Popularity Papers!

Back when I worked as a children's librarian, a publicist from Abrams (Jason Wells who is now with Magination Press) sent Amy Ignatow to our library to talk about her new series of books, The Popularity Papers.  The drawings are adorable and the books are funny!

This summer my 8 and 1/2 year old granddaughter discovered these books. She LOVES them. Although the books are about kids getting ready to enter middle school - and then in middle school - let's face it, our 4th graders are already worried about that inevitability. And if we can just dredge up those memories of our own childhoods, we will realize that concerns about popularity and the opposite sex are there all the time. They just aren't at the top of the things kids worry about - yet.

Yesterday, my granddaughter brought me Book 4, The Rocky Road Trip. I have no words to tell you how wonderful, warm, funny and wise that book was. Seriously. I will stop this post right here and just bask in the memories of that road trip to family members who are lovely and to family members who are NOT!  and the Fun Facts, and Bye Bye Miss American Pie and bears and ... ahhhhhhhh.

The family structures are not white picket fence. They reflect the times we live in. 'Nuff said.

I wonder if Amy Ignatow could be persuaded to do a reunion book. Maybe Julie and Roland could, I don't know, get Married and Lydia could be the Maid of Honor and Melody could be the wedding planner. Or is that too Hallmark channel for this series??

If you have a pre-teen, take a look at these books. Read them yourself. Amy Ignatow is a genius.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing - Read The Book

I am a stubborn person.  No one can tell me what to do or what to read - even when I know the suggestions will be "good for me".  This is why I have the second piece of pie.  This is why I play games instead of exercising.  This is also why Hank Green's debut novel,
 "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing" sat on my bed stand for over a month before I picked it up.

That, and the fear that the book would not be as good as I truly hoped it would be, kept me from reading the first line.

I read the book.


An absolutely remarkable thing happened to young graphic designer, April May, on her way home from work at 2 a.m.  She "discovered" a huge sculpture.  She called her best friend, Andy, to come over and make a video.  Within 24 hours, her life and all life on earth was changed. Well, a huge number of people's lives were changed,

The book was every bit as good as I hoped it would be and MORE! Read it.

Is this book about the identical robot-like sculptures that appear all around the world?  OR is it about the evolution of April May and Andy Skampt from art nerds into social media darlings?  OR is it about making money, lots and lots of money?  Or is it about how fame, money, stubbornness, the need to control, and the sudden acquisition of power can change a person? OR - big OR here - is it about how easy our communications technology makes it to vilify and inflame huge numbers of people based on what they believe and/or applaud?  Or is it about something else entirely?  Read the book.

The robot, April and Andy name it Carl, scares and delights people.  The world wants to know more.  April and Andy become media superstars. They share videos.  They get a  manager.  They rake in the money. April May consults a young scientist about Carl's weird qualities.  Read the book.  The scientist makes some suggestions.  Another person self publishes a book about the dangers of Carl.  A social media battle ensues.  Then there are the puzzles, lots of puzzles, starting with a song that plays in the background of Carl videos.  And misspellings on a Wikipedia page.  And dreams. And danger.

And relationships are formed and firebombed and people change and stay who they are. I'm not sure if good triumphs over evil.  Read the book.

I can not tell you more.  The book is exciting and twisted and thought provoking.  But it has so much going on in it that trying to recall it is like trying to recall a dream or the words to a song you heard once or twice in high school.  You have to      Read.   The   Book. 

And then, read the book, again.

3 Books - 3 Reviews

NetGalley sent me three e-galleys to read; The Wonderling by Mira Bartok, The Explorer by Katherine Rundell, and The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken.  I finished Prosper's story today.

 I haven't figured out how to download e-galleys onto my tablet so I have to use my first-generation Nook to read them.  This usually isn't much of a problem.  Today, though, when I got to the end of The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding, I thought my old Nook was broken.  I kept trying to get to the next page.  Poke.  Poke.  NO. NEXT. PAGE.  Nope.  Not there.

This is NOT Prosper!

Prosper is the descendant of Honor Redding, the founder of Redhood, a small prosperous village near Cape Cod.  His family dominates everything there.  He, however, doesn't do well in anything.  His twin sister, Prudence, is clever, well-liked and has recently been cured of a life-threatening heart ailment.  Prosper has been tricked, bullied, punished by everyone he has ever met, except his parents and his sister.  The only thing he does well is draw and his family sees no profit in that.

On the night of the Redhood's Founder's Day, the entire Redding family gathers at Grandmother's house.  This year, however, they have something special in store for Prosper and Prue - something in the forbidden basement, something that involves an old book, a fire and a sharp silver blade. 

The rest of the book takes place in Salem, MA.  Around Halloween.  Mostly at night.   There better be a sequel, and soon. 'Nuff said.


The Wonderling by Mira Bartok follows a small orphaned fox "groundling" from a dismal Dickensian

What's with all the foxes?

poor house type orphanage to a town where groundlings are oppressed and mistreated.  An equally Dickensian character takes our hero, who has no name but the one his only friend gave him - Arthur -, under his "wing".  (The character is a rat groundling - no wings.)

Arthur discovers the orphan mistress's evil plan and must fight to save groundlings, humans, EVERYONE from a horrible fate - the death of music and dreams.  Luckily, he meets a lot of heroic groundlings and humans - some are just adorable  - who want to help him. 

Bartok's language is almost poetic as she describes the forest, the city, and the dismal orphanage and the underground dungeons that the groundlings end up in. 
A sequel is in order.


Katherine Rundell never disappoints me.  In The Explorer, four children are stranded in the Amazon Jungle when the pilot of the plane has a heart attack.  Except for Lila and her little brother Max, they are strangers, all sent to Manaus for various reasons.  Fred, the oldest and eventually the leader, is visiting a cousin of his widowed father.  Con, a blonde belle, appears to be the spoiled brat of wealthy parents.  Lila and Max's parents are research scientists sending the children to the city where they will be educated, safely.  Ha!

Adding a five-year-old to what might be just a kids-against-nature survival story is a great idea.  Max complicates everything, from learning to build fires, to finding food.  He also notices something that leads them all to make the most astonishing discovery.

The discovery leads them to a most enchanting place, inhabited by a frightening, baffling secret. 

The book has that lightness that Rundell brings to everything, - a joy, and a fear that is infused with excitement and determination!  And then, there is a teensy weensy bit of inspiration tossed in there for good measure.  You might even cheer at the end.  I did.

Thanks for Raina Telgemeier

Tomorrow, we celebrate all the things we have.  We gather, with people we love, to give thanks.  Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a National Holiday during the Civil War.  The tradition has continued through the invention of the automobile, the telephone and manned flight; two World Wars; the Great Depression; the Civil Rights movement; The Cold war; peaceniks and hippies (Me!  Me!); the Space Race; the invention of the Internet; 9/11; reality TV.  No matter what is happening, we all set aside a moment or two to appreciate what we have.

One of the people I am grateful for is Raina Telgemeier, cartoonist.  I picked up Ghosts, her latest novel, and sped through it.  The story is a simple one, of a 12-year-old who has to find her way in a new town.  But here's the twist; Cat's younger sister, Maya, has cystic fibrosis.  The family has moved to a small town on the North California coast to help Maya's breathing.

Little do they realize that their new hometown is riddled with ghosts.  To Cat, this is horrifying.  To Maya, it is fascinating.  She has questions to ask the spirit denizens of her town.

Telgemeier does not sugar coat the realities of Maya's disease, or the strain it puts on Cat as she works to be accepted for who she is at her school.  Her characters' faces are so expressive, that often words are not needed.  This book won't stay on the shelf.