“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak

Oh my goodness. Zusak, a bit of an Australian prodigy, has surpassed his impressive earlier works with a true masterpiece. A tale of World War II Germany, narrated by Death, the story reads like a haiku. In a book that is very much about words, every phrase here seems specifically chosen and crafted. Told in a series of snapshots, young Liesel (the aforementioned book thief) is just a normal kid in an extraordinary time. We watch her play soccer in the street and eat ration food night after night. She befriends the other pre-teens in her poverty-stricken neighborhood and is remarkably resilient despite the many setbacks that cross her path. The politics of Nazi Germany are present, they drive the events of the novel, but they are not the point. Abandoning one of the first rules of authorship, Markus Zusak has his narrator reveal the fate of everyone in the book, even jumping ahead to cover some of the climax right from the beginning. The end is also not the point. As Death makes it clear, we all die. Perhaps the point is the journey. From a literary standpoint, Zusak tends to flip things on their heads and comes up with brilliant ways of revealing the commonplace as something miraculous. The choice to have Death narrate this tale provides emotional distance but also allows the readers to experience a rather inevitable story with a fresh perspective. It packs a heck of a punch. These 550 pages read quickly, but I would suggest taking the time to read reflectively. Eat these words slowly, so as to absorb all their richness.

“The Red Tent” by Anita Diamant

“And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.” Genesis, 34: 1-2.

As Dinah, the narrator of this story, says, she is not much more of a footnote in history -- excepting the revenge by her brothers on the city of Shalem, brutal even by the standards of the day. But that is not the whole story. It is certainly not the story of the women – of Leah and Rachel, their handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, of Adah and Rebecca. Anita Diamant takes on the history that is so often left behind – that of those who brought forth the generations of men. She does so with grace and majesty. Of all the books I read this summer, this one was the tale that wrapped me into its folds. This is the narrative I felt a part of, the one that made me laugh and cry and gape with wonder. Of course, I am a “bit” of a feminist (LOL), and the details of the red tent, details that make up women’s lives, were hugely appealing. Mothers and daughters, sisters and aunts share in the unique joys and sorrows of womanhood within the sanctuary of the red tent. They are born, mature into adulthood, experience sex and pregnancy, and then the circle starts again. It struck a powerful note. The writing is evocative and moving, in many ways Ms. Diamont’s style is like the prose version of Naomi Shihab Nye. She takes the huge palette of the bible lands and humanizes each person within this epic. I waited a long time to read this bestseller, now I cannot wait to recommend it to others. Find the time to experience this true treasure.

“Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging” by Louise Rennison

The first of Ms. Rennison’s growing series about British n’er-do-well teenager, Georgia Nicolson, this diary-format book was a laugh-out-loud winner for me. Featuring one year in the life of the most moody, angsty teen one might ever meet, the book drips with sarcasm. Her interest in school is in the negative numbers, her parents are loons (in her personal opinion) and her overweight feral cat, Angus, has the instincts of a Siberian Tiger. What little human compassion can be found in this girl is reserved for her little sister – sticky and slobbery, but cute. Georgia’s great efforts at life are spent trying to be friends with fellow teens she doesn’t really care for, trying to get fashionable hair, and pursuing the impossible guy … the attractive older “sex god” who works at the local green grocer’s. Taken at face value, it could be seen as whiney, but one could never take this book at face value. The stuttering additions to most of the entries (1 and 2am one liners) only add more hilarity to the over the top “drama” covering each entry. And don’t forget to read the “British-American” glossary at the back. It had me on the floor.

“When Zachary Beaver Came to Town” by Kimberly Willis Holt

This National Book Award winner and TAB title has been on my “need to read” list for a while. One of those few books left that is clearly a middle school book, I don’t see it appealing to many of our students. In a time when contemporary urban stories are popular, the book is set in small-town Texas in 1971. One of the themes includes Christian redemption and the protagonists are all male – in a book with virtually no action. None of which is to say it is a bad book. I just think it would take a more reflective reader to appreciate it. Perhaps it could find a home with niche readers. It is a charming story in many ways and the characters are drawn richly. The religious theme, along with the other plotlines (mostly of loss), is gently written. And perhaps that is the point of the story. Focusing on 13 year-old Toby and his friend Cal, the tale unfolds when a 600+ pound teen is brought to the town of “Antler, TX” as a sideshow attraction. Humanizing the freak becomes a journey that allows each of the characters to deal with their own internal struggles. It is not a sad book, just a sweet one. There is discovery and there is growth, but mostly it felt like a slice of life. It’s a worthy read should someone come across it.

“The White Darkness” by Geraldine McCaughrean

This complex novel won the Printz Award in 2008 for best Young Adult Fiction. It is easy to see why it has been listed as “notable” on a number of lists, but it is arguably a young adult novel. The protagonist is 14, yes, but this is a mature tale full of strong literary themes – the 369 pages were dense and required a great deal of “thinking” as I read, and it was the second book I had read this summer that began with a quote from Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. Much like an antithesis to “Into the Wild”, our lead character is acutely aware of the dangers around her and deeply wants to survive. The events were somewhat implausible, but like “Moby Dick”, I felt it was the internal journey and the metaphors that mattered most. There are lies, madness and death in this story, aptly titled “The White Darkness”. The title refers to night in Antarctica, a time when you can lose your way and see things that aren’t there. It is a kind of paradox, and Sym, the young girl at the heart of the book, is someone living a paradox. Her imagination seems to be the most real thing to her, and her reality is full of people who are not what they seem. The author helpfully provides a history of the doomed expedition of Captain Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole, but much of the book includes detailed discussions of the Antarctic land mass – readers who have never spent time on a glacier might want to research that a tad before diving in…it will help your understanding of the variations and sameness of such a place (again, a paradox with symbolism). At the end, Ms. McCaughrean lists her acknowledgements beginning with a quote from Kafka, “A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.” And with such words I just began to understand the depths to be plumbed here, and in the rainbow colored ice. Hopefully, this book will be found by readers who can appreciate its many shadings.

“Aquamarine” by Alice Hoffman

“Aquamarine” is the story of two best friends spending their final days together in a summertime beach club. Their sadness is changed suddenly when they make an amazing discovery at the bottom of the pool. This popular “tween” book was made into a well-rated film in 2006 by Fox Pictures. I didn’t see it because I wanted to read the book first. I’ve been intrigued by the fandom of this brief little mermaid tale (just over 100 pages) and by adult author Alice Hoffman’s move to teen-focused fables. I read the story in one sitting and while it was enjoyable, I found it perhaps too brief. It’s a strange complaint – I felt I got the whole story and a good sense of the characters, but it just seemed a little “stripped down”. Perhaps it was a need for a better sense of context? Not the setting, which was also made quite clear, but something intangible, perhaps where the story “sits” in a larger sense. I’m now curious to see the movie, which would have to flesh out the bare bones narrative with something – and I’m curious to see what I seem to be missing. “Green Angel”, another of Hoffman’s new books, is supposed to be for a slightly older reader. I hope to check out that one as well. In the meantime, I think this book works for “tweens” and as a “hi/lo” title.

“Rebel Angels” by Libba Bray

Take Harry Potter, mix in a touch of “Little Women” and “Little Princess”, and you get Libba Bray’s “Gemma Doyle Trilogy”. I had meant to read “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, which was a New York Times bestseller. Instead, I grabbed “Rebel Angels” by mistake (it’s an honest mistake, the covers are quite similar). Called a “companion novel”, it is clearly a sequel. I realized my boo-boo several chapters in as exposition went on a bit to cover the events of the first book, some two months previous in the timeline. While I now feel like I don’t need to read the first book, this second title was quite engaging. Is it derivative? Highly. It is also fairly predictable at points, but credit should be given to Ms. Bray for finding an excellent blend between the realities of industrial England in the 1890s and the magical realms visited by our heroines. She has a good narrative style (told in first person) that made the book a page-turner, and she finds threads that will clearly appeal to modern teens, such as the plump girl who cannot find acceptance (and is a cutter) and the snobby girl who holds a dark family secret. I particularly liked the internal journey of the lead character, Miss Gemma Doyle, in the arc of this book. She begins as a typical prep school teen, her manners barely covering the giggly social misfit that most girls seem to become at one point or another. By the book’s end, however, she has glimmers of the adult woman, as she begins to see the world through a larger, more reflective lens. The conclusion is satisfying, but kudos again to Ms. Bray, who didn’t tie everything up neatly, and, like Philip Pullman, is willing to let bad stuff happen to good people. It was also a book that kept me up at night – plowing through the 500+ pages because I didn’t want to put it down. Unlike the Twilight series, I look forward to reading the third in this series, “The Sweet Far Thing”.

“Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer

For the last year and a half, my book club students have insisted that I read the hottest tome on the market today … Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight”. While the young folk have been downright fanatical about anything coming from the pen of Ms. Meyer, the adult reception has been, by and large, cool. With the summer came time to peruse this 498 page book, and I now have to say I am firmly on the fence. On one hand, I find it the fluffiest of fluffy reads, on the other hand, I do understand the teen fascination. “Twilight” is yet another vampire tale (no complaints here, I love my bloodsuckers). This time the story takes place in rural Washington state. There is Bella, a 17 year-old angst-filled teen and recent transplant, then there is the pretty Edward Cullen and his beautiful family – a group of pale-skinned young folk with a noted lack of appetite … for cafeteria food, anyway. The predictable happens and anti-social Bella falls for anti-social Edward. Secrets are revealed and longing is had. Ms. Myers uses up her thesaurus with synonyms for “perfect” as Bella thinks about (almost) every part of Edward’s anatomy, while simultaneously wallowing in her own tremendous lack of self-esteem. Edward rescues his damsel in distress over and over again with the caveat that while he “really really loves her” he can never be “with” her because he is, at heart, a bad boy who will hurt her. And herein lies the symbolism that makes vampire tales, particularly with “good” vampires, so attractive. You have the whole blood thing, which acknowledges the maturation of young women, and is, at its core, about sex. Then there is the full-fledged adult man (vampires having lived a while regardless of their looks) who are desired but also scary. The good vampire is ideal – the lusty female protagonists can acknowledge their feelings but remain in a safe place. “Twilight” manages to capture a lot of this, although it is badly in need of an editor and the main character, Bella, could use some of Buffy’s sense of self. In fact, much of the first book in this series feels like an overwrought and less clever version of the Buffy/Angel tale. Bottom line is that it was a fun, and surprisingly fast, read, but I’m not running out to get the sequel, “New Moon”. In a rare moment, I’ll say this is a great book for the young, but readers over 21 might prefer Anne Rice’s moody, conflicted vamps to the G-rated folks in these books … unless you are looking for something mindless on a warm summer night to make you go “ahhhh”.