Paper Covers Rock vs. Never Fall Down

 

Thoughts on Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard

Alex Stromm who is 16 years old and living at private prep school, writes the after math of the accidental drowning of a friend. The only female teacher on staff tries to reach out to him to find our what really happened in the death of his friend.

This book, although right sized for adolescent readers, is too deep in the classical literature for most to follow. The plot runs like a jigsaw puzzle that requires considerable focus and time investment that I don't think most readers will do.  The themes are very mature (although not stated are very heavily implied) that should have some sort of discussion afterward.

Best quote pg 89

"Math is just as important as English. Numbers, like language, provide one with a way to arrange the world's chaos."

Thoughts on Never Fall Down

I really enjoyed this book and found it a good follow-up book to Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins which was a semi- finalist (?) in Smackdown two years ago.  Although the two books are based from different countries and different conflicts, the premise of child soldiers and fighting for an army under threats of punishments is common to both.  Never Fall Down is a compelling story that grabs the reader drawing him or her into the world of the Khmer Rouge.  My biggest concern with this book is the voice and grammar in which the author uses for Arn.  It was not until I read the endnotes as to the reason for this that it made sense.  I would suggest in further publications that this endnote be moved to the beginning of the book.  As well, I believe this book is right sized for adolescence and leaves the reader satisfied at the completion rather than of exhausted as is too common from some of the marathon sized novels published for teens today.

Andrew

We Liked Them Both!!

Keep reading if you are looking for some good reads! We are not picking from the best of the worst but genuinely liked both books. We will start with Bill Wright's book Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy.  

Dia:  I thought this book was a nice light snack. A perfect holiday book that makes you cheer for the main character. Carlos is a high school makeup artist who longs for the day when he will rise above to his position of makeup artisit to the stars. He begins to get his foot on the ladder when he gets the opportunity to work at a New York department store makeup counter. His sexuality is a matter of fact plot point and not the center of the story. It is how Carlos lives his life too and it is up to those around him to choose to be his friend, co-worker and family based on other more important personality points. 

Annabel: So, I finished the makeup book and to be honest it is more my type of book. I felt it addressed topics like homosexuality, homophobia, abuse, individual appearance, relationships etc which are important to be discussed but it did this in a very natural way and without coming to a 'neat and tidy' conclusion.  I was also very absorbed in Carlos' desire to make it big and I really felt this was the plot line which was front and centre.  But, I would suggest this is more of a high school book and probably a holiday book at that too, I whipped through it and thoroughly enjoyed it and I think high school teens looking for a 'non sensationalist' good read would love it. I think for some it would provide valuable characters to identify with. 

Now onto Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater:

Annabel: I have not finished Raven Boys and it is not the type of book I generally enjoy.  However, I think that it is appealing. I like the creepiness of it and I also like all the different characters although I don't think I am supposed to like them!  In the first half of the book I feel like I have not got enough of a grasp on the 'quest' I think the two groups will be engaging in but I do feel like this is a plot with a lot of background info needed.  I think it is a stand out in its genre as I think there is a lot of cleverness to it, which leads me to wonder if your average junior high reader would persevere with it?  The characters are also clearly junior high age and i wonder if that perhaps also limits the appeal to younger readers?  This is a tough choice for me as my heart leads me to the Makeup book as I feel it is important to adolescent literature but I see the potential in Raven Boys and I know I personally struggle with the type of book Raven Boys is, I also feel bad that I have not yet finished it...!  

Dia: I read her previous book Scorpio Races and loved it so was quite excited to read this one next. Raven Boys also has Welch mythology in it but is placed in Virgina and follows the story of Blue. Blue is the daughter of a psychic and all of the psychic's in her life (and there are a lot of them) have predicted that Blue will cause her true love to die if she ever kisses them. So no hanky panky. Sounds like a fun spooky romp eh? It's actually pretty freaky. I can usually whip through most YA titles but this was slow going because Annabel is right you don't get much information as the book chugs along and I couldn't seem to make myself read faster...it was like I was creeping around reading corners cautiously but I never wanted to stop.In the book time is manipulated and freak alert here - I felt like that when I was reading.  As the book moves along and reveals more the creep factor continues and Blue begins to join the Raven Boys (boy's private school nickname) as they search for a myth who can promise them the world. I'll tell you this people - when the sequel comes out clear my calendar...I'll have more cautious reading ahead.  What moves on? Duh! Anything that slows me down and keeps me reading - Raven Boys.

Bluefish vs. Dead End in Norvelt

The good folks here at Vimy had themselves a fairly easy decision when it came to the first round of this year's Smackdown... a book we both enjoyed (yet left us with many questions), or a book that neither of us were able to finish. 

Dead End in Norvelt simply did not grab either of us. It is a Newberry-winning novel about a kid who is grounded for life and essentially forced to write obituaries about the people who founded his idyllic little town. The idea seems interesting enough, and of course leads to a series of humorous adventures uncovering the past of the town. I felt that this book was too young for our focus group of readers, as it came across as a book more designed for upper elementary. Of course, not having finished the novel, both Tracy and I could have missed out on the best novel ever written. That being said, we are aware that a reader needs to be engaged as quickly as possible, and this book did not do it for us. 

Our winner for round one is Bluefish, and not only because the title comes from one of my all-time favorite stories as a child. Bluefish tells the story of a loner teen who has recently moved from his ideal home in the country to the city with his alcoholic grandfather. Our protagonist, Travis, wants nothing more than to hide in the crowd, to not be noticed by anyone at his school. Until he develops an awkward friendship with the awfully named Velveeta. Travis has a secret, and of course there are the good people who want to help him out, including the teacher who spends a lot of extra time with him in order to get him to where he needs to be. 

Bluefish has many allusions to the fantastic novel, The Book Thief. So many, in fact, that I wonder if the author was not just writing a light version of the novel. Or a beginners version of it. Maybe The Book Thief is too advanced for a lot of readers, so Bluefish is The Book Thief For Dummies? It gets to the point where plot points from the mentioned book play key roles in the "newer" version. Yet, I can't really decide if this was annoying, or a really good idea. 

By no means was Bluefish a perfect novel. I felt that the plot in general was kind of lacking. But I liked the characters enough that I think it warrants another read in the competition. And I'm curious to see what other people think about The Book Thief tie-ins. 

Also, we didn't have time to work on this post together, but Tracy and I will have a combo post for the next round.

So, Bluefish moves on!

Endangered VS The Fault in our Stars

 Endangered is the 2012 National Book Award Finalist.   The Fault in our Stars is a #1 New York Times Bestseller—both great books for teenagers. 
I think there must be a new genre out there—stories about surviving conflict in Africa.  Last year had to choose between Wonder and Now is the Time for Running— intense North American relatively minor drama vs. intense and moving stories about survival in Africa.  This is the same.  My choices determined by my skin colour?  Hope not but probably by what I can relate to.
 Endangered is the story of a half Congolese/half American child visiting her mother at a her mother’s bonobo sanctuary  in the Congo who finds herself searching for her mother during a conflict involving machetes and guns (think Hotel Rwanda) and choosing to stay and protect her infant bonobo instead of evacuating.  It is a story about that relationship and her choice.   Not too sure if I believe in her choice and not too sure I believe in her survival journey.  This is because I don’t really get to know her in any real way.  I do believe in the relationship.  I do care about the bonobos.  The story introduces war with clarity and honesty and for our junior high readers is not too emotionally devastating.
This is the second read for me of The Fault in Our Stars—and it still managed to grip me and make me bawl.  This is a love story between two teenagers who meet at a cancer group therapy session and fall in love.  The protagonist, Hazel, passes on her love for an imaginary book to her love interest and the rest of the novel revolves around their desire to find out what happens after the book ends in the lives of the fictional characters.   The book they are fixated on, An Imperial Affliction, is a story about a teenager with cancer and ends in the middle of a sentence and nothing in the story is resolved.  The author is a foul mouthed drunk who is dismissive of those who expect fictional characters to have a history beyond the book’s pages and treats our protagonists with contempt.   Confusing metaphors for me--- not sure I understand what he is saying about characters and writing.  This is a book about death and yet the characters stay or live with us beyond our reading????
John Green does not deal with sentimentality.  His characters have a very adult and irreverent understanding of their emotional lives. There is not much sacred here—cancer is a main character and it is understood from the first page that he will win at the end.  We do care about the characters and their relationship but we don’t feel manipulated.
Both strong books.   I think the book that was more emotionally gripping was The Fault in Our Stars.  So I’ll pick it and feel guilty for quite a while. 
- Wendy

  

Where Things Come Back vs. Chime 

Let me just begin by saying that I'm one of the most indecisive people you’ll ever meet.  (At least I think I am…?)  This, combined with my overall ambivalent feelings towards both of these novels, made this a difficult choice. 

The feeling of being stuck in limbo was fitting for the first of the two I read - Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley.  Alternating narratives tell the story of Cullen, a high school senior stuck in a small town whose family is unraveling after the mysterious disappearance of his brother, and Benton, another young man who is stuck in life and looking for purpose.  These narratives converge, as expected, but not in the way I would have expected.

Parts of this novel were certainly compelling, and it kept me up reading past my bedtime on more than one occasion.  It does have its flaws, however.  All the female characters are pretty one note, and a weak note at that.  Cullen’s narration often breaks off into fantasies, typically involving zombies, that I found to be distancing.  I eventually started skimming through these sections.   The final chapters were riveting, but some readers will definitely find the ending unsatisfactory.  And by that I mean that I found the ending unsatisfactory, but am hesitant to portray myself as a simpleton concerned with such plebeian concerns as tidy endings.

Chime, by Franny Billingsley, is narrated by Briony Larkin, a young woman who lives in Swampsea, a (fictional) community not far from early 20^th-century London.  Briony is completely preoccupied with keeping the promises she made to her recently murdered stepmother - to take care of her sister and to conceal the fact that she is a witch.  Then a new boy moves to Swampsea, which (surprise surprise) complicates everything.

Being a witch, Briony can see and talk to all manner supernatural creatures, like Old Ones, Mucky Face, Boggy Mun, Brownie, which the reader is introduced to without any explanation or back story.  No small amount of patience was needed in order to keep reading to figure things out.  Chime was quite beautifully written in parts, but at times I felt like this writing came at the expense of the plot’s clarity.  There were some awkward jumps in the chronology, and Briony’s incessant self-flagellation also got old very quickly.  (We get it. You hate yourself.  Please don’t remind us agai-… Never mind, you just reminded us again.) 

While ultimately I think Chime had more inventive ideas and some gorgeous prose, I also think it would have much more of a limited “niche” readership.  Where Things Come Back has more to offer for more readers.  That, combined with my need to discuss the ending with someone, means that Where Things Come Back is moving forward.  

Desert Angel vs Inside Out and Back Again

Neither of us felt we had the ultimate winner in our hands for round one, but both books had merits. 

Once you read the back of the book for Desert Angel, you pretty much know the whole book.  At the very beginning, Angel finds her mother murdered by her latest crazy boyfriend, Scotty, and she fears he’ll come after her, which he does.  The rest of the book is fairly repetitive and predictable as Angel flees from Scotty who is, indeed, looking to wipe out the witness to his crime.  There are probably a fair number of kids who’d read it for the adventure, but it’s not especially profound or original. 

Inside Out and Back Again is the story of a year in the life of Ha, a refugee from Vietnam during the war.  Her family ends up in Alabama.  It is somewhat autobiographical and written in verse (but reads like prose), which makes it a quick read.  While more kids will probably pick up Desert Angel on their own, Inside Out and Back Again is the better book.  The protagonist is lively, hating to be told she can’t do something because she’s a girl.  At times, she can break your heart and at others you will admire her.  Plus, she makes some pretty amusing observations about learning English.  Renae suggested that it might pair well for classroom use with American Born Chinese. 

Advancing to round two:  Inside Out and Back Again.  
-Laura and Renae

No Ordinary Day vs. The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman

I'd like to begin this review by thanking my newly arrived son, Aaron. Admittedly I was struggling to find the time to really get into my first read, The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, until that wonderful December evening that the 5 lbs. 4 oz little man decide to arrive three weeks early.

Being a new blogger to the illustrious Smackdown and the only bracket to be contested at the selection meeting, I felt a great amount of responsibility with these two works. Initially I believed this would be a easy choice - the story of an orphan girl in India written by an acclaimed author vs a nerdy kid from Pennsylvania - and with that I chose to read Wolitzer's novel first.

The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman  
   This is the story of three young kids from different parts of America all travelling down the Florida for the annual Youth Scrabble Tournament. Each kid (Duncan, April, and Nate) has their own reason for attending the tournament and each one is an interesting character.

   I was surprised with this novel in its somewhat whimsical telling of events and one of the highlights to the novel was that a certain string of events had me thinking back to Fred Savage being chased through Universal Studios in The Wizard. A note to authors out there - if you can get me thinking about such 1989 classics like The Wizard, you're going to do very well in this tournament. Maybe in my next round Sloth will save the day as he rips down the pirate-ship's mast on his way to help Chunk and the gang...I digress. 

   While it is not a 'perfect' story and there were times when I wondered what the purpose of a moment was, overall it was an enjoyable read. Perhaps the strength of the novel stems from the fact that it is not a futuristic post-apocalyptic dystopian vampire-werewolf love story. The heart of The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman is that it is a nerdy tale of the story of three kids and their adventures at a scrabble tournament.

No Ordinary Day
   I had high expectations for No Ordinary Day. Unfortunately, this novel was not able to deliver on those expectations. I believe that Ellis' novel held the underlying goal of exposing just a brutal way of life in Kolkata and the cruel interactions with with others and, unfortunately, more often than not this came off rather contrived. The moments where the novel was successful and genuinely connects with the reader are too few and far between. I found I spent more time as I read reflecting on my increasing enjoyment of Duncan Dorfman than I did engrossed in Valli's tale.

The novel that will advance is The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman.