Book review - The Sound of Us

Title: The Sound of Us
Author: Julie Hammerle
Genre: romance
Similar books: Guitar Notes  by Mary Amato
                     Signs Point to Us by Sandy Hall
Rating:

Nice enough

Summary(provided by publisher): Kiki Nichols might not survive music camp.
She’s put her TV-loving, nerdy self aside for one summer to prove she’s got what it takes: she can be cool enough to make friends, she can earn that music scholarship, and she can get into Krause University’s music program.
Except camp has rigid conduct rules—which means her thrilling late-night jam session with the hot, equally geeky drummer can’t happen again, even though they love all the same shows, and fifteen minutes making music with him meant more than every aria she’s ever sung.
But when someone starts reporting singers who break conduct rules, music camp turns survival of the fittest, and people are getting kicked out. If Kiki’s going to get that scholarship, her chance to make true friends—and her first real chance at something more—might cost her the future she wants more than anything.

My opinion: What I liked about this one: Kiki is passionate. She has strong interests and doesn't let her opinions be swayed by others. She finds her own strength, not in other people but in spite of them. Her relationships with Jack and her former best friend don't end up fixed. They find a sort of stalemate, a potential for things to get better in the future. And while Kiki does end up stronger, her life isn't perfect. She's an anxious weirdo with only a vague plan for her future. She has simply accepted those imperfect parts of herself. 
What I didn't like: the cliches. Kiki is a cliche, a nerdy girl, mildly overweight, introverted, with a tv obsession and a semi-secret musical talent. Her parents are cliches, pushing their children to choose "practical" majors instead of the arts (though honestly, what's so practical about studying Latin?), setting ultimatums, overly concerned with what others will think. Even the other campers fit into an expectation for a performing arts program: at least one who is elitist and almost all cut-throat. It can work to embrace cliches if characterization is strong enough, especially if there is a touch of self-effacing humor. That's not the case here. Most of the characters were not developed beyond a basic profile. A read for an afternoon or two but nothing that will blow you away and ultimately forgettable.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Graphic Novel Spotlight: Bad Machinery

Bad Machinery series by John Allison

Bad Machinery is a middle grade graphic novel series out of Great Britain.  It is, to put it simply, odd. But the most delightful kind of odd. Quirky in a strangely endearing way. Allison combines pseudo-paranormal investigation with regular preteen concerns: crushes, popularity, siblings. The books follow two groups of students, one of boys and one of girls, as they investigate mysteries in their town. These mysteries usually have some unusual element. There is a heavy dose of humor in each book and that, with the extreme quirkiness, makes for a surprisingly enjoyable read. While these books might not be a good choice for every tween, for the reader with an unusual sense of humor they should be a hit.

 

 

When you can't find a good poster, make your own

I've been on something of a Harry Potter kick of late which is weird considering I haven't read or watched Harry Potter in something like six months.

Actually, this week's project is just as inspired by art as it is by Harry Potter. I was thinking about Magritte's pipe painting recently and, for no explicable reason, I got to thinking about Harry Potter. And this is the end result.
 

Not a portkey, though it could be

Pick 6: Magic

Spells, faeries, witches, giants. Magical elements seem to resonate with young readers and there are some really excellent fantasy novels being written for them. Here are six books published in the past six months that feature magic.

6 new magical novels

1. Crystal Cadets by Anne Toole and Katie O'Neil

2. The Door By the Staircase by Katherine Marsh

3. Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den by Aimee Carter

4. Believe Your Eyes by Cori Doerrfeld and Tyler Page

5. Red  by Liesel Shurtiff

6. Shadow Magic by Joshua Khann

Book review - Doodle Adventures

Title: Doodle Adventures: The Search for the Slimy Space Slugs
Author: Mike Lowery
Genre: humor
Similar books: Meet the Bigfeet by Kevin Sherry
                     Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
Rating:

Silly and fun

Summary(provided by publisher): Pick up a pencil or pen. Sharpen your imagination! Here's an adventure story where you, the reader, directly participate. DOODLE ADVENTURES: THE SEARCH FOR SLIMY SPACE SLUGS! marries the pleasures of doodling and drawing with the fun of a ripping good story. Like a visual Mad Libs chapter book, or a graphic novel where the reader gets to help with the graphics, it celebrates engaging, gamelike, fill-in fun for middle-grade readers.
Mike Lowery brings the fresh lively look of his Kid's Awesome Activity Calendar, with more than 65,000 copies in print, to the first in a series of DOODLE ADVENTURES—lighthearted fantasy stories where the reader first draws him- or herself into the story, and then continues by following prompts and adding more illustrations and doodles. The full-color book is sturdy paper over board with beautiful cream paper—perfect for defacing! Page after page mixes Lowery's hand-lettered text with illustrations and then lots of room for the reader's contributions.
Set in space, the book invites the reader to join Carl, a duck and member of a super-secret international group of explorers, on a journey in search of a very important grail-like object—a jar with an artifact that's gone missing. By the end of the adventure, you'll have cowritten a tale you can read again and again and show off to family and friends.

My opinion: This book would have been the perfect choice for my nephew about five years ago. He's a bit too old for it now but it would be a great choice for any wildly creative kid. The bigger the imagination, the better the end result will be. It has the potential to be incredibly creative, with ridiculous and mildly gross humor. It would be fun for a kid to complete alone or as an ongoing project with a parent. There's not a great deal of plot but enough of one that a kid could potentially enjoy reading it again, even after completing all of the doodles.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Book review - The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You

Title: The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You
Author: Lily Anderson
Genre: realistic fiction/retelling
Similar books: A Wounded Name by Dot Hutchinson
                     Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern
Rating:

all that I could have hoped

Summary(provided by publisher): Trixie Watson has two very important goals for senior year: to finally save enough to buy the set of Dr. Who figurines at the local comic books store, and to place third in her class and knock Ben West--and his horrendous new mustache that he spent all summer growing--down to number four.
Trixie will do anything to get her name ranked over Ben's, including give up sleep and comic books--well, maybe not comic books--but definitely sleep. After all, the war of Watson v. West is as vicious as the Doctor v. Daleks and Browncoats v. Alliance combined, and it goes all the way back to the infamous monkey bars incident in the first grade. Over a decade later, it's time to declare a champion once and for all.
The war is Trixie's for the winning, until her best friend starts dating Ben's best friend and the two are unceremoniously dumped together and told to play nice. Finding common ground is odious and tooth-pullingly-painful, but Trixie and Ben's cautious truce slowly transforms into a fandom-based tentative friendship. When Trixie's best friend gets expelled for cheating and Trixie cries foul play, however, they have to choose who to believe and which side they're on--and they might not pick the same side.

My opinion: Never have I read a Shakespeare retelling that so deftly recreates the bard's wit and word play. The back and forth between Ben and Trixie is nothing short of marvelous. Anderson had me thoroughly hooked from the very first sentence. I liked the addition of the cheating scandal as an academic situation rather than a romantic one. A) It makes the eventual romantic reunion easier to accept in modern culture (imagine the outcry if a girl in a book took her boyfriend back after he called her a cheater and publicly shamed her). B) It gives the whole story a little extra depth. Now the danger of a retelling with close adherence to the plot of the source material, is in this book, is predictability. If we know the source plot well we can predict where this book will go. And this book was pretty true to Shakespeare. So I was a little annoyed and befuddled when it became apparent that the John character was not the mastermind. The divergence made more sense in the context of these particular characters, but it was still and adjustment. The best part of the book, to my mind, is the serious level of nerd-love. The characters are dedicated nerds, celebrating all manner of comics, sci-fi, fantasy, and educational fields. Some of them care about sports, pop music, popularity, and fashion, dismissing the notion that such things are for the shallow and "normal" teens. A good choice for most teens, fans of Shakespeare or no.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Picture books for everyone

Nobody Likes a Goblin by Ben Hatke

The plot of this book is easy enough for even very young listeners to understand. The narration is simple enough that it holds up to repeat readings. Where it really shines, though, is in the illustration. Hatke includes and impressive level of detail in every illustration. Each page is complex with the main events in the foreground and usually some minor events happening unexplained in the background. This means that there is plenty to explore on every page. Add in the subversion of the usual fairy tale/fantasy character roles and this book is likely to delight most young readers and their parents as well.
 
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley