on the other person’s lips. It was a real kiss, and it did not taste like chicken… I felt like the newlY born horse who knows nothing but feels everything. Ben touched his lips. ‘Did it taste a little like blackberries to you?’ ” – Sal

“Ben was sitting on the front steps when I got home. He said, ‘I brought you something.’ There, strutting across the grass, was a chicken. I had never been so happy to see a chicken. When I asked him what its name was, he leaned forward and I leaned forward, and another kiss happened, a spectacular kiss, a perfect kiss, and Ben said, ‘Its name is Blackberry.’ ” – Sal

The book keeps you guessing until the end, and you realize Creech has successfully passed on some wisdom beyond Sal’s age and understanding, without making it contrived and artificial.

By the final chapters, I was crying buckets. It’s like finding an old friend, one who knows exactly how you feel. It’s beautifully written, wise, funny, and poignant, all at the same time.

***
My copy: originally a tattered paperback (got lost), replaced with another paperback from Book Sale, upgraded into a hardcover (library binding) with a tear on the front cover, also from Book Sale

My rating: 5/5 stars