An Egg on Three Sticks

“I’m pretty sure Mom is having a nervous breakdown.

“Which I tried to look it up and it’s not in the dictionary but I think I know what it is. It’s when your mom has to lie down all the time and has raccoon circles around her eyes and when she walks her feet are as heavy as the whole world and her face isn’t her face anymore and when she looks at you she doesn’t see you and when you look into her eyes, you can’t find her.”

What was referred to as Abby’s mom’s ‘nervous breakdown’ in An Egg on Three Sticks is 1970s language for a suicidal depression.

Fischer’s novel is so beautifully written that the reader sees the truth is what Abby’s best friend, Poppy, whispers about the problem, as she overheard it from her own mother: Abby’s mom, Shirley, has a creative muse and she can’t live a stifling life. And without hammering the reader about what a stifling life is—in fact, without even mentioning it, you will see that Shirley might as well have had her source of oxygen cut off. She’s a 1970s stay-at-home mom. Her husband, a typing teacher, won’t change or remodel the house. The exterior paint is deeply faded and flaking. The family uses old stuff beyond the point that it’s worn out. Their clothes are worn out and faded as well. The kids are not allowed to have anything fashionable, anything current—no new music in the house, no popular books. When Abby’s dad gives her mom a Crock Pot as her big Christmas present, you know you’re turning the corner into a dark alley. And, of course, Abby’s dad doesn’t even understand why this is not a great present. His greatest happiness is routine.

To manage a routine and order, there are rules for everything—no TV during dinner ever, no yelling across the house to call someone to the room, no swearing, no rock or pop music, no being late home from school, no piercing the ears, no go-go boots, no mini skirts, no reading popular books like Jaws, no skipping piano practice ever, trash is incinerated every Saturday.

But still.

Lots of people live routine, dull lives with lots of rules. They aren’t suicidal. So how does Abby make sense of it? She can’t, and she rebels as her mom’s world becomes darker and darker. She wants her mom to snap out of it, punish her, take charge. But her mom can’t. And Abby can’t forgive her for it, for being so very ill.

An Egg on Three Sticks truly is a beautiful book although the subject is pretty dark. I might have missed reading it if I hadn’t been asked to participate on a ‘recommended reading’ committee for the California Department of Education. For any student who needs a work of fiction with historical elements that s/he will later research, this one has a lot of fun references to the early 1970s—the music, the hippies, the styles (mini skirts, boots, Levi jackets and more—actually a lot of the same styles are popular now). And some sad references, too—especially to the Vietnam War.

I highly recommend this one to mature high school readers.

 amor deliria nervosa

It’s what Romeo and Juliet had—that infectious disease that often hits first during the teens and causes people to do crazy things to be with someone. Not sleep, not eat, run away—the list is endless.

But amor deliria is not a problem in the future United States. Everyone is scheduled for the cure, a procedure performed on the eighteenth birthday. If someone is infected before eighteen, s/he will have an early surgery (with possible tragic consequences) and will be kept guarded until the illness is cured. Shakespeare’s drama of young lovers is preserved in schools, but only as a cautionary tale—see what can happen to you if you are infected with amor deliria?

So what does a society without love look like? Oliver does a good job at showing how folks can be rational and do the right thing—take care of relatives, get dinner on the table, go to work—and be immersed in utter meaninglessness. The cure doesn’t just remove romantic love, but rather all love. Parents don’t have any fun with their kids, but they don’t abuse them either. So is this a good way to go? Lena’s mom had the cure performed on her three times, the last without anesthesia. Three times it didn’t work. She commits suicide, so she is evidence of the deeply abnormal nature of love, and, at first, Lena is looking forward to the cure, to being normal, and hoping not to end up like her mom.

But then Lena meets Alex. The two are infected pretty quickly. They hide out from the Regulators and plot. Alex is an ‘invalid,’ one of the uncured. He has connections to the Wilds, the unregulated wilderness outside of society’s control. Can the two escape Portland (Maine) and be together?

A critical look at this novel makes me wonder how any society could invest so much money and energy into making sure no one falls in love. There are impossible numbers of Regulators, border patrols and more—to be honest, it edges toward ludicrous. But when we look at this as just a fun read (great for summer!) and suspend disbelief, it’s a wonderful ride. There are nice bits of irony thrown in (July 4^th is no longer Independence Day, but a celebration of the sealing of the borders). And love really does appear to be a disease. The stricken teens are restless, run high fevers, are irrational.

The love between Lena and Alex is one of the best things about the book. Alex is (a bit too) perfect, and any girl would be charmed by him. The couple is very sweet; you have to root for them. The end of this book is a white-knuckler. So enjoy it, bite all your nails off as you get to those last few pages, and then happily await the second book in the trilogy.

“’I’m taking that cat. I want the black one. You can’t talk me out of it, so don’t even try.’ I was already starting to understand him. To feel for him. Or maybe even to feel with him. He was scared. He was not cuddly. He was not beautiful. If I didn’t take him, he was as good as dead. He was about to be given the death penalty for not being beautiful. Someone had to come along and love him just the way he was. I was that someone.”

Elle’s mom has fallen for her new boyfriend Donald. He’s moving in and Elle’s moving out. Into her own apartment. Just before her sixteenth birthday. Because, after all, Donald doesn’t want her around. So, pretending that she is worried about Elle’s loneliness, her mom wants to buy her a cat. Elle decides to get one from a shelter instead. And then to pick one that’s been through some serious fighting—his eye, a piece of his ear and patches of his fur are missing. He’s broken.

Like Elle.

In a bit of grace, when Elle is moving in to her new apartment, she meets her neighbor Frank. He’s small for a man, but kind and good looking and Elle has an immediate crush on him although he’s living with a woman (also kind) named Molly.

I wouldn’t say that Elle’s lived a sheltered life—her mother is much too self-centered to be nurturing. But Elle is not entirely in tune with others because she hasn’t had that nurturing she needs. Her new friends at her new school—outcasts all—know immediately what Elle hasn’t seen. That Frank is transgendered.

This tightly-written novel is so sweet and compassionate, I want to recommend it to everyone. I know I harp on how much I hate it when young adult books have repetitive scenes or action; when they redescribe all the dialogue by adding tags with adverbs. (The last one I read had something like this: ‘I wish I really was a vampire because at least then I would be understood,’ Helen thought miserably, feeling totally misunderstood.” Really?) I’m trying to stop complaining, but it does bother me because I feel like the authors and editors are disrespecting teens, who they think are so clueless that everything must be repeated. And then repeated.

Catherine Ryan Hyde, the author of Jumpstart the World respects you. She’s a wonderful writer. (Adults will remember her bestseller of a decade ago—Pay It Forward—which was made into a movie.) The breathless pace of Jumpstart the World is perfect. As are Hyde’s protagonists and their respect for one another.

Sweet.

Saturday, May 5

1-4 PM

Ontario Senior Center

(Just go to the Ovitt Library downtown and folks will point at the building for you!)

Bring your camera and take a photo with one of the five YA authors:

• Josephine Angelini
• Anna Carey
• Tahereh Mafi
• Alexandra Monir
• Jay Asher

You can bring your books to be signed, or buy books there and have them signed.  (Prices are very reasonable. You can get a paperback Thirteen Reasons Why for $6.99 plus tax.)

I’m so excited about the Teen Book Fest tomorrow–I’ve been reading just one more of the authors’ books this week–Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini.  I’m not sure if I will finish–I’m three-quarters of the way through it now. Those of you who’ve read other reviews here know that I’m not into paranormal fiction myself, but that I get why so many people are. As to Starcrossed, I get why paranormal fans are going to love it!

Helen doesn’t understand why she is faster and stronger than other kids. All of her life, she’s tried to hide her talents and despairs of being considered a freak. That is until a strange new family moves to Nantucket and peaceful island life is turned upside down.  Helen discovers that the legacy of the Greek gods–who were always having affairs with humans–is alive and well in Massachusetts. Their demi-god children have passed their characteristics and powers down through thousands of years and many generation.

Anyone with just a little background in Greek mythology will immediately recognize that the three Furies are after Helen, but will have to wait to discover why. Add to that new neighbor Luke, demi-god and all around luscious guy, is crushing on Helen while his cousins try to help her control her powers so that she can combat evil demi-gods who want to kill her in order to achieve their goals. Meanwhile, Helen is getting glimpses into the nature of her long-ago disappeared mother.

Starcrossed combines some fun elements–the Greek myths are transformed and the demi-god characters are a lot like the vampires you find in YA fiction these days–but without all that nasty bloodsucking.

Helen is transforming from a meek, hunch-shouldered loner to a kicking powerhouse of electrical energy. This is a romp with a female superhero–and it’s the first in a series, so more fun for paranormal fans is on the way.

See you tomorrow at the Book Fest!

Just announced! This year’s California Young Reader Medal Winner!

The California Young Reader Medal is a special award because unlike most other book awards, students nominate the books through their teachers and/or librarians. Students choose the winner by reading and voting for their favorite book in each category.

This year’s winner is Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

I love to see what teens will choose. I read this novel (review is here) and could immediately see why teens would like it–the protagonist is a very strong girl and the world she lives in is magical–but for my own part, I found it repetitive and an exercise in adverbs-gone-wild. And this is why it’s good to have an award that teens choose themselves. And it’s also why I love the idea that we have a library and the opportunity to choose what we want to read, not just cram for tests.

Exercise your FREADOM right here in our library. I bought multiple copies of Graceling just after I read it–thought it might be a hit!

“Bloody Sunday: Teen Brutally Attacked.”

This is the headline from a (fictional) news article on the pages before chapter one.

“Stunned residents of Black Creek, North Carolina, pray for seventeen-year-old Patrick Truman, beaten and left for dead outside the convenience store where he works.

“’There was blood on his face. . .blood everywhere,’ says Dave Tuttle, the motorist who discovered the unconscious teen early Sunday morning.

“When Tuttle pulled up to the store’s single pump at seven thirty, he found Truman slumped on the pavement, bound to the guardrail of the fuel dispenser. The gasoline nozzle protruded from his mouth, held in place with duct tape. Across the teen’s bare chest, scrawled in blood, were the words Suck this, f–.”

While Shine is a work of fiction—and thus not the story of Matthew Shepard—it clearly begins with the Matthew Shepard murder in mind, and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book benefit the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Black Creek is a small town of about 500 residents. The economic downturn hit the town particularly hard, and many of the young people have turned to partying hard—to drugs, including meth. Lots of them are dropouts, with little hope for the future. Many are dirt poor, and the details of their lives and how they try to add bright touches are heartbreaking.

Cat, the novel’s narrator, hasn’t paid much attention to the change in Black Creek over the last three years. She’s withdrawn from all of her friends after being molested by a local (popular and mean) boy at the end of eighth grade. She’s hurt that her aunt, with whom she lives, just wants her to forget the incident and move on. But Cat’s withdrawal from friends includes a rift in her long-time relationship with her childhood best friend, Patrick Truman—the boy who was attacked at the convenience store. Without him, she has been adrift. As he lies in a coma in the hospital, she realizes she may never have the chance to talk to him again.

When Sheriff Doyle doesn’t seem to be investigating the crime with any thought of finding the culprit(s), Cat realizes that he doesn’t want to know because it’s likely that a local teen committed the hate crime. It’s hard to guess what happened, as Patrick often hangs out with what Cat refers to as ‘the redneck posse,’ and it doesn’t seem any of them—no matter their prejudices—would hurt Patrick. Cat decides that she has to reenter the world of her small town and her friends, and help to find out what happened to her one time soul mate.

While the novel’s end is a tad too tidy, it’s a good mystery as well as a story of prejudice and friendship, of religious hypocrisy, of hard luck and its consequences. A good read.

In a future United States, a scourge has caused pandemic infertility. Abortion is against the law, and when Hannah Payne is caught, she is imprisoned in the “Chrome Ward” where she (as well as other prisoners) are videotaped for public humiliation. After a month of public display, she is released to try to start life anew.

Melachroming is a part of punishment for criminals. They are injected with a virus that makes their skin a color related to their crime. Hannah wakes up entirely red—crimson from head to toe—because she is a murderer. She must remain so for sixteen years. Her punishment is for ten years, but because she refuses to name the abortionist or the father of the unborn baby, three years are tacked on for each. Should she try to flee once her month-long sentence in the Chrome Ward is up, she will die—‘frag out’ as they say in the book. She has another virus implanted that will start to cause mental derangement if she doesn’t go in for her regular sessions to be re-chromed.

Hannah doesn’t name the father of the baby because he is her minister. He is widely known as a holy man and does a lot of good work for the impoverished. Hannah doesn’t want to see that work stopped. If all of these direct connections to The Scarlet Letter don’t grab you, the quote from that novel at the beginning of the book is another big hint. This is a future dystopia with a Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmsdale (here simply Reverend Dale) working out their sins over video mail.

When Hannah is released from the Chrome Ward, her mother, a very strict, upright Christian, refuses to take her in. She must go to a halfway house run by a (extremely self-righteous and voyeuristic) Christian couple. Only capable of taking so much humiliation, Hannah flees, and, being sought by anti-abortion terrorists, finds herself in the arms of a pro-choice underground group. Ironically, what they have in common with the unforgiving Christians is that they, too, are unwavering in their beliefs. They will not let anything get in the way of their mission.

Although Hannah does question her decision to have an abortion, just as she questions her strict religious upbringing, ultimately—just as with Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter—she feels more sinned against than sinning and rejects the moral certitude of those who torment her.

I would love to talk about the end of this book with someone who has also read The Scarlet Letter. When She Woke would be a great read for teens who are looking for literary readalikes. However, here’s a caveat: This novel is not for everyone; I can say with certainty that conservative Christians will object to the content and to the outcome. It’s for mature, older teens, not the middle school set. Mature topics and situations appear throughout the book.

Johnny Marco works at his family’s show repair shop in the lobby of a swanky Miami hotel. He’s repaired shoes for the rich; he’s seen the celebrity set (who usually spend money on new shoes rather than repair them). But when Princess Victoriana jets in from Aloria, his mundane life becomes a wild adventure.

Princess Victoriana sees that Johnny is a hardworking teen who values his mother. She decides to trust him and seeks his help in finding her brother, Prince Philippe, who was turned into a frog so that the princess will be forced to marry an unsavory character. In order to help Johnny on his quest, the princess gives him a roll of bills and a magic cloak that transports him wherever he wishes. She offers to marry him if he succeeds. And she is world-class beautiful.

The task is even harder than Johnny had imagined. Each time he has success, it’s because he receives a favor from a bewitched creature or a magical person. So, he always owes something in return, requiring another adventure. He has to talk to swans, round up giants, escape witches, and still find that frog. This is all just such silly good fun.

Flinn tells the reader that he’s always loved fairy tales, and here he incorporates many different tales that he thinks are not familiar enough to today’s readers. He wants teens to enjoy these stories as well. I am surprised to find that the tale of the shoemaker and the elves is no longer familiar; I thought that was a standard. But Flinn includes many others in Cloaked—the six swans and the giants were new to me. However, the tale of the frog prince is one I remember, but Flinn’s version is different—a bit less sweet.

Johnny both gets what he wants and doesn’t get what he wants—and, that is the most realistic thing about the fairytale rendering. As the Rolling Stones put it years ago, you don’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes, you get what you need. A fun-for-everyone read.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Wise, poetic, 16 year old Hazel Grace Lancaster has terminal thyroid cancer that has metastasized to her lungs.  An experimental drug has kept her alive for the past 3 years.  Her parents want her to be a normal teenager in spite of having to drag her oxygen tank with her wherever she goes.   At her kids-with-cancer support group, Hazel meets good-looking, witty 17-year-old Augustus Waters who finds her “like V for Vendetta Natalie Portman” beautiful.  Gus doesn’t have a terminal diagnosis – his leg was amputated as a result of osteosarcoma (a malignant bone tumor), but he is officially NEC (no evidence of cancer).

Hazel and Gus are star-crossed kindred spirits who reject the belief that all kids with cancer are courageous saints; they are both looking for meaning in their finite lives.  They share with each other their favorite books, movies, video games, dreams, fears, loves, and Cancer Perks. “Grand Gesture Metaphorically Inclined Augustus” takes Hazel on an adventure that she never could have imagined.  The Fault in Our Stars isn’t about cancer (or its sometimes tragic consequences) or even teenagers – it’s a story about love, friendship, and the joy that Hazel and Gus find in their “little infinity.”

The professional reviews and reader reviews of The Fault in Our Stars have been overwhelmingly positive, with many people calling it one of the best novels (for teens or adults) of the year.  Released in January 2012, it was named by Amazon as one of the best books of the month, and it has been on numerous best seller lists.  Like John Green’s other novels, The Fault in Our Stars is written for teenagers (and adults) who appreciate wit, philosophical ponderings, and the realness of life and its characters.

You can hear John Green read the first chapter of The Fault in Our Stars here.

 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

The weird photographs placed throughout this book drew me in. They are all actual, unretouched photos from private collections.

The original premise is also promising. Jacob deeply loves his grandfather, Abe, who is a survivor of the Holocaust. Abe often tells weird stories about his life—that he has spent years on the run from monsters and flesh-eating demons. Jacob’s parents tell him that this is Abe’s way of describing his terrible past. For a while, Jacob believes all of the bizarre stories.

And then he doesn’t.

And then he must. Because he witnesses an equally bizarre tragedy and finds himself looking for clues to his grandfather’s past life. These clues lead Jacob to Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children.

The word ‘peculiar,’ is, of course, an understatement. Other words to describe the group are magical, eccentric, other-worldly, supernatural. They make flames in the cup of their hands, have a hive of bees living inside them, they float. The author draws readers into their special, hidden world.  When we find out why they must hide, we follow them through imminent danger. I wished that those dangers—the wights and the hollowghasts—had a better reason for being because it would have helped me delve into this mysterious world. But the novel is still creative and unusual.

And the ending screams “Sequel!”