Nightbooks by J. A. White

"Is it like you said yesterday?" Yasmin asked. "You afraid people will think you're weird?"

He nodded.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that happening with me," Yasmin said. "I already think you're weird. You can't make it any worse."

~from p. 80 of Nightbooks Advance Reader's Edition (some changes may have been made to the final print version)

Alex is in trouble. After sneaking out of his family's apartment in the middle of the night, he's been lured into the apartment of a witch named Natacha. Now, he's trapped in an enchanted apartment. One other child is stuck in the apartment. Yasmin has been trapped for a long time and she knows to work hard and keep her head down. Escape attempts are far too dangerous, and so is doing anything at all that makes Natacha angry. But, Alex can survive as long as he does what Natacha asks of him. He must read a scary story to her, every night. Alex has a ready supply of stories in what he calls his "Nightbooks". But, fear and the determination to escape are keeping him from writing more. When disaster strikes and most of his stories are destroyed, Alex knows time is running out. Can Alex and Yasmin find a way to escape? Or will escape lead to an even worse fate?

What a fun, creepy read. Nightbooks is for middle grade readers (Grades 3-7, ages 8-12, according to the publicity info on the back of the ARC) but this older adult found the book both creepy and delightful. I enjoyed the stories within the story -- the tales that Alex told Natacha to keep her and the magical apartment happy -- and the surprises that gradually unfolded as Alex finally learned why Yasmin avoided talking to him, the meaning behind certain objects, and the connection of Natacha to an age-old fairy tale.

Highly recommended - Children and adults alike will enjoy reading about Alex, who is charmingly weird, the incredible library in which he's tasked with writing stories, the stories within the story, and the tale of Alex and Yasmin's daring escape attempt. A great book for spooky fall reading.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

A Nest for Celeste and Another Quest for Celeste by Henry Cole

A Nest for Celeste and Another Quest for Celeste were both sent to me by HarperCollins for review and are both written and illustrated by Henry Cole. I thought it would be best to review them together. A Nest for Celeste was copyrighted in 2010 and Another Quest for Celeste is a February, 2018 release. Since I read these toward the beginning of January, I apologize if there are any inaccuracies in my memories of the two books.

A Nest for Celeste begins Celeste's story. Celeste is a mouse who has lost her family in a tragic accident. Alone, she's found her way to a plantation home and made herself a nice little room behind the floorboards, where she makes baskets from salvaged bits of dried grasses, wildflowers, and strands of colored thread. Now and then, she goes on a journey to the dining room to collect food dropped by the human inhabitants of the house. There are two vicious rats and a house cat, among other dangers.

Joseph is learning his master's art, drawing bird illustrations, while Mr. Audubon is instructing young Eliza Pirrie in dancing, drawing and painting. While Mr. Audubon teaches, hunts, and mounts the birds for his illustrations, Joseph practices drawing. After Celeste has a close call with the cat, Joseph discovers she's made a home for herself in his boot. He's always wanted a pet mouse, so he carries Celeste around in his pocket, talking to her throughout the day (although the author does not go so far as to let the human and mouse communicate with each other). But, even with Joseph to protect her, Celeste keeps getting into all sorts of binds. Will Celeste ever find a home?

I had such mixed feelings about A Nest for Celeste that I'm not sure whether or not I'd recommend it, although I think children can handle a lot more than we often give them credit for. Still, some of the things Celeste sees and experiences in this story (which is tangentially a view into John Audubon's world) are harsh. She sees one of the rats being killed by the house cat, just after being taunted by them, views a massive pigeon hunt in which thousands of birds are killed, and witnesses the slow death of an ivory-billed woodpecker after he's shot by Audubon to pin up, as if in flight, for illustration purposes. Adults will probably be aware that both the pigeons and the woodpeckers mentioned in the story have become extinct and that there's a message in each of these plot points.

There are also plenty of adventurous moments in A Nest for Celeste. I particularly enjoyed her friendship with an osprey who takes her for a ride in one of her baskets when she's in need of help, and a thrush who keeps her company in Joseph's room. Eventually, Celeste finds a safe and comfortable home in the attic, living in a dollhouse.

Iffy on recommendation - I'd recommend finding a copy through your library and reading it, before buying for your children. If you think it's not to scary and that the adventure offsets the violent bits, great. The illustrations are beautiful and look very much like Brian Selznick's illustrations. By the end of the book, I was glad I followed Celeste on her adventures but the first half of the book shocked me so much that I was surprised how pleasantly the book ended.

Another Quest for Celeste takes Celeste on an unexpected journey. After spending some time living in her dollhouse home in the attic of a plantation house, Celeste makes the mistake of falling asleep in a bale of cotton when she goes to fetch some food outdoors. The cotton is in a cart and the cart goes to the Mississippi River, where it's put on a steamship. Thus begins another adventure that leads Celeste from the steamship, where she is befriended by a kind old dog, to a forest, where she meets a delightful squirrel couple and settles down temporarily, to the log cabin home of young Abraham Lincoln.

There are a few really frightening moments that are in the same vein as those in A Nest for Celeste (the steamship sinks, a tree with a nest is felled) but the dangerous moments were, I thought, much milder in Another Quest for Celeste and her experience with young Abe Lincoln gives you a better feel for the historical aspect than the first book. You learn about Abe's passion for books and reading, what his home life was like, and his integrity when a borrowed book becomes soaked after a roof leaks during a storm. An author's note at the end of the book adds to the historical perspective.

Abe is kind to Celeste and she enlists her friends to help him out when he must work to replace the damaged book. And, then Celeste eventually returns to life in the forest. Although at the beginning of the book she yearns to return to her attic dollhouse, by the end she realizes she has found a happy new home, surrounded by friendship, in the forest.

Recommended - A much sweeter story, shorter, more focused on the history and friendship, I thought, than its predecessor, I really enjoyed Another Quest for Celeste. Both books are for elementary level, I'd say 3rd to 5th grade, depending on the child.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Alan Cole is Not a Coward by Eric Bell

Alan Cole is a "sapling" (7th grader) at Evergreen Middle School. He has just recently come to the conclusion that he's gay and he has a terrible crush; he stutters and blushes whenever he talks to the boy he likes. Alan's brother likes to beat on him and periodically puts him through a bunch of ridiculous tests, making him complete a list of challenges. Alan never wins and he always loses something in the process. He's getting pretty fed up. And, now the punishment for not completing an almost impossible set of tasks is . . . you guessed it . . . giving away his secret about being gay. Alan knows he has to complete the set of challenges, but they are incredibly difficult: learn to swim (in just over a week), get his first kiss, stand up to his father, figure out how to retrieve piece of paper from an impossible place.

An introvert who has given up on friendship because his brother has always worked hard to sabotage his friendships in the past, Alan sits with two boys at the "Unstable Table" in the lunchroom. When they eventually find out what's happening, they offer to help Alan. Alan is hesitant to call the other two boys "friends" because of past ruined friendships, but they're determined and Alan has made up his mind that he's not going to let his brother beat him. He tells himself repeatedly that he's not a coward. This is one of the things I absolutely love about Alan Cole is Not a Coward - the use of repetitive positive self-talk to help Alan deal with his challenges at home and at school, including an extremely dysfunctional family. The family scenes portray chilling emotional abuse. You can practically hear the clock ticking during the painful meal scenes.

Near the end of the book, there is a dark moment when it appears his brother has done the same kind of damage to Alan's new friendships as he's done in the past. But, because the boys from the Unstable Table really are true friends, they're willing to take him at his word.

Highly recommended - This recently-released middle-grade gem is by far one of my favorite books of the summer if not the entire year. I loved absolutely everything about Alan Cole is Not a Coward, the hilarious, touching, and surprising story of a boy who learns to face fears and challenges with the use of positive thinking, discovers the true meaning of friendship, and unravels the source of his family's dysfunction. I just can't say enough good things about this book. It's laugh-out-loud funny, suitably complex, meaningful, and inspiring and Alan is a terrific kid; you can't help but love him. Alan Cole is Not a Coward is Eric Bell's first novel and I can't wait to see what he comes up with, next.

©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Three mini reviews: In a Handful of Dust by M. McGinnis, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by M. Spark, Signs Preceding the End of the World by Y. Herrera

I bought all three of these books and don't have a lot to say about them, so I figured they're good candidates for mini reviews. [Note after writing the so-called "mini reviews": Apparently, I had more to say than I realized. Apologies for the length of this post.]

In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis continues the story of Lynn and Lucy from Not a Drop to Drink (link leads to my review). I never did find out what exactly it meant when I heard the first book was marketed as a "cross-over" novel, but In a Handful of Dust, like its predecessor, is not for the faint of heart. If you haven't read Not a Drop to Drink, this brief review may act as a spoiler, so be wary.

Ten years have passed since tragedy struck and Lynn had to make a crucial decision about whether to join up with neighbors to defend her stream or fend for herself. A community of sorts has been built up but now disease has struck the area and is rapidly killing off everyone Lynn and Lucy know and love. In an effort to save her surrogate daughter, Lynn decides that she and Lucy should walk from Ohio to California, where she's heard desalination plants allow for abundant drinking water.

Walking for that great a distance in a dystopian world obviously poses its challenges. And, some of the things they encounter are truly gruesome. But, that didn't bother me so much as two plot points. Both are spoilers but I can tell you that one of them had to do with the ending. It felt almost perfect and then I thought it was ruined by a decision by Lynn that made little to no sense. Beyond that, I can't say without ruining it but the ending disappointed me enough that I don't intend to hold on to the book for a reread. Not a Drop to Drink, on the other hand, was a 5-star read that I intend to revisit at some point. I'm glad I read In a Handful of Dust and I recommend it. I just didn't fall in love with it.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark has been sitting on my classics shelf for many years. I saw the movie starring Maggie Smith when I was quite young -- maybe 8 or 10 years old -- and it left such a strong impression that I've wanted to read it since I found out the movie was based on a novel. I'm presuming my copy of the book is one of many books that I bought from a salvage store when they got the remaining stock from a bookstore fire. That salvage stock was discounted so dramatically that it made a huge impact on the size of my home library. I've probably been hacking away at the books I purchased for at least 15 years.

At any rate, I chose The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie after ditching my first classic selection, earlier this month. Miss Brodie is an unorthodox teacher in a private girls' school. Rather than sticking to the prescribed curriculum, Miss Brodie tries to prepare her students for life by teaching a broad range of subject matter through storytelling and experience. A certain number of her students are known as the "Brodie set", the girls that she has chosen to invite to her home, to play golf with her, and to attend other weekend activities and whom she favors for reasons I never really could quite discern.

The book is told in retrospect by Sandie, one of the Brodie set who in later life became a nun. Miss Brodie's teaching method is often challenged and a number of people want to find a reason to fire her, but she's able to continue teaching for many years . . . until she's betrayed by one of her set, the girls she kept close and so completely trusted. As Sandie tells the story, the mystery of who betrayed her and why unfolds.

As young as I was when I saw the movie, I remembered the movie because of the betrayal. It so thoroughly shocked me that I've never forgotten it. The book was somewhat less shocking, maybe because of the expectation. I enjoyed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie but it's definitely not my favorite by Muriel Spark. That would be A Far Cry from Kensington, a book I've read more than once. I read Spark's memoir, Curriculum Vitae, back in the 90s and from that I learned that she had a teacher who taught like Miss Brodie, so it was particularly fun revisiting her teaching method

Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrara, translated by Lisa Dillman, is a book that came highly recommended by a friend who reads a very wide variety of international material (unlike me . . . I tend to stick a little too closely to the Anglo world). It had been sitting on my wish list for probably a year when I read an article that compelled me to go ahead and buy a copy.

Makina's brother crossed the border from Mexico to the U.S. when he heard that there was a parcel of land that belonged to his family. He never returned. Now, Makina's mother has decided the time has come for him to return, so she sends Makina to ask favors of three dangerous men who will help Makina cross the border and find her brother.

Makina is her tiny town's telephone operator. She speaks three languages (or, perhaps, two languages and a second dialect that is almost a third language) but she's discreet and never divulges the information in the conversations she overhears. She's a strong woman and knows she's important to the town because of the trust she's earned. She plans to return to Mexico.

But, when Makina arrives in the U.S., nothing quite meets her expectations. Her brother is elusive, the land the family allegedly owned clearly does not exist, and the crossing was much more dangerous than she anticipated. When she finally locates her brother and hears his story, she makes a startling decision.

Signs Preceding the End of the World is a pretty amazing book. Stylistically, it's very understated and minimalist but there's an immediacy to the writing that leaves you feeling like you were there. I gave it 4 stars because of one particular word that the translator used repeatedly, but upon reflection I think it's really a 5-star book and the translator's interference was its only problem. The word is "versed" -- a word that she used generally to replace other action words like "walked" or "exited" or other words involving movement from one place to another. I didn't like it but after realizing it was kind of a made-up word, I started playing a game, of sorts, trying to mentally pick out the best word that could have been chosen in its place.

My favorite paragraph:

Makina had no idea what so-called respectable people were referring to when they talked about Family. She'd known families that were truncated, extended, bitter, friendly, guileful, doleful, hospitable, ambitious, but never had she known a Happy Family of the sort people talked about, the sort so many swore to defend; all of them were more than just one thing, or they were all the same thing but in completely different ways: none were only fun-loving or solely stingy, and the stories that made any two laugh had nothing in common. 

~p. 79

Author Daniel Alarcón  (whose book War by Candlelight I read and loved in 2005) says Signs Preceding the End of the World is a "haunting and moving allegory about violence and the culture built to support and celebrate that violence." That kind of comment makes me want to go back to school to take the literature courses I missed out on. I would never have caught that, although violence is clearly a prominent theme. I'm definitely going to want to reread this one.

©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Front Lines by Michael Grant

My copy of Front Lines by Michael Grant was a very lucky find. I had already put it on my wish list when I happened across an ARC on a cart at my old library.

Front Lines is an Young Adult alternate history of WWII in which women are not only able to join the service, they're also eligible for the draft. The book follows 4 girls who enlist: Rio and her best friend Jenou, Frangie, and Rainy. Each has a different reason for joining up and the first half of Front Lines (Part 1: Volunteers and Draftees) is devoted to their decision to enlist and their training. The second half of the book (Part 2: War) follows the main characters as they are sent to the African front.

I thought Front Lines got off to a slow start and -- maybe this is a bit weird -- I was almost relieved because I had planned to send the book to my friend Tammy, thinking it would be a good choice to entertain her during medical treatment. We shared a mutual love of novels (and nonfiction) set during WWII. I don't know if she ever read alternate history; I've resisted alternate history, myself, but this particular historical tweak appealed to me. Fortunately, the pace improved and I got over my desire for it to be a book worth abandoning. By the end of Part 1, the characters had already grown a great deal and I was looking forward to seeing what would happen when they were shipped out.

The characters' stories eventually converge near the end of the book; and, there is some occasional narration from after the war. I don't recall whether the narrator's identity was ever made clear but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. That is, in fact, the only way in which the story could possibly be considered incomplete. Front Lines is the first in a series but it stands alone fine. I'm picky about series books; if they end on a cliffhanger, I don't read on. Front Lines has a satisfying ending and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Recommended - A slow beginning nicely sets the stage before the pace picks up. Excellent character development and some pretty exciting action make Front Lines a winner. I thought the author also did a very good job of imagining what kind of challenges women might have faced if they'd been in the military during WWII.

My only issues with Front Lines involved the heavy repetition of two words: "wry" and "fug" or "fugging". There were way too many wry smiles. "Fug" in its forms was used as a replacement for the more offensive f-word and occasionally it just felt wrong. For example, there's a time that someone shouts, "Ren, get the fug out." During that time period, "Get the hell out," would have been considered much stronger language than it is, now, and it just sounds better. There's a pretty extensive bibliography, so I was surprised and irritated by the author's decision to use a watered-down version of one curse word and overlook the fact that there were other swear words that were equally offensive in the 1940s but now are considered so mild that their use in YA would be considered comparatively clean, today.

Yeah, picky, picky. Sometimes little things get under your skin and those two word choices and their overuse really did get on my nerves. But, the book is a good one; a few annoying words were not enough to put me off. I especially appreciated the fact that one of the characters was a black girl from Tulsa, so there are references to Tulsa's race riot, a historical event that has not gotten the attention it should.


©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis
Copyright 2013
Katherine Tegen Books (an imprint of HarperCollins) - YA/Dystopian
309 pp.

First Sentence:

Lynn was nine the first time she killed to defend the pond, the sweet smell of water luring the man to be picked off like the barn swallows that dared to swoop in for a drink.  

Summarize the plot without giving away the ending:

In a dystopian Ohio with water and food shortages, Lynn and her mother spend their time growing food for the winter, purifying water from their pond and defending the pond from invaders.  There is a stream, nearby, but it's unreliable and the pond is slowly drying up.   Lynn and her mother are on waving acquaintance with a single neighbor and have two potential threats to worry about -- smoke by the stream and a gang of men who have attempted to approach the house.

When tragedy strikes and Lynn is left on her own, she must decide whether or not to join forces with her neighbor and help a suffering family by the stream.

HarperCollins has called this YA a "cross-over" novel and I wasn't sure what they meant by that, so I asked and will update when I receive a reply but I'm guessing it's not going to be advertised specifically to the YA crowd because it's not watered down or floofy in any way and likely will appeal to adults who cringe at the idea of reading a young adult novel.  Just a guess.  

Capsule Description:

Winter is falling and there's a deadly threat near Lynn's home.  It's up to her to defend her precious water source in a world where water is scarce. Is she willing to reach out to her neighbor and take the risk of leaving her home to help the starving people by the stream, or will she choose to fight off her enemies on her own?

What did you like best about Not a Drop to Drink?

I like books that are about survival in desperate situations and Not a Drop to Drink is a good one.  The  protagonist, Lynn, has been brought up in a harsh world and the situations that she ends up in are often gut-wrenching. But, she's tough when needed and, after she meets people outside her safe zone, she softens in the right ways.  She's a great character and the book is rife with tension.  First there are the various threats to her pond and then, eventually, when the people threatening her home materialize, there's an even bigger challenge to face.  All is handled well, with just enough quiet moments to develop the characters between tense action scenes.  Actually, having written this, I realize I didn't give it a high enough rating at Goodreads.  It's darn near perfect, so I've gone back and changed my rating to a 5/5.

What did you dislike about Not a Drop to Drink?

I thought the set-up was a little bit dull but it was necessary. Actually, what little I disliked was all necessary and, therefore, I ended up thinking there really wasn't anything I disliked.  Bad things happen in the book but while they're not necessarily predictable (therefore avoiding the trite), they have the ring of truth and are at least subconsciously expected.  I just can't say anything negative at all about Not a Drop to Drink.

Highly recommended - Well-written, tense, atmospheric, excellent world-building -- just a great book, all-around. The author beautifully wove interaction with excitement, friendship with tragedy, climaxing the story with a particularly dramatic action scene and ending with a satisfying wrap-up that takes place years down the road. I don't recall any bad language and there's no sex, so the book is acceptable for YA readers who can handle a lot of death and frightening situations but it's also solidly plotted and believable enough for adult readers who might be just a bit skeptical of young adult novels.  It is also heartbreaking at times.

Cover thoughts:  I like the cover.  The colors give it an "atmospheric" look and while the image of the house and pond aren't entirely accurate to the story (there's an antenna that can be used to climb to the roof, the house is larger in description than the image reflects, there is some forest nearby and there's also a barn), it works well enough.  Lynn spends a lot of time on the roof of her home, watching out for danger, so the figure on the roof is accurate to the story.  

I received a copy of Not a Drop to Drink from HarperCollins in return for an unbiased review.

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Still on a roll. This is the third review I've written, today. Sorry about that. I have to go with it when I feel like writing, these days.

Divergent by Veronica Roth is a book I just happened across at our salvage store in Jackson. I don't go there often and it's a rare day that I happen to find book stock in the store. In this case, there were a whopping two tables (each about the size of a card table) full of books and only two of the titles were even remotely interesting. My husband tried to talk me out of buying Divergent, a dystopian young adult novel that was just released in May.

I'm so glad he failed to convince me I should put the book back. In Divergent, society has been divided into five factions: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity and Erudite. Each faction focuses on a particular type of lifestyle. The Candor faction is all about honesty, for example, and those in the Abnegation faction work to be totally selfless. Because of their selflessness, the leaders of this strange world all come from Abnegation. But, not all the factions are happy about that and war is brewing.

Beatrice has grown up in Abnegation but the time is coming for her to be tested and to choose the faction with which she'll spend the rest of her life. If she chooses to leave Abnegation, there's no going back. She won't see her family, ever again. In Beatrice's case, it's a matter of either staying with the family she loves or being true to her nature.

I don't know if it's a spoiler to say which faction she chooses, but I'm going to put a spoiler warning up, just in case.

****WARNING!!!! The following may be a spoiler. I don't think it will kill you, but skip this part if you're worried.****

Having warned you, I'm not going to tell you which faction Beatrice chooses, but I will tell you that she changes her name to Tris and has to go through some very dramatic changes because she does switch factions. What follows is a trial period that is not only difficult but potentially deadly.

****END SPOILER WARNING!!!! You can come out from under the dresser, now. Or, wherever you were hiding.****

Here's the plain-talk version: There's this teenager who loves her family and has to make a big decision. She chooses the difficult path and is challenged both mentally and physically, meets a totally cool guy named "Four" -- who is just mysterious enough and flawed enough that you can't help but love him in an illogical manner. And, she finds that she has an inner strength that is beyond her wildest imagination.

Divergent is packed with surprising plot twists. It's stunningly violent and massively creative. I really enjoyed the world Veronica Roth created for its uniqueness but it was the fact that I honestly never knew what was going to happen next that kept me riveted. I didn't realize it's the first in a series. Wahoo! I'm going to continue to follow this series.

Highly recommended but be aware that Divergent can be pretty shockingly violent at times. There's a lot of death and fighting and nastiness. But, it's tremendously fun reading. Beatrice is an awesome, butt-kicking heroine and Four is a terrific hero. I can't remember whether or not Divergent contains any bad language.

©2011 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.