2008 Books in Review

This year, I read almost as many books as the previous 2 years combined. 70 was the grand total for the year. (Who knew having a kid would give me more reading time?)

I'm always looking for book recommendations, so tell me: What were your favorite books last year?

Okay, okay. I'll go first. My two favorites of the year also make it to my all-time favorites list, so I would highly recommend them to anyone and everyone:

• Nonfiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
• Fiction: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

And there are a few more I'd recommend to specific folks...

For the Kids (or Kids at Heart)

• Feathers
  
• Flush
  
• Olive's Ocean
  
• The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (start with The Penderwicks)
  
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
  
• Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos
  
• The Underneath

For the Teens

• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
  
• Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing (start with A Great and Terrible Beauty)

And go ahead and read the Twilight series. It's not the best stuff in the world, but it's fun as hell.

For the Aspiring Writers

• How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights
  
• No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days
  
• Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

For the Expecting or New Parents
Yes, I know you're tired and/or have a lot to do. But these are all worth it, I promise.

• Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love
  
• Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk
  
• The Diaper-Free Baby: The Natural Toilet Training Alternative
  
• Good Nights: The Happy Parents' Guide to the Family Bed (and a Peaceful Night's Sleep!)
  
• The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer
  
• Nursing Mother, Working Mother
  
• The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child

For the Other Parents

• Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
  
• Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family

Finally, Some 2008 Stats
I tend to read a novel or two in between every nonfiction book, so these numbers make sense:
Fiction: 66%
Nonfiction: 34%

And here's the breakdown within the fiction category:
Adult fiction: 13%
YA or kids' fiction: 87%

Review: The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Title: The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Author: J.K. Rowling
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Hermione Granger's new translation of the wizarding world's best-known fairy tales, with commentary by Albus Dumbledore.

Review: I didn't realize how much I missed the world of Harry Potter until I read this collection. So I think I might re-read the whole series in the new year.

If you're a Harry Potter fan, read this book! It's not going to be quite as fun as reading the series itself, but it's a quick read that's well worth your time. Whether the story is funny, gory, or sad—or all three—you'll enjoy your brief foray into the wizarding world again.

My favorite story in the collection was "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump." If you've read this book already, what was your favorite?

Review: My One Hundred Adventures

Title: My One Hundred Adventures
Author: Polly Horvath
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 3/5
Summary: 12-year-old Jane is tired of the same old, same old summer on the beach in her Massachusetts town. She's ready for adventures, and she's ready NOW.

Review: This is an episodic novel, which isn't usually my cup of tea, but this story grew on me. The characters are deliciously weird, and Jane's adventures are weirder still. Dry humor is sprinkled throughout, which always managed to catch me by surprise—in a good way.

But in the end, I didn't feel like the father issue or even the fate of the clothes hanger man were sufficiently resolved. I hate it when books leave huge questions unanswered.

Horvath is a talented writer, though, and I hadn't read her work before. So I plan to check out some of her most critically acclaimed books—the National Book Award winner The Canning Season, the National Book Award nominee The Trolls, or the Newbery Honor Book Everything on a Waffle. If you're a Horvath fan, what would you recommend?

Review: The Penderwicks on Gardam Street

Title: The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
Author: Jeanne Birdsall
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 4/5
Summary: As their father starts dating again, the four Penderwick sisters band together to save their family from the horrible fate of adding a stepmother to the mix.

Review: This is the sequel to The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, which I loved. And as with the first book, I was sad to finish this book and have to say goodbye to the characters.

The book is told in third person, but I love how the author switches perspectives among the four girls, even the youngest girl Batty, who is probably 4 or 5. She captures perfectly their four distinct ages and personalities.

A plot inconsistency regarding carpooling stuck out like a sore thumb, but in the end it didn't really matter to me because it's just so much fun to spend time with this family!

If you haven't read The Penderwicks, you should. And if you love the Penderwick family as much as I do, you'll want to continue on to this sequel. It's worth it.

Review: Chains

Title: Chains
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Isabel is a 13-year-old slave girl during the Revolutionary War. Isabel is promised freedom for herself and her sister when their owner dies. But instead, they're sold to a heartless couple in New York, where Isabel becomes entangled in the struggle between the Americans and the British.

Review: If you like historical fiction, you can't get much better than Chains. This book immediately transports you to the time of the Revolutionary War. If you or a child in your life would like to learn more about that period beyond memorizing battle dates and places, check out this book.

You can't help but feel what Isabel feels—scared, trapped, desperate. I usually shy away from stories set during times of slavery because it's too, too much to stomach. (Same reason I avoid war movies.) But this story manages to keep a thread of hope throughout so you don't end up feeling crushed by sadness and outrage.

I'm looking forward to the sequel, Forge.

Review: The Underneath

Title: The Underneath
Author: Kathi Appelt
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary: An abandoned cat with kittens on the way befriends a hound who's chained up all day every day and when he is fed, it usually comes with a kick from a steel-toed boot. The cat, her kittens, and this hound stay underneath the porch where the man with the boot can't get to them. They're safe as long as they stay in The Underneath. But have you ever tried to keep a kitten in one place?

Review: Absolutely gorgeous book. The cover has a quote from Louis Sachar, where he calls the book "poetic." I'm not usually a fan of poetry, so this initially put me off and I prioritized reading another National Book Award nominee, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, first. I did end up enjoying the Frankie book more than this one, but just by the width of the tiniest kitten whisker.

But now I see where Sachar was coming from calling this book "poetic." It's not poetic in the sense of flowery language, aren't trees pretty, la la la. It's poetic because the language is so vivid and true it takes your freaking breath away.

On the whole, this is a sorrowful little story, but so, so worth the emotional ups and downs. As I was flipping through the book to write this review, I actually found myself stopping and re-reading entire chapters!

Review: Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos

Title: Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos
Author: R.L. LaFevers
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 4/5
Summary: 11-year-old Theodosia Throckmorton spends most of her time in an antiquities museum run by her father, while her mother goes on long archaeological expeditions to obtain artifacts for the museum. But Theo can see something on these artifacts that nobody else seems to—they're infected with ancient Egyptian curses, and they'll hurt her family if she doesn't take matters into her own hands.

Review: I loved this book!

My first clue I was going to love it was the dedication: "To clever girls everywhere who get tired of feeling like no one's listening."

Theo is nothing if not a clever little girl. But she's also deliciously sassy, which kept me chuckling throughout the book.

The book is set in London in the early twentieth century, and I'm a sucker for British language in a children's book (thank you, J.K. Rowling)—lots of "bother" and "boiled cabbage" and "don't give a fig."

I gobbled this book up as fast as I could, and now I have to wait until the library gets copies of the next book in the series, Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris. It just so happens to release today, but the store-release-to-library-shelving interval will keep me waiting for at least a couple weeks. Bother.

Review: Feathers

Title: Feathers
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 4/5
Summary: 11-year-old Frannie is a girl who's lost hope—she lives on the poor side of the highway, she's seen her mama suffer through miscarriages and now she's pregnant again, and she sees the way girls treat her brother when they find out he's deaf.

Review: Frannie's teacher reads an Emily Dickinson poem that starts "Hope is the thing with feathers..." to her class, which gets Frannie thinking about hope. Then a boy who looks like Jesus shows up as the new kid at school, and Frannie is forced to grapple with her own understanding of hope, faith, and religion.

I finished this yesterday morning—about 36 hours ago—and I've been thinking about it off and on since then. That's rare for me. Usually, I finish one book, then move right on to the next. But this beautiful novel stuck with me. One of my favorite aspects of the story is how Frannie explores the idea of spirituality versus religion.

This would be a great book to read with your child because of all the interesting conversations you could have about the characters and what they go through.

Review: Cicada Summer

Title: Cicada Summer
Author: Andrea Beaty
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 3/5
Summary: 11-year-old Lily has a secret she has to protect at all costs, which is easy because she doesn't talk anymore.

Review: This sweet story tackles heavy topics—guilt, crime, grief—but also has a good dose of humor in some parts. I liked it, but I can't say that anything in particular stood out to me as great.

Review: Me and the Pumpkin Queen

Title: Me and the Pumpkin Queen
Author: Marlane Kennedy
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: 11-year-old Mildred starts growing giant pumpkins as a way to reconnect with her mom who passed away when she was 6.

Review: The best parts of this book were the ones about growing giant pumpkins. It's easy to see the author did her homework on the topic. The story was alright, but a few things bothered me: Mildred didn't always sound 11 years old—saying things like "to no avail," when it wasn't part of her character to be precocious. A few parts weren't really necessary and slowed the story down, like stepping the reader through every single thing Mildred does when she gets home from school one day. And finally, there were a few things that didn't feel resolved, like a mention of how the dad and his co-worker should go on a date but it's never mentioned again.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this unless you're really into pumpkins.

Review: The Sorta Sisters

Title: The Sorta Sisters
Author: Adrian Fogelin
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: Two lonely girls—an orphan who just moved to a new foster home and a motherless girl who lives on a boat with her dad—become pen pals and discover they share a love of science.

Review: Sorta good. I liked the author's drawings throughout, and I liked the characters well enough. But the book was sooo slooow! It was almost 300 pages, and too many scenes seemed too long and drawn out or not necessary at all.

Review: A Drowned Maiden's Hair

Title: A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: An 11-year-old orphan is adopted by three sisters who give her nice clothes and food but keep her secret from everyone they know.

Review: What an eerie little story! I loved it. The main character Maud has just the right amount of spunk—she's no Pippi Longstocking but she can take care of herself. As a lonely orphan, she starts out thinking that any attention is good attention, but she learns along the way that maybe it's not always worth the trade-off.

Review: Downsiders

Title: Downsiders
Author: Neal Shusterman
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: A boy from a secret underground world called the Downside breaks the rules of his world and sneaks above-ground.

Review: After the first 100 pages, I still wasn't into this book, so I skimmed the rest of the way just to get an idea of what happened in the plot. The problem for me was that neither of the main characters seemed to have a terribly important problem they needed to solve. The boy character, Talon, has a sick little sister at one point, but she gets better pretty fast.

The setting was intriguing, but I just couldn't connect with the characters.