Review: Love, Aubrey - Suzanne LaFleur

Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur Ages 9+ 244 pages Wendy Lamb Books, June 2009

(spoilers)

Aubrey wakes to a world that has changed overnight -- again.  Her mother has run off, following the accidental death of Aubrey's father and little sister, leaving her alone in the house.  It's a haunting beginning to a story about healing and trust following a devastating experience.

Speaking as one who's recovered from major trauma, Suzanne LaFleur has hit the emotional and physical sensations right on the head.  Aubrey has persistent stomach pain and nausea when she remembers her family.  The way she deals with food is directly related to her inner peace, until at last she is able to accept the feeling of "food... heavy in my stomach" (p. 205) just as she is able to accept love from others, both Grandma and her friend Bridget.

The story steps carefully through Aubrey's healing and shows from the inside out how she begins to trust again.  Even greater than her pain is her need for a parent who loves her, and a family that belongs together.  It is remarkable how she manages to find both by the end of the book, but in different places and with different people.  There were several points at which the story could have been resolved, but LaFleur followed through and tied up all the loose ends, which made for an even more satisfying ending.

In other reviews, readers have named it as a teen novel, but I think it is very middle grade, even though the issues are heavy.  The things she is going through as an 11 year old girl will resonate with older readers, but there is nothing inappropriate about it for younger readers.  I can think of several fourth graders I'd recommend it to.  

Love, Aubrey is a first novel that does not read like a first novel.  I felt like I was reading a Patricia Reilly Giff -- familiar and expertly crafted, solidly paced, with characters that read like real people snipped right out of their lives and pasted onto the page.  Certain scenes, such as that in which Aubrey and her grandmother go roller skating, include every perfect detail to recreate the experience for the reader.  I am definitely looking forward to more from LaFleur.

Favorite quote: "Meatloaf is better left over."

Shortlisted for the Waterstone Children's Book Prize,

Ratings

• Awesomeness: 7 - a very fine story!
  
• Wordsmithing: 7 - read like a straightforward realistic fiction novel, with food metaphors that packed a punch
  
• Personages: 7 - I cheered for Aubrey and felt the realism in every flashback she had with her family
  
• Mesmerizitude: 7 - I was surprised by its length when I was done -- it didn't feel like 250 pages

Other Reviews

• at Persnickety Snark
• at Vulpes Libres
• at Becky's Book Reviews
• at The Well-Read Child
• at Semicolon
• at Book Nut
• at Jen Robinson's Book Page
• at Garden of Books (For Teens)
• at Readingjunky's Reading Roost
• at Peaceful Reader

2010 Challenge: Blogroll Roulette

This is the second of twelve mini-challenges as part of the very clever Take Another Chance challenge over at Find Your Next Book Here:

Challenge Description: Find a blogroll at either your book blog or a book blog you like that has at least 15 book blogs on it. Go to Random.org and, using the True Random Number Generator, enter the number 1 for the min. and 15 for the max. and then hit generate. Then find the blog that is that number on the blogroll you selected. (For example, if you get 10 at Random.org, then count down the list of blogs until you get to the tenth one). Go to that blog and pick a book to read from the books that they have reviewed on their blog. Read it and write a post about it. Be sure to link to the blog post you picked the book from!

I don't have a blogroll on my blog, so I chose the POC Reading Challenge blogroll, hoping that it would lead me to a book about POC to read.  My random number generator gave me 12; blog #12 in the list was Brown Girl Speaks -- yes!  I love that blog.  I searched recent posts for a middle grade book, since that's my focus, or failing that, a YA book.  I found If You Come Softly by Woodson, which I already have on my YA Challenge pile.  Score!  

I'm scheduled to read this one in August, so I'll write my review then.

iPad - the birth of the picture ebook?

I am so excited about the launch of the iPad.  http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Of course, I'm a total Mac geek and a faithful iPhone user.  I'm happy with my iPhone for just about everything... except I just can't see the possibility of graphic picture books on such a tiny screen.  And now...

I watched the whole 2 hour Keynote presentation on the Apple web site.  Everything it can do is pretty -- but I really sat up and took notice when it came to iBooks, their eBook platform.  Using the 2-page view, you can see both pages of a book.  

9" screen, 1.5 lbs.  This is really going to make picture eBooks possible.  I think this is going to be a core strength of this device -- once the price comes down a bit, that is.

Booking Through Thursday: Twisty

Here's the question for this week's Booking Through Thursday:

1. Do YOU like books with complicated plots and unexpected endings?

2. What book with a surprise ending is your favorite? Or your least favorite?

I love unexpected endings, but not complicated plots.  I can deal with a bunch of characters if there is good dialogue.  I can't handle a ton of description if there are lots of characters, though, because I "see" the characters through their actions, like a movie.  

I am very fond of Holes for the surprise ending.  =)

Sorry for the short post.  I have to be up at 5:30 for the second day in a row to drive a friend to the airport.

2010 Challenge: Take Another Chance

This is a very cool challenge: the Take Another Chance Challenge from Find Your Next Book Here.  The description is very complicated, so I would suggest going to the web site and reading about it there.  I'll be posting a separate post for each mini-challenge.

Challenge 1: Read Your Doppelganger

Review: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice - Philip Hoose

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose Ages 10 and up 133 pages Melanie Kroupa Books, January 2009

This is my first Nonfiction Monday post in a long while, and my first time participating in the actual event.  You can find today's roundup at Playing By The Book.

Many young readers easily sort themselves into two categories: those who prefer fiction and those who prefer nonfiction.  I can really only say I've met a handful who bridge these categories without any effort.  If I'm trying to get a fiction reader to try some nonfiction, or vice versa, I often go the biography route.  Even non-narrative biographies can be compelling reading.

As a young reader, I definitely fit into the former category, though I did love me some joke books and folklore ephemera.  Even now, I have a hard time picking up a nonfiction picture book when I could choose a fiction one.  Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice sat on my shelf for mmmrrph weeks before I finally looked at my calendar, sighed, and scheduled it for review this week.

Can I just say?  Compelling doesn't begin to cut it. Really.  As in, I'm putting all Hoose's books on my to-read pile NOW.

For those of you who, like me, have been lured away from the nonfiction side of the library by your When You Reach Mes and Homer P. Figgs, this book is an account of a little-known hero of the civil rights struggle.  Claudette Colvin was a teenager who was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for not relinquishing her seat on the bus -- eight months before Rosa Parks.  Colvin played a pivotal role in the little-known case of Browder v. Gayle, in which she and four other African-Americans successfully sued the city of Montgomery, claiming bus segregation laws were unconstitutional.

Colvin has largely been quiet about her role in the civil rights movement until recently; although she does appear in books, there are no other sources for young readers which quote her directly or provide this level of detail into her involvement.  Young people who read about the history of civil rights for African-Americans may never have known that a teenager could, and did, do so much for the movement.  Reading this book may very well provide a huge breakthrough for students who may be interested in participating on a personal level in social justice.

Hoose has compiled a winning collection of artifacts, quotes and historical data and interspersed it seamlessly with Colvin's own account of her experiences in the Montgomery bus boycott and court proceedings.  I wish student textbooks were written this way.  I mean, really, can't we just toss our dead white guy books in favor of a collection of award-winning, compelling nonfiction like this??

My only struggle here is knowing to whom I can recommend this book.  I think many of my fifth graders could and would enjoy it, with some guidance through some of the bits on teen pregnancy, but I doubt they'll pick it up without a lot of prodding.  All my teachers, of course, but who has time to read nonfiction?  I showed it to my principal today with a 20 cent review and she said, "Hmmm, looks kind of long."  Yeah.  True.  But really, those 133 pages (yes, I even read the notes at the end) just flew by.  I'm hoping my booktalks and reading aloud bits will lure in those students for whom nonfiction is an unexplored territory.  Maybe I'll even make some converts.  After all, you got me, Philip Hoose.

A Newbery Honor book, a finalist for the YALSA Award for Nonfiction for Young Adults, a Sibert Honor book and winner of the National Book Award.

Ratings

• Awesomeness: 9 - solid journalism, compelling original material and thoughtful analysis
  
• Wordsmithing: 8 - reads smoothly, especially for a nonfiction title
  
• Mesmerizitude: 8 - some important a-has about the civil rights movement as a whole and the bus boycott, Parks and MLK in particular
  
• Illustrations: 8 - my favorite photo is Rosa Parks on page 42
  
• Factfulness: 10 - and how often does one find a truly NEW addition to civil rights historical literature?
  

Other Reviews

• at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy
• at Reading Rants
• at Becky's Book Reviews
• at nomadreader
• at Rasco from RIF
• Leave a comment if I forgot your review!

Booking Through Thursday: Favorite Unknown

This post is part of the Booking Through Thursday meme.

Who’s your favorite author that other people are NOT reading? The one you want to evangelize for, the one you would run popularity campaigns for? The author that, so far as you’re concerned, everyone should be reading–but that nobody seems to have heard of. You know, not JK Rowling, not Jane Austen, not Hemingway–everybody’s heard of them. The author that you think should be that famous and can’t understand why they’re not…

Picture book author: Robert Munsch.   I have the joy of introducing students to Robert Munsch every year.  Because he's Canadian, kids often don't see his books in bookstores in the States. The only Munsch title they are likely to be familiar with is Love You Forever, which is, needless to say, not funny.  He's the one who hooks even the most reluctant listener into gales of laughter.


Chapter book author: William Sleator.  Kids are always asking for scary books.  They eat up the Goosebumps and Michigan/American Chillers and Alvin Schwartz folktale series.  As they get older, I point to this author and whisper, "He's scarier than anything you've ever read."  Interstellar Pig?  Nightmare-inducing.  The Boxes?  Brrrr.   House of Stairs?  Creepy beyond belief.

Teen author: Julian Thompson.  I was obsessed with The Grounding of Group 6 as a teen.  I didn't read any of Thompson's other books until I was in my 20s, but when I did I was pleased to read they were as quirky and strangely compelling as my original obsession.

What authors do you love that no one's heard of?