I must admit I first chose this book because of its lovely cover: a hummingbird noses a pretty pink flower on a background of lavender and green.   And the inside is just as sweet.  This book has been described as “Steel Magnolias” meets “The Help”, but I think it reminds me more of “The Secret Life of Bees”.

 CeeCee Honeycutt is twelve years old and has spent her life dealing with her mentally ill mother and absent father.  After her mother dies tragically, her great aunt Tootie sweeps in and takes CeeCee to live with her in Savannah .  Tootie is a rich widow, and CeeCee lives in the luxury of a gorgeous southern mansion, complete with a beautiful garden, a loving housekeeper who is a great cook, and an assortment of eccentric women friends of her aunt.

 This lacks the depth of “Bees”, though. Aunt Tootie is almost too good to be true, as is Oletta, her housekeeper.  Conflicts that arise are easily and perhaps unrealistically solved.  Even the annoying neighbor is not quite bad enough to deserve everyone’s hatred and the accident that befalls her – she’s stupid and silly, but not really evil.

And yet I found myself looking forward to picking up the book.  It was like grabbing a rocking chair on Aunt Tootie’s porch and observing her garden and lady friends -full of color and warmth and contentedness.

Author Helen Frost must be a genius.  In her new book Crossing Stones, not only has she written a beautifully sensitive portrayal of two Michigan farm families during World War I, but she has done it in a "cupped-hand sonnet" form.  This is a 14-line poem in which the first line rhymes with the last line, the second line rhymes with the second-to-last, and so on, so that the 7th and 8th lines rhyme with each other at the poem's center.  In addition, the poems themselves are arranged as "stepping stones", or as the flowing creek that separates the Norman and Jorgenson family farms.  However, this structure does not detract from the lovely language that envelops the reader and that draws the reader into this story of love, heartache, acceptance and friendship.  The book also imparts a lot of American history that is not seen in too much teen fiction - World War I and its aftermath, and the woman's suffrage movement.  Highly recommended.

Teen Ink Workshop by  Lara Zielin, author of Donut Days.
Saturday,  January 30, 2010 3:00 – 5:30

 Do you have a poem, story, or even a novel that you want to share with the world? But do you wonder how you, as a teen, go about getting something published? Never fear! Author Lara Zielin has tips and tricks for teens who want to take the first steps toward getting their work into the public eye. From figuring out the right market to contacting editors to avoiding publishing scams, Lara has the right road map for young writers, using examples from her own writing journey. In conjunction with the workshop, Lara will also be doing a reading from her debut novel, DONUT DAYS.

Anthony Horowitz talks faster than anyone I have ever heard.  After 45 minutes of intense listening, I was exhausted!  But he was also funny and very entertaining.  I was happy to hear him, along with some die-hard Alex Rider fans from our Teen Advisory Board.  Horowitz spoke about how he came up with names for his characters, his least favorite character, how his sons help in  his work, and how he got some of his ideas.  I was surprised when he said that at the beginning of the series  he wasn't going to have any gadgets in the series because he didn't want it to copy James Bond.  I'm glad he changed his mind - I think most of us like that part.  My favorite part was when he said emphatically that reading is not passive - the reader is in collaboration with the author to discover new ideas. (I wish my parents thought that when I was a kid and reading all the time - they would give me more chores since I "wasn't doing anything" ).  Did you go to hear Anthony Horowitz?  What was your favorite part?  What did you think?  Add your comments, below.

Do you like the Stormbreaker series?  Are you an Alex Rider fan?  Well, you will be excited to learn that author Anthony Horowitz is coming to town!  And the Teen Advisory Board is going!  You are invited to meet us there.  He will be at Schuler Books in Okemos on Thursday November 19 at 6:30 pm to celebrate the release of his latest book in the series: Crocodile Tears.

Teen Advisory Board members will be meeting at the store at 6:00.  Please join us and we'll sit together to  listen to the author.  He will be signing books after his talk, so bring your favorite title, or buy one at the store.

About 7 years ago, when the first book, Stormbreaker, was published, I won a contest where the prize was having Anthony Horowitz join our book discussion by telephone.  He called our Parent/Son Book Group and answered questions from us.  He was really nice!  I am looking forward to seeing him in person.

See you at Schuler's!

We had a great discussion about Joan Silber's book, The Size of the World.  A special thanks to Sam Singh for coming and giving us his perspectives on the book and some great stories about his trip.  Here is Sam's web page if you'd like to read more about his travels.

I think everyone liked the book.  You can find other books by Joan Silber here

We are so fortunate to live in East Lansing, which has such a large international population, thanks to Michigan State University.  I have been touched by this quote from  librarian Kathleen T. Isaacs: " I believe the more you know about other people and other ways of living and  thinking and being, the less likely you are to see them as strangers, others, perhaps even as lesser beings whose welfare need not concern you - people you can ignore, enslave, or go to war against... "

With this in mind,  ELHS student Samri Tessema and  I started an "international book discussion" for adults at the library, where we read books about other cultures and countries, and then bring in someone from that country or culture to discuss them with us.  Did they feel the book was accurate?  Did they ever experience something described in the book?  So far we have read about and had guests from Haiti, Ethiopia, Iran, Mali, Korea and many other places.

If you liked   The lightning thief….

I just learned a cool new term!   Steampunk is a name for a genre of science fiction that's often set in a time that uses steam power . Sometimes the setting resembles the late 19th or early 20th century, but with some futuristic elements, such as advanced technological devices like robots. One of my favorite YA books, Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, fits into this genre. So does Scott Westerfeld’s new book, coming out in October 2009, called Leviathan.

Leviathan can also be described as an alternate history. Westerfeld reimagines the beginning of World War I. In this story, the two camps are known as Clankers (Austria-Hungary and Germany), and Darwinists (Britain and France). Clankers love machines and technology, and manufacture great war machines that are a cross between robots and tanks, with names like Stormwalkers and Herkules. Darwinists have used Darwin’s discovery of DNA life strands to create new types of "beasties", such as a whale airship known as Leviathan.  Deryn is a Darwinist who disguises herself as a boy so she can be a soldier on a British airship. When she meets Clanker Alek, son of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after a crash, they have to decide whether or not to help each other and trust the other's technology.

This action-packed start to a series is a fun read. Westerfeld was imaginative, as usual, with his creation of spectacular great machines and made-up beasties. I liked the message lizards, who scamper along the airship and bring messages to others on the ship by reciting the message in the sender's voice. Every time I read about one, I pictured the gecko with the Australian accent in those TV commercials. And like the Uglies series, Westerfeld also uses much made-up slang, which adds to the fun.

I was lucky to get an advance reading copy at the American Library Association meeting in Chicago last week. The only problem with scoring an ARC is having to wait even longer for the next in the series to come out. And like Uglies, the book ends with a cliffhanger that made me groan. I’m starting to count down to Oct. 2010 already. (write faster, Scott!).  I'll be giving this ARC to some of our Teen Advisory Board members for them to review.  So check back to see what teens think of the book.

I have a new favorite heroine in children’s literature. Her name is Calpurnia Virginia Tate, or Callie Vee to her family and friends.  You can meet her in the new book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly.

It is 1899 in Fentress, Texas, and 11 year old Callie Vee is wishing things wouldn’t ever change. She lives with her 6 brothers, mother, father and her mysterious granddaddy, and is happy running through the fields and floating in the river near her home.  She is interested in birds and insects and the natural world, and is surprised to find that her grandfather is a naturalist.  When the town librarian won’t loan her the new book by Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species,  granddaddy gives Callie his copy, and there begins a great friendship between the two.   Chapters also introduce us to Callie’s home life with great descriptions of firefly contests, the coming of the telephone, piano lessons, and a brother who makes a pet of the Thanksgiving turkey.   Gradually Callie realizes that things do change in this year before a brand new century. Her beloved older brother Harry begins courting, a new-fangled invention called the automobile comes to the local fair, and Callie herself begins to be groomed to be a “young lady”.  But she hates knitting and cooking and tatting.  Does she really have to give up her dream of being a scientist?

One of the best things about Michigan is its long summer days. These give us a feeling that we have more time to do many things! If you’re feeling crafty, but never have time to create during the winter, we have some new craft books that will inspire you to make some beautiful items.

When I first saw the title Pretty Little Cozies, I thought, just how many tea cozies can there be? But this is not just about tea cozies. This lovely book has ideas for protecting many of our belongings - like an iPod cover, credit card holder, laptop cover, Wii control protectors, as well as the typical coffee cup holders, casserole covers and many more cute and clever projects.

If you are an environmentalist as well as a crafter, check out Eco-Craft: Recycle, Recraft, Restyle. The author says that the book "…is an homage to the idea that there is a secret life in even the lowliest garbage…." Her projects for finding these secret lives use items such as those awful plastic clamshell packages, recycled yellow pages, knitted strips of shrunken wook sweaters, six-pack beverage holders, and even woven strips of inner tube. The results are fun and not like many of the ugly recycled crafts from back in the ‘70’s.

And if during these long summer nights you still feel as if you don’t have much time, try a book that uses only one ball of yarn for projects. We have One Ball Knits: Purses and One Ball Knits: Accessories:20 stylish designs made with a single ball  skein, hank, or spool as well as One Skein Wonders and others.

For quick scrapbooking projects, look at Outstanding Mini Albums: 50 ideas for Creating Mini Scrapbooks. These would be perfect for capturing some of your favorite moments from summer 2009. Enjoy!

Two new books for teens that are about cooking have some similarities - both have main characters who love to cook, idolize Julia Child, and are named Elaine. But there the similarities end.

In Dear Julia by Amy Bronwen Zemser, shy Elaine Hamilton loves to cook and has memorized most of the recipes in Julia Child’s many cookbooks. She unwittingly becomes friends with unusual Lucida Sans (who named herself after the font), whose goal in life is to become famous (she doesn’t care how - she is constantly trying to find something she excels at). Lucida finally recognizes that it is Elaine who has a true talent, and she sets out to make her friend become famous. This book has the quirkiest characters ever - the self-named Lucida, super-shy Elaine, whose stilted language can be off-putting to the reader, a mom who is a Congresswoman and feels Elaine’s love of cooking goes against her feminist beliefs, a cross-dressing brother, an evil boy whom Lucida "has a weakness for" … the list goes on. The whole book is almost over the top. But there are very funny moments, and you do find yourself rooting for the girls and their friendship. And you wish Elaine would make you a meal.

A La Carte by Tanita Davis is different in that her characters are so realistic that you feel they could be neighbors or relatives. Lainey’s grandmother treats her like "minor royalty" (we all know grandmas like that) and her mom worries about her daughter, for example that Lainey is going to develop some eating disorder (" I knew I should’ve never let you play with Barbies"), and wants her to find a summer internship. It was nice to read about a regular middle-class African-American teen. When Lainey’s best friend and secret crush Sim borrows money from her and then runs away, it puts a strain on her relationship with her mom, and Lainey has to figure out what kind of friend he really is. Through it all she keeps cooking, and the book is scattered with her handwritten recipes and notes. In all, a yummy concoction.

I’ve read about some terrible parents in lots of teen lit, but the mom in Lisa Yee’s new book, Absolutely Maybe wins the prize for the worst. In fact, she is used to winning prizes – she has been the winner of numerous state and local beauty pageants and now runs her own charm school. But she doesn’t have an ounce of charm when you first meet her.

But this book is about Maybe (short for Maybelline, named after the mom’s favorite mascara). When her mom refuses to believe that her soon-to-be-seventh husband’s attacked her daughter, Maybe decides to run away to California with her two friends, to try to find her real father. "Hollywood" is a budding filmmaker who has been accepted at USC, and Ted is her best friend who is outgoing, funny, loyal, and wrapped up in learning about his Thai heritage.  Hollywood jumps right into college life and loves it, and Ted finds a job as a personal assistant to an aging movie star. Maybe is the only one who feels at a loss – with no place to live, no job, no real chance of finding her biological father, and no desire to return home, what will happen to her?

 But she is surrounded by people who care for her – not only Hollywood and quirky Ted, but a former step-dad, a would-be actress, and a new friend who runs a taco truck. But it’s really up to Maybe – can she accept who she is?

I loved Lisa Yee’s books for younger teens: Millicent Min, Girl Genius, Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time, and So Totally Emily Ebers. This is Yee’s first book for older teens, and although it tackles some serious subjects, it also has Yee’s trademark humor and heart.  You can read an interview with Lisa Yee about this book here.

Usually I'm not a big reader of romance. (Give me mystery! fantasy! science fiction!). But I was going on a short vacation and looking for a beach read. Besides, I had heard that Adriana Trigiani wrote about Italian-American families with lots of warmth and humor, and since I am Italian-American myself, I thought it would be fun. And I truly enjoyed every page of Very Valentine.