Category Archives: Young Adult

Book Reviews, Gothic/Horror, Young Adult

The Graveyard Book Discussion Part 2

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Week two of our discussion of Neil Gaiman’s Newbery Medal-winning novel, The Graveyard Book, includes two of my favorite chapters in the book. It has been a special pleasure driving around the Kansas City area for work this week listening to Gaiman tell me this story in the way that only he can do it. This middle section of the book is a transitional section of the story about a boy growing up. In an unusual location, to be sure, but growing up nonetheless in the same way that we all grow up. We see him begin to test the boundaries of his independence and to push against the constraints of age as he travels down the inevitable path that lays before him, the path that all children take on the road to young adulthood.

So let’s chat about Chapters 4-6 of The Graveyard Book.

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Book Reviews, Young Adult

The Graveyard Book Discussion Post 1

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(Image by The Brothers Hilts, illustrators of The Insomniacs)

There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.

One of the things that I love about Neil Gaiman is that he knows that there is a special thrill in being scared, especially when you are a kid. Now I realize that all children are different and some definitely DO NOT enjoy anything frightening, but many, many children are braver and more willing to face fears than some adults are and Neil taps into that with his young adult books, Coraline and The Graveyard Book. When Coraline was released Neil Gaiman shared in many an interview that kids found the book exciting and adults found it terrifying. Gaiman continues the idea that many children delight in a little fright by opening The Graveyard Book on a very dark note.

As we enter this discussion of the first three chapters of The Graveyard Book, one of the things I would especially like to hear about is whether or not you enjoyed being frightened as a child and alternatively, as an adult, what are your thoughts on the opening of this novel.

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Art/Photography, Book Reviews, Young Adult

The Insomniacs ~Karina Wolf, The Brothers Hilts

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(All illustrations credit: Brothers Hilts)

At 43 years of age it isn’t often that I buy children’s pictures books. In a fit of honesty I would have to admit that this is primarily because of the cost. Children’s picture books can be expensive, which is why when I do buy them it is a special treat. Something catches my eye and my heart does that pitter-patter thing that all book lovers experience when a treasure is spied. I went to my local Barnes and Noble the other day with the express purpose of buying myself a little something to celebrate the 7th year of R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril, and there is was, The Insomniacs, written by Karina Wolf and illustrated by The Brothers Hilts. One look at the cover and a quick read of the subject matter and I was off towards the cash register.

The Insomniacs are like any normal, functioning family. That is until Mrs. Insomniac takes a new job that moves them twelve times zones away. The Insomniac family–Mother, Father and Little Mika–experience the very worst case of jet lag ever. They soon find, to their and the reader’s delight, that night time holds its own special secrets, and one must only be awake to discover them.

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Book Reviews, Fantasy, Young Adult

The Freedom Maze ~Delia Sherman

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The Freedom Maze is the story of thirteen-year old Sophie Fairchild Martineau, a girl on the verge of young adulthood growing up in the racially divided South of the early 1960’s. In the aftermath of her parents’ divorce, she is trundled off by her mother to spend the summer on what is left of the family estate in the Bayou. To say that she is unhappy about this state of affairs would be an understatement. With the awkwardness and emotional volatility that only adolescence can bring, Sophie’s situation becomes increasingly more intolerable. One of the few remnants of the estate’s plantation days is a maze, overgrown but still very enticing for a girl looking to have an adventure. That adventure begins in the form of a disembodied, enigmatic voice that later materializes as a Creature Sophie could not have dreamed up in her wildest imaginings. A rash wish born out of anger and frustration causes the Creature to intervene, sending Sophie back 100 years into her past. There she discovers a vibrant, working plantation and gets to experience first hand what slavery was like for both her ancestors and their slaves, for in this past Sophie Martineau is not welcomed as a member of the family, but is instead mistaken for a runaway slave.

By the description you might think this would be the kind of book a forty-something male who reads predominately science fiction and fantasy would not gravitate towards. And you would be correct. Curiosity got the better of this cat when Delia Sherman won the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy at the Nebula Awards ceremony on May 19th. That win propelled me to investigate The Freedom Maze, and something about the cover image and the idea drew me right in.

I was entranced. I had to go into that maze. What I found there was a doorway to a thoroughly satisfying, richly detailed adventure.

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Book Reviews, Young Adult

Horton’s Miraculous Mechanisms ~Lissa Evans

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______________________

The telephone cord was hanging from the receiver, wires sticking out of the broken, dangling end.

Time to go, Stuart thought.

And then the phone rang.

______________________


Ten year old Stuart Horten considers himself a most unfortunate soul. He is unnaturally small for his age, a fact that is magnified by the combination of exceptionally tall parents and a name that shines a spotlight on his deficiency: S.Horton. His parents are extremely clever but not, as he puts it, sensible. People mistakenly believe he is younger than his ten years.

But it is the start of summer vacation and even Stuart feels like all is right with the world. Then the bottom drops out. Stuart Horton’s mom is offered a new job and the family up and moves to the small town of Beeton, leaving friends and familiarity far behind.

It is of little comfort to Stuart that his father hails from this area, that is until he discovers that there was a magician in the family, Tony Horton, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances many decades ago. Sometimes all it takes is a small spark to start fire, and this familial history strikes a match that sets young Stuart ablaze, sending him on an improbable and perhaps impossible adventure.

Lissa Evan’s first young adult novel, published last year in Great Britain as Small Change for Stuart, crackles with the energy of the endlessness of youthful summers and skillfully demonstrates why it was shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Award for Children’s Fiction and the Carnegie Medal.
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