The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak's The Book Thief was easily one of the best books I read all summer. I originally heard about it during one of my Mason classes, and then when I spotted it on sale at Borders I had to pick it up. I wasn't sure what to expect, I only knew that it took place during the Holocaust.
I was surprised to find out that the book is narrated by Death, who is quite eloquent: "I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms." After his own introduction, Death presents the story as "just a small story really, about, among other things: *a girl *some words *an accordionist *some fanatical Germans *a Jewish fist fighter *and quite a lot of thievery."
Death takes us from the beginning, where he first met the protagonist, Liesel Meminger, on her way to meet her new parents. The couple that has adopted her, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, eventually become Liesel's true family. She also becomes best friends with Rudy Steiner, who finds fame when he paints himself with coal and runs around the town track, pretending to be the Olympian runner Jesse Owens. In the height of Nazi Germany regime, this was not the smartest thing for Rudy to do. Liesel also makes some unexpected friends along the way, including the governor's wife and the Jewish fist fighter previously alluded to. I don't want to give too much away, and just say that you must must must read this book! It's an instant classic and for good reason, a #1 New York Times Bestseller.

[Photo: www.coverbrowser.com]

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

For some odd reason, when I started reading this book I thought it was about modeling. The tag line on the cover is, "In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly." Hence, modeling. I was pleased to find that Scott Westerfeld's Uglies is a new take on Brave New World, in a teenager's perspective. It asks some deeper questions than most young adult literature and introduces a heroine worth admiring. Tally Youngblood is three months away from turning sixteen, which in her world, means a series of intense operations that make an adolescent "pretty." The newly changed pretties get to live in New Pretty Town, across the river, and go to great parties, wear beautiful clothes, and bask in their new gorgeousness. Tally is still an "ugly" when the novel begins, which is basically what this society calls an adolescent. Before becoming an ugly, one is just a littlie. The society has placed everyone in categories based on looks. They claims that by making everyone pretty, everyone is on a level playing field, therefore solving all of the world's problems in one fell swoop (wars, violence, waste, unemployment, etc). The thought of becoming pretty consumes Tally's every waking moment until she makes a new friend, Shay. Shay is unsure about turning pretty, and has heard about people who run away and just stay "ugly" their whole lives. Right before their sixteenth birthdays, Shay decides to run away to "The Smoke." The authorities force Tally to make an extremely hard decision: tell on Shay or not get the "pretty operations." The path Tally goes down will change her life irrevocably. You'll have to read to find out what she ultimately decides! This is the first of the dystopian series by Scott Westerfeld, so I will definitely pick up Pretties, Specials and Extras soon!

[Photo: www.jacketsandcovers.com]

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I'm sure some of you have already seen the movie Coraline, based on Neil Gaiman's book of the same name. If you haven't, you need to! It's a beautifully creepy film with an interesting moral dilemma.
The Graveyard Book is Gaiman's latest "children's novel," although adults will enjoy it just as much as their younger counterparts. It centers around a young boy named Nobody Owens, or "Bod" for short. Bod's entire family is grisly murdered at the start of the book, when Bod is only a baby. Bod crawls to the graveyard, and its inhabitants become his protectors. He has ghost parents, Mr. and Mrs. Owens, and a mysterious but loving guardian named Silas. Both Bod and the reader are unsure as to which world Silas belongs to - the living or the dead.
The "man named Jack" (think Jack the Ripper, Jack of all Trades, Jack be Nimble) is after Bod, the same man who murdered his family so many years ago. Bod is given some amazing gifts from the graveyards residents in order to protect himself when he leaves to attend school. He can disappear, enter other people's dreams . . . and these gifts will come in handy when the man named Jack returns. It's a delightful and spooky tale, and anyone who ponders what life is like on the other side will enjoy Gaiman's ideas on the subject.

[Photo: www.neilgaiman.com]

A Revised Review on The A-List Series

I've continued reading the A-List series by Zoey Dean and I have to admit that the last two I've read, Back in Black and Some Like It Hot have made me rethink my review. These are the fifth and sixth books in the series, and it seems as though Dean has gotten something kind of Francine Pascal-like ghostwriter (see: Sweet Valley High). Which would have been fine if she had started the series that way, atleast readers would know what to expect. Instead, almost the entire first half of each book is spent catching the reader up on the previous happenings in the series. When Dean (or Dean-like writer) finally gets to the plot, I almost don't care. Keyword: almost. I am one of those readers who like to know what happens to characters, and I particularly like the protagonist, Anna. Unfortunately, Anna is starting to take the back seat to her Beverly Hills companions Sam, Cammie and Dee. Dean tries to make these characters more likeable, but they still come up short.

In Back in Black, the A-List heads to Las Vegas, skipping their senior trip to Washington, D.C. The most scandalous event is the crew going to a hypnotist. Snore. Some Like It Hot centers around the senior prom, and Sam making a film about the B-List at Beverly Hills High. Laughably, the most annoying thing about this book was that I couldn't get that awful 80's song by the same name out of my head.
Listen to it here at Amazon if you dare.

Dean has also omitted several characters introduced in the first four without an explanation, which is also annoying. And makes me believe there is definitely a ghost writer who didn't even read the first four thoroughly! I'm going to read the rest of the series, since at this point I only have four more left . . . I'll let you know if the A-List series makes an upward climb back into my favor or not!

[Photos: amazon.com & fantasticfiction.uk]

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

So I haven't been posting much because I was on vacation! (Reading tons of course, but also playing golf, taking an art class, and soaking up the rays).

I read Flipped by Wendeline Van Draanen one morning and I absolutely adored it. This young adult novel focuses around two narrators: Bryce and Julianna (Juli), who switch narration each chapter, hence the title, Flipped. We meet our narrators in the second grade, when Bryce moves across the street from Juli. Juli is psyched to finally have a neighbor the same age as her, but Bryce wants nothing to do with this girl who "didn't just barge into my life. She barged and shoved and wedged her way into my life."

Juli is immediately taken with Bryce and his big blue eyes and dark eyelashes. Juli is the opposite of Bryce - fearless and strong willed, a free spirit who does whatever she feels like. Bryce is shy and keeps to himself, often going along with the crowd just so he doesn't stand out. In eight grade, things start to change for Bryce when his grandfather comes to live with his family. His grandfather is immediately taken by Juli, and helps Bryce to see another side to her when he compares Juli to paint finishes: "Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss . . . But every once in a while you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare."

Both Bryce and Juli learn some hard lessons about their own families throughout the novel, which ultimately leads both of them to understand each other better. While reading this book, you can't help but time travel back to when you were that age, and the smallest thing could seem like the whole entire world. Van Draanen takes all of the great romantic comedy cues from Austen and Shakespeare and transforms them to fit within this extremely enjoyable adolescent novel.

[Photo: www.barnesandnoble.com]

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

We all grew up with this person . . . the one who refused to conform, who wore "weird" clothes and did "strange" things. Chances are though that your entire school never got caught up in a hero worship of that person like they do in Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl. Stargirl Caraway wears prairie skirts, plays the ukulele and sings on everyone's birthday, and carries her pet rat Cinnamon in her backpack.
The whole school falls in love with her after she joins the marching band for an impromptu performance at the football game . . . and she begins to inspire the students at Mica High to be "individuals." Stargirl decides she'll fall in love with Leo Borlock, our narrator, and it seems like he never had a chance not to feel the same way. Unfortunately, the fascination with Stargirl is just a fad and the students turn on her just as fast as they turned to her. Leo gets caught in the middle of the people he grew up with and his first love, trying his best to do the right thing.
A New York Times Bestseller and Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year, I agree with the Kirkus Review that Jerry Spinelli has created "a magical and heartbreaking tale."

Look for a copy at The Barefoot Bookworm's Amazon Store!

[Photo: www.chms.k12.vt.us]

The A-List Series by Zoey Dean

I first discovered Zoey Dean with How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls, a delightful novel that the CW show Privileged was based on. I'm still mourning the loss of that show! Anyway, for those of you who have fond memories of the Sweet Valley High or Sunset Island series, you will certainly enjoy this modern version. The first in The A-List series is appropriately titled The A-List. The protagonist, Anna Percy, is an old money rich girl from NYC with impeccable looks, taste, charm and intelligence. She moves to L.A. to live with her father for a change of scenery . . . but also a lifestyle change. Anna is sick of living her mother's life by way of "this is how we do things big book, east coast wasp edition." She meets gorgeous Ben Birnbaum on the flight to L.A., and immediately gets thrown into the A-List world of Beverly Hills High after she attends the wedding of Jackson Sharpe, an actor akin to Brad Pitt in star status, whose daughter Sam just happens to be at the top of said A-List. And in love with Ben Birnbaum. Add in her best friends Cammie, a saucy knockout once scorned by Ben vowing revenge, and Dee, a new-age Kabbalah yogi who thinks she's pregnant by Ben, and you can see why these books are hard to put down. The best part is you finish them in no time laying by the pool . . . the worst part is you might not have the next one on hand. After reading the first four in the series, The A-List, Girls on Film, Blonde Ambition and Tall Cool One, I'm officially hooked. Dean has created a great series of beach reads that anyone who loves great soaps will absolutely adore.

[Photo: www.treebeardbooks.com]

Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye

Fans of other great coming of age writers like Judy Blume and Jerry Spinelli will likely become admirers of Naomi Shihab Nye’s Habibi and the main character Liyana. Habibi, a Palestinian term of endearment, is exactly how you’ll feel about Liyana and all of the other characters Nye creates in the novel.

Liyana, spending the first fourteen years of her life living in the suburbs of St. Louis, finds her world turned upside down when her father, “Poppy,” announces their move to his birthplace Jerusalem. Moving for any adolescent is hard, and Liyana has to deal with larger issues like not being able to bring her “short-shorts” and whether her new home will be “safe.” She’s rebellious like any girl at her age, but soon learns it may have more serious consequences in her new environment.

Liyana particularly laments her loss of identity due to moving. In St. Louis, Liyana felt like everyone knew her, her teachers, classmates, even the grocer down the street. A strong sense of identity is so important during those coming of age years, and Liyana grieves the loss of her perceived identity but learns an important lesson about who she is and who defines that by the end.

Much like the metaphor of a flower blooming, Liyana grows and blossoms during her journey. She quickly learns there is no black and white, but there is right and wrong. She realizes the importance of family, but also that love can conquer even the longest of feuds. Liyana faces the challenges before her with grace and thoughtfulness. She is a delight to spend two hundred and sixty pages with, and readers will want to know the rest of Liyana’s story after finishing this beautiful novel.

[Photo: www.ncdsnet.net]

Doing It by Melvin Burgess

It would seem like all cult favorite teen shows, like My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks, kick the bucket after their first season. ABC’s Life as We Know It succumbed to the same fate, but fans of the series will always have the book the show was based on to enjoy. Doing It by Melvin Burgess follows the lives of three teenage boys who happen to be focused on one thing: sex. British author Burgess creates likeable characters in pretty boy Dino, serious and shy Ben, and neurotic Jonathan. It would seem like sex is the only thing on their minds, but readers soon learn that these young men have much more than that to worry about.

Adolescent male readers will rejoice in characters they can relate to and will enjoy reading about; adolescent female readers will love delving into the male psyche to find out what they are really like on the inside. Dino is a good-looking lothario who seems like he is only trying to get his girlfriend Jackie to sleep with him, Jackie being the only girl at their school that is his equal, and therefore who he wants to lose his virginity to. He comes off shallow, but his true colors appear once his parents begin divorce proceedings and he really just needs good friends. Enter Ben and Jonathan, what the British would call his true mates, who have their own problems that they aren’t as willing to talk about. Ben thinks he is living every schoolboy’s fantasy with his affair with a teacher, but discovers the reality of the situation is scary, and ultimately sad. Jonathan is terrified of what people will say if he starts dating the school’s “fat girl” Deborah, but happens to be completely enamored by her. While Jonathan and Deborah’s relationship progresses, so does Jonathan’s neurosis that there might be something wrong with him down below.

While the novel tends to focus mostly on Dino, Ben & Jonathan, Burgess also presents the point of view of the women in their lives: indecisive Jackie, warm-hearted Deborah, intolerant Sue and disingenuous Zoë. The girls’ outlook on the boys only enforces how spectacularly off base both sexes are about each other. Burgess creates a fresh, funny and sometimes raunchy outlook on the adolescent world. Teens will not only enjoy following the lives of these young men, but also relish in the aspects of British culture that permeate the novel. To an American teen, Burgess’ Britain would seem like a different world at first, but they will soon find out they have more in common with these teens across the ocean than they originally may have thought.

Regarded as the “Godfather of young adult fiction,” Burgess has won several awards: Junk was awarded a Carnegie Medal, Bloodtide won The Lancashire Children’s Book Award, and Doing It received the LA Times Best Young Adult Book of the Year award. As Doing It proves, Burgess has created a reputation for writing quality young adult fiction that pushes boundaries and isn’t shy about presenting what teens are really going through.

[Photo: barnesandnoble.com]