Darth Paper Strikes Back (MG)

Darth Paper Strikes Back. Tom Angleberger. 2011. Harry N. Abrams. 176 pages.

It is a dark time at McQuarrie Middle School...when did it start? I can tell you exactly when it started.
The first day of school. The very first day of seventh grade. We didn't even get one good day. We got, like, five minutes.

Darth Paper Strikes Back is the sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Sixth grade is over, seventh grade is just beginning. And it seems the wisdom of everyone's favorite origami Yoda isn't as revered or respected as in previous days. Teachers and administrators aren't so fond of the "disruptions" made by Dwight and his paper puppet. And there are some in the class who are oh-so-tired of it all. Or at least tired of Dwight getting all the attention. Harvey a student who can be a little mean at times--but isn't quite a complete bully at heart--comes to school with Darth Paper. And thus a NEW saga begins.

So the novel begins with bad news. Dwight has been kicked out of school. He may or may not be allowed to return after a few weeks. His case has to come before the school board. His friends want to help him, of course. And so they set about writing this casebook as to why Dwight and his origami Yoda are positive influences on the school, on the class. They're defending their friend.

So the book has multiple narrators. And there are many stories to tell. If you liked the first book, then you'll definitely want to read this one! It's an entertaining read!

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Posted in 2011 , friendship , Harry N. Abrams , humor , J Fiction , J Realistic Fiction , review copy , school

The Night Bookmobile

The Night Bookmobile. Audrey Niffenegger. 2010. Harry N. Abrams. 40 pages. 

The first time I saw the Night Bookmobile, I was walking down Ravenswood Avenue at four o'clock in the morning. It was late in the summer, at that quiet time of morning when the cicadas have given up but the birds haven't started in yet. I'd been walking for about an hour. 

Alexandra, our heroine, discovers the Night Bookmobile after a big fight with her boyfriend, Richard. This will change her life forever--for better or worse. For she meets her personal librarian, Mr. Openshaw, and sees just a glimpse of the magic behind the Night Bookmobile. It is her collection of books--every book she's ever read, every book she's ever started--though the print on the page stops where she did--every letter, every note, every cereal box. Some books are her own, others are from different libraries she's visited--all housed within "an enormous, battered Winnebago." It's almost too wonderful to be true. But since the hours of the bookmobile are from dusk to dawn, Alexandra's forced back into the real world--forever changed.

Have you ever found your heart's desire and then lost it? I had seen myself, a portrait of myself as a reader. My childhood: hours spent in airless classrooms, days home sick from school reading Nancy Drew, forbidden books read secretively late at night. Teenage years reading--trying to read--books I'd heard were important, Naked Lunch and The Fountainhead, Ulysses and Women in Love...It was as though I had dreamt the perfect lover, who vanished as I woke, leaving me pining and surly. 

In the same way that perfume captures the essence of a flower, these shelves of books were a distillation of my life. Here was A Distant Mirror, by Barbara Tuchman, which I remembered reading in a coffee shop while waiting for a blind date who never showed up. Here was my paperback copy of Anna Karenina, fattened by repeated reading. I picked up Gravity's Rainbow. As I fanned through the book I saw that the text stopped at page fifty-seven; the remaining pages were blank. I had never finished reading it. A popsicle stick served to mark the place I had not come back to. 

She becomes obsessed with finding the Night Bookmobile again, becomes obsessed with reading, never forgetting for a moment that everything she reads is being added to her collection. She imagines what her librarian might be thinking, imagines him taking an interest in her life. She doesn't find the Night Bookmobile often, but she does find it a few times. Just enough to keep her hooked, keep her obsessed. Just enough to influence her--sometimes in VERY UNHEALTHY ways.

This graphic novel is strange. (Twilight Zone creepy.) It definitely has its dark moments! I mean you might think it would be sweet and lovely and charming, but, that's not the direction this one heads. Did I like it? I'm not sure I did. There was something about it that was very disturbing. I did like a few things about it though. And I do think others might like it more than I did.


© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Posted in 2010 , adult fiction , graphic novels , Harry N. Abrams , library book

Heart of a Samurai (MG)

Heart of a Samurai. Margi Preus. 2010. [August 2010] Harry N. Abrams. 320 pages. 

Manjiro squinted across the expanse of glittering sea at the line of dark clouds forming on the horizon.

Historical fiction set in the 1840s-1850s. Manjiro may have dreamed about one day being a samurai, but, the truth is as a son of a fisherman, his "destiny" was to be a fisherman. Nothing more, nothing less. After a stormy beginning, Manjiro was lucky to be alive. For when he's out and about with a handful of other fisherman--all older, more experienced--their small boat becomes lost at sea. The young men (Manjiro's just fourteen) end up on a desolate rocky island. Their fate seems all too certain--starvation. But at the hand of "barbarians" (American whalers), they find new opportunities.

Unfortunately, these opportunities come at a heavy price. Because Japan's policies towards outsiders, if the men were to ever return they'd likely be killed because they've been "contaminated" by contact with the outside world. Manjiro accepts a special invitation from the Captain of the whaling vessel. He will--after several years aboard ship with the Captain--return with him to America, will become a part of the Captain's own family. He will be the first Japanese man in America. And the experience is something he never could have imagined! But will he ever get the chance to go home? For no matter how "lucky" he may be to have found a new life, a new family, he can't forget the family he left behind. He can't forget that he never told his mother goodbye--that he left without even telling her where he was going--fishing with friends. All these years, she had no way of knowing if her son was dead or alive. He has to find a way back to Japan if he can.

This historical fiction novel is based on a true story. It is historical adventure. Readers learn about his time at sea--on board a few whaling vessels. Readers learn about his time in America--his first experiences with school, with church,  with the community. Will he be accepted? Or will be seen as strange? as dangerous?

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Posted in 2010 , Harry N. Abrams , library book , YA Action , YA Adventure , YA Fiction , YA Historical Fiction