"Folly" by Marthe Jocelyn

This tale of Victorian England tells the story through multiple voices and years. With echoes of Oliver Twist, we hear from Mary, a simple country girl done wrong; James Nelligan, a fostered waif; Eliza, a a jealous scullery maid; and Oliver, a history teacher with a past. Not nearly as dark or lengthy as your average Dickensonian tome, it still manages to portray the time in realistic terms that show the often insurmountable challenges faced by those on the lower echelon of society. It has sad parts, but it isn't depressing. Mary's voice, in particular, is written in a plaintive, ironic, simple way using vernacular of the period. The "big secret" of the story is one I guessed early on, and while the ending may not be Disney, it isn't bleak. I could wax on, but that would be a disservice to a nice little novel that made for an enjoyable read. Short and to the point, my sense is that it would have wide appeal if you could actually get kids to read historical fiction. While the book is not romance, there is a storyline involving pre-marital sex. It is plainly stated but but not over the top. This element may make the book a better read for somewhat older students.

"The Devil's Paintbox" by Victoria McKernan

An excellent historical fiction novel, this tells the tale of Aiden Lynch, a young boy whose life is destroyed by the chaos of the Civil War who joins a wagon train west. Along with his sister, they experience eye-opening adventures and heartbreak along the Oregon Trail. As usual, the cover art is deceiving. As the book begins, Aiden is "almost 16." The young man on the cover looks more like a person in his late 20s. At times, the writing seems a tad heavy-handed and events forced a bit, but then you remember that in this place, in this time, life was larger and childhood was much more brief. Without doubt, this is not "Little House on the Prairie." In the end, I was won over by an authenticity in the details. The third person narrative and clear research by the author makes it feel like real history, even if all of these things may not have necessarily happened to one person. It is not a happy tale, although bits of light do pierce the darkness. Much like an Irishman, the reader must accept that with every good thing that happens, tragedy is likely to follow. You do begin to feel for Aiden, who doesn't recognize his own will of iron, but wonder if true happiness will ever touch his life. As usual, I do have one small complaint -- in this case, the title. "The Devil's Paintbox" refers to smallpox, and while it does weave in and out of the story, I'm not sure I would title the book in this way. It makes it seem as if this is a story about smallpox. It's really not. Admittedly, "The Devil's Paintbox" is a far more interesting title than "Aiden's Journey" or something more on point, but it's not particularly accurate. The book is a coming-of-age story, a travelogue, but not a story about a disease. It's not even a drama, strictly speaking, as there are multiple climaxes and no specific denouement. The tale meanders more than it directs, with distinct peaks at the middle of the book, another about two thirds of the way in, and one at the end. One event doesn't lead to another, they simply open the storyline to a "new chapter" as it were. In this way, the book feels real, it simply is a slice of life rather than a moral all neatly wrapped up. I liked the book, and feel that it could raise interest in this part of American history for the readers (a nice bibliography is offered at the end). I also like the strong male protagonist, feeling that it gives the book a wide appeal. With historical fiction not moving much these days, it is worth marketing.

“Miles from Ordinary” by Carol Lynch Williams

This slim novel won the Schneider Family award last year for best book about the disability experience. As usual, I had meant to read it, but it took a while to work my way through the list. The action of the book takes place in a single day and very much in the mind of our protagonist, Lacey. The activities of her life lead to a constant stream of flash-backs as she works through the challenges of being a child with a mentally ill mother. Her internal self-talk is a steady back-and-forth between the normal wishes of a young teen, and the challenging, almost impossible demands of being a child looking after an adult. Even when Lacey is around others, she is alone, feeling isolated in a prison of her mother’s delusions. It is well-written but a painful read. I could identify with Lacey’s isolation, the craving for normalcy (a better title would have been “Miles from Normal” but that probably didn’t scan as well) and the panicky feeling of being overwhelmed at her own inability to make things right. Lacey is fourteen. This is the fourth book I’ve read in the last month with a 14 year-old protagonist. Must be something about being fourteen. Lacey has to act in ways far superior to her chronological age, but at the same time, she is a scared young girl who cannot fully appreciate the circumstances surrounding her life. Despite its short length, the dizzying emotional swings and floating time focus make this a book for more mature readers. Lacey’s mother is supposedly a severe depressive, but she comes off more like a schizophrenic. The achingly slow climax, building throughout most of the book, is truly frightening and disturbing. The wish for a peaceful resolution is left to the reader’s imagination as the denouement is left fairly open. It is not an easy book to read. It is not a happy book. But it is a powerful one, and deserves the accolades it has received.

“Akata Witch” by Nnedi Okorafor

I seem to be in this place where I’m judging books by their cover. Definitely not a good call for a librarian. First, I mistake “Okay for Now” as a contemporary middle school humor novel (when it is actually a high school historical fiction coming-of-age book) and with this novel, I assumed some sort of Asian mythology. Had I looked more carefully at the cover or known the origin of the word “Akata” I would have known better. This fast-reading story is about a 14 year-old named Sunny who is an albino Nigerian girl born in the U.S. and now returned to her home country. Sunny feels a little lost – in part because of her looks, and in part because of a vision she has which presages very dark things to come. We quickly discover that Sunny is not like other people, and her differences have little to do with her skin pigmentation. One of the “Leopard Folk,” she discovers a hidden heritage and magical abilities she could only imagine in the opening pages of the book. It’s a fun tale of young teens on one of those epic journeys to stop the “big bad” and it is enlightening in terms of seeing a country I knew little about in very different ways. Despite the inevitable Harry Potter comparisons (isn’t that the case with everything these days?) it is not derivative. Any complaints I have are minor. There are some editing issues – Sunny apparently returned to Nigeria at age 9 but has been best friends with Orlu since they were five. It’s minor, but issues like these are distracting to me and should have been caught before publication. The other complaint isn’t really a complaint, but an oddness. The real story is about Sunny’s journey to self-actualization rather than the "let's get the bad guy" focus. The dramatic climax, including the epic battle, is only a few pages long. It’s almost as if this part of the tale is secondary to the character growth and relationships that occur. I don’t mind, it’s just not typical. While I enjoyed the story, I couldn’t help wondering when they were going to get to the inevitable conflict. It will be interesting to see how teen readers react to this style, as it is so different from your standard YA novel of this type. Overall, I enjoyed the book a good deal. I hope others will, too.

Two Books

Two books, one review. I read them back-to-back and was surprised at both their symmetry and similarities. Both have 14 year-old male protagonists who have talents they haven't begun to explore. Both boys begin their summers by travelling away from the city to pastoral climes. Both books succeed at discovering very real voices in the first person narratives of these young men, and the subtle humor in their observations of the world. Both are bildungsroman, my favorite $1 word, describing a coming of age novel. Both have a unique concept that ties the story together in a strong, literary way. And both are written by award-winning writers whose work I had read before. "Okay for Now" comes from Gary D. Schmidt, who has a stack of notable awards for "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" and "The Wednesday Wars." Kathryn Erskine had won the National Book Award with "Mockingbird" last year before she penned "The Absolute Value of Mike."

"The Absolute Value of Mike" uses Mathematical concepts to tell the tale of Mike, a boy with a distant father (possibly with Aspergers) who has to spend the summer with a kooky bunch of friends and relatives in rural Pennsylvania as a town comes together to do the impossible. The Mathematical phrases, and their descriptions, plot Mike's progress as he moves from parallel relationships to intersecting ones. Told with a light, gentle touch, this book is a fast read that makes for a good middle school text. Students who liked "Surviving the Applewhites" and "Operation Yes" will find similarities in the upbeat journey of improbable events. There is even a little of the weirdness you find in "Going Bovine" although this story is pretty much on the wholesome side. At the very least, it will have you looking at homeless people an entirely different way.

"Okay for Now" is much more complex, and more appropriate for high school. Denser with even more layers, the theme here is the work of James Audubon, and the art lessons Doug receives, which show him that balance, tension and depth are life lessons as well as art concepts. The book was hard for me to get into, not because it was bad, but because the cover set me up with different expectations. As a librarian, I should know better than to judge a book by its cover. I thought it was a contemporary humor novel and found a historical book with as much pathos as quiet grins. It took me a couple chapters to adjust. Once I did, however, I could hardly put the book down. Set in 1968, this story picks up the character of Doug from "The Wednesday Wars" and makes him the protagonist (Holling Hoodhood, the lead character in "The Wednesday Wars" makes a brief appearance near the beginning of the book). Doug's family makes a sudden move to upstate NY and, like a fish out of water, the young man tries to navigate a completely different world than the Long Island home he is accustomed to. There is a slow, lyrical quality to the work of Gary Schmidt, but I liked this far more than "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy." While that historical novel had a compelling tale and was written as if it were a series of artistic frescoes, the characters weren't overly compelling. Here, they jump off the page. I felt as if Doug was sitting next to me telling me his story rather than just reading it. Also, unlike "Lizzie Bright" a tale that was moving towards darkness, this is a journey of a teenager moving into the light. Upbeat despite some overwhelmingly sad layers, it shows how even then, it took a village to raise a child and that the human spirit can succeed where human beings fail. The characters here are not simple. Bad guys surprise you at times, with the one exception I took being a change in a major character near the end. Despite the book's theme of redemption, I felt that the reform of this particular character was too sudden and it felt unrealistic. The rest of the book, however, felt more like autobiography than fiction. Looking at Mr. Schmidt's biography, it is clear that he may have drawn on his own life experiences, which made this book, IMHO, the best that he has written.

Bravo to Mike and Doug, two guys who made sitting down to read a deeply cool experience. Enjoy.