MMGM: The Cabinet of Wonders

(Disclaimer: I love the MMGM series, but trying to build "platform" came at the cost of writing, of which I should be doing more. So I'm going to try and get a MMGM post every other week, or even once a month and not feel regret about not doing more. Thanks for understanding!)

Book image from Goodreads

Title: THE CABINET OF WONDERS, The Kronos Chronicles: Book 1

Author: Marie Rutkoski
Date published: 2008, FSG

From Goodreads:
"Petra Kronos has a simple, happy life. But it’s never been ordinary. She has a pet tin spider named Astrophil who likes to hide in her snarled hair and give her advice. Her best friend can trap lightning inside a glass sphere. Petra also has a father in faraway Prague who is able to move metal with his mind. He has been commissioned by the prince of Bohemia to build the world’s finest astronomical clock.

Petra’s life is forever changed when, one day, her father returns home—blind. The prince has stolen his eyes, enchanted them, and now wears them. But why? Petra doesn’t know, but she knows this: she will go to Prague, sneak into Salamander Castle, and steal her father’s eyes back.

Joining forces with Neel, whose fingers extend into invisible ghosts that pick locks and pockets, Petra finds that many people in the castle are not what they seem, and that her father’s clock has powers capable of destroying their world."

Part steampunk, part magical realism, part history, THE CABINET OF WONDERS is a wonderful adventure set in the Czech Republic. Petra is a determined heroine who sets off to reclaim something the Prince took from her Father. In order to succeed, Petra has to navigate the depths of Salamander Castle and determine who she can or cannot trust.

Rutkoski's debut novel is a great adventure, complete with animated metal animals, a woman who can create color, and an astronomical clock.

THE CABINET OF WONDERS feels like it straddles the line between YA and MG. The protagonist is younger and the content is younger as well. But on the other hand, the first half of the book spends a lot of time explaining various mystical elements of the world, and I wonder if the extra information would keep a MG reader's attention. On the other hand, maybe this has nothing to do with MG or YA, and is due to the fact the story is fantasy.

I enjoyed this book, but I feel it would be better received by a upper level MG reader who is willing to take the necessary time to immerse themselves in the world. If a MG reader were looking for a quick paced story, I don't think this book would work.

I thought the astronomical clock was a wonderful premise, but it seemed "off screen" through the book. I wanted to know more about it! I'm interested to read the second book in the series, but I hope there are more steampunk elements than the Father who can move metal with his mind, and the pet companion, Astrophil.

MMGM: Breaking Stalin's Nose

I spent some time over the weekend reading about Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. I'm a proud American and all that jazz, but sometimes the British have all the fun. Maybe it's because I'm a history major at heart, but I love all the pomp and circumstance. I'll never see another Diamond Jubilee, so this was pretty amazing.

Speaking of history, let's talk Communism...

Photo from Goodreads

Title: BREAKING STALIN'S NOSE
Author: Eugene Velchin
Date published: September, 2011 from Harry Holt and Co.

Newberry Honor (2012)

From Goodreads:

Sasha Zaichik has known the laws of the Soviet Young Pioneers since the age of six:

The Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party, and Communism.
A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always acts according to conscience.

A Young Pioneer has a right to criticize shortcomings.

But now that it is finally time to join the Young Pioneers, the day Sasha has awaited for so long, everything seems to go awry. He breaks a classmate's glasses with a snowball. He accidentally damages a bust of Stalin in the school hallway.  And worst of all, his father, the best Communist he knows, was arrested just last night.

This moving story of a ten-year-old boy's world shattering is masterful in its simplicity, powerful in its message, and heartbreaking in its plausibility.

Here's a little secret about me: One of the reasons I like reading MG books is because they're short. This allows me to read more of them in the time that it takes to read something like, oh say, Game of Thrones (*cough4monthscough*). 

BREAKING STALIN'S NOSE is 160 pages and filled with author illustrations. In terms of this adult reading it, I did it in two days. I imagine a MG reader could do it in a few.

I enjoyed this book because the very first chapter pulled me in to Sasha's world, which as an outsider, we know is subtly uncomfortable. I love it when authors evoke emotional responses from me like this because we can see so clearly how this situation isn't right. I know Communism isn't right, but reading it from Sasha's perspective made me even more uncomfortable.

The whole book covers only two days in the life of Sasha, which helps keep the tension level high. I felt sympathy for the antagonists, who had their own stories and motivations.

I'm not sure if children today will be able to grasp just how real Sasha's life was. More important, I wonder if young readers will understand the setting wasn't really that long ago. If you don't have an understanding of world history or Communism, this would almost read like another MG dystopian, which is a creepy concept for me to wrap my head around. This book depicted at way of life that happened less than 100 years ago. Blows my mind.

BREAKING STALIN'S NOSE weaves morals and lessons through the chapters and does a nice job of portraying a society where you can't trust anyone, not even your neighbors. At the end, Sasha has a choice to make and he quickly realizes how, in only two days, his world has irrevocably changed.

Would my nephews read this book? I think so. But I don't think they would willingly reach for it. As a historical novel, it's not up their alley. However, I think it's a quick enough read of an important enough topic, that maybe they should read it. 

MMGM: Bridge to Terabithia

A-Z is behind me and I can finally start posting again on MMGM books. Hooray!

A few weeks ago, I read two books in one weekend. I love it when that happens. It feels so decadent. However, I read two "coming of age" stories, which we all know is code for: Don't Get Attached, Someone's Going to Die. *Charlotte'sWebcough* So, I guess this is the part where I say **SPOILER ALERT** I will spoil the ending for you. Consider yourself warned.

Photo and description from Goodreads

Title: Bridget to Terabithia
Autor: Katherine Paterson
Date published: 1977, Harper Collins Publishers

Won the Newberry Medal in 1978

From Goodreads: 

Jess Aarons' greatest ambition is to be the fastest runner in his grade. He's been practicing all summer and can't wait to see his classmates' faces when he beats them all. But on the first day of school, a new girl boldly crosses over to the boys' side and outruns everyone.

That's not a very promising beginning for a friendship, but Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable. Together they create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where the two of them reign as king and queen, and their imaginations set the only limits.

Okay, I confess--I don't remember having to read this book when I was in elementary school and I had never seen the movie. I got the general gist of the story from the back cover and had heard more than one person tell me it was one of those "You HAVE to read it" books, so I picked it up. I'm glad I did!


There were many elements of this story that really pulled me in. First, the main character, Jess, is a very relatable main character. He is filled with insecurities and in a family of sisters, is almost invisible to his dad. The relationship between Jess and his father touched me as much as the friendship between Jess and Leslie. 


After Leslie's death, as Jess is trying to understand what this means, grapple with his guilt, and deal with the sadness, he acts out, angry with this turn of events. The anger is real. It's palpable. He's upset and confused.


Leslie's death didn't necessarily make me cry, but the way in which Jess dealt with his emotions truly hit me. Earlier in the book, Leslie gave Jess a gift. Knowing he liked to draw, she gave him nice paints and paper, clearly a very nice present for Jess, whose family couldn't necessarily afford such luxuries. Angry at Leslie for dying, Jess acted out in a scene that I thought was incredibly powerful: (excerpt from page 173)

He screamed something without words and flung the papers and paints into the dirty brown water. The paints floated on top, riding the current like a boat, but the papers swirled about, soaking in the muddy water, being sucked down, around, and down...

"That was a damn fool thing to do." His father sat down on the dirt beside him.

"I don't care. I don't care." He was crying now, crying so hard he could barely breathe.

His father pulled Jess over on his lap as though he were Joyce Ann. "There. There," he said, patting his head. "Shhh. Shhh." 

The reason this scene hit me so much was because Jess's dad finally treated his son like a boy. Until this point, Jess had an enormous amount of responsibility and a number of chores. Throughout the story, his father didn't see Jess as the young boy he was. That final acknowledgement and the bond between the heart broken boy and his emotionally unavailable father pulled the entire story home for me. 


There is much more to stay about the story. The land of Terabithia, the classmates, the family dynamics, or Jess and Leslie's friendship. But this is long enough. 


Bottom line: I ask myself if the Middle Grade books I read would be appropriate for my nephews. I absolutely believe Bridge to Terabithia would be appropriate for my nephews in terms of content and reading level. I'm just not sure I'm willing to show them how much books can make us ache. Not yet.

MMGM: Coraline

I've finally gotten around to reading Coraline! Yay, me!

Actually, that should be amended. This is the first Neil Gaiman book I've read. Le gasp! How can that be, you ask? Well, I've listened to some audiobooks, but as far as books, this is the the first. So, without further ado, on to the review!

Source

Title: Coraline

Autor: Neil Gaiman

Date published: August, 2002

From Goodreads:

Coraline lives with her preoccupied parents in part of a huge old house--a house so huge that other people live in it, too... round, old former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and their aging Highland terriers ("We trod the boards, luvvy") and the mustachioed old man under the roof ("'The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,' said the man upstairs, 'is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed.'") Coraline contents herself for weeks with exploring the vast garden and grounds. But with a little rain she becomes bored--so bored that she begins to count everything blue (153), the windows (21), and the doors (14). And it is the 14th door that--sometimes blocked with a wall of bricks--opens up for Coraline into an entirely alternate universe. Now, if you're thinking fondly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you're on the wrong track. Neil Gaiman's Coraline is far darker, far stranger, playing on our deepest fears. And, like Roald Dahl's work, it is delicious.

True story, here's what I thought when I finished reading Coraline:

"He is deliciously creepy." 

Really, I think our generation is fortunate to have a writer like Neil Gaiman. He's accessible to his fan base and has this fascinating ability to come up with stories like Coraline, or another favorite, The Graveyard Book.

I picked up Coraline after someone recommended it in my review of The Shadows (here), suggesting a similarity between the stories. Both stories have a curious girl as a main character who discovers another world in her house. And in each story, the other world wants to trap the heroine within its boundaries, never to return to their own "normal." 

The difference between these two books, however, is Neil Gaiman. I am in awe at how this man takes such a simple concept like buttons for eyes, and weaves it into something disturbing. The eye buttons are a great example. I was perfectly okay with the other mother and other father having black buttons for eyes. Creepy? Sure, but it's not out of the park. But on page 45, Gaiman shows his readers how easy it is to create creep out of something so seemingly innocent:

"If you want to stay," said her other father, "there's only one little thing we'll have to do, so you can stay here for ever and always."

 They went into the kitchen. On a china plate on the kitchen table was a spool of black cotton, and a long silver needle, and, beside them, two large black buttons.

"I don't think so," said Coraline.

Tell me the thought of sewing black buttons over your eyes doesn't freak you out? There are other examples of brilliant creepiness. Shadow children, fingernails, hands, mist, faces splitting apart, the list goes on.

But... (you knew there was a but, didn't you?)

I'm not quite ready to sit down with my nephews and read this as a bedtime story. It's not scary in a sense of nightmares, but it felt creepy enough that I wonder if my 6 year old nephew would be able to separate the fantastical from realistic. However, don't let my over-protective aunt-isms deter you from reading this book. Coraline is 165 pages of creepy, literary, brilliance.

MMGM--The Magician's Elephant

First of all, thank you ALL for the very warm welcome last week on my very first Marvelous Middle Grade Monday post! Talk about warm fuzzies!

I kinda like the idea of doing Minnesota authors for the Marvelous Middle Grade Monday reviews. Goodness knows, I have plenty to choose from! I looked at Jacqueline West last week, there's the ever-popular Neil Gaiman, Kurtis Scaletta, and today's author, Kate DiCamillo.

(I'm sure there are others, but that's just off the top of my head...)

I went to the local writing local center this past weekend to hear Kate DiCamillo speak. In preparation, I grabbed The Magician's Elephant from the library on Friday afternoon in hopes of reading some of it before Sunday. I ended up reading the whole thing. In one sitting. That, folks, is called killing two birds with one stone.

Source

Title: The Magician's Elephant
Author: Kate DiCamillo (website)
Date published: September, 2009

From Goodreads:

What if? Why not? Could it be?
When a fortuneteller's tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortuneteller's mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead him there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that you will hardly dare to believe it’s true. With atmospheric illustrations by fine artist Yoko Tanaka, here is a dreamlike and captivating tale that could only be narrated by Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo. In this timeless fable, she evokes the largest of themes — hope and belonging, desire and compassion — with the lightness of a magician’s touch.

I struggled with this review. Not because the book is bad (far from it!), but because I'm not sure it will resonate with many readers in the target audience. So let me say the bad part right now: I don't think I can recommend this book to my nephews, which is my litmus test for middle grade books I read.

But.. and this is a big caveat... I can and do recommend The Magician's Elephant for anyone who enjoys lyrical prose. The best way I can describe this book is that it's literary fiction for children. Beautiful, lyrical, and delicious fiction. I was gladly transported to DiCamillo's world where she led us on a guided tour of all that is magical and wonderful

DiCamillo did an OUTSTANDING job of weaving together the stories of random characters in this small European town. As the reader, I sat back and had faith that these little morsels of goodness were going to come full circle in the end, and they did.

I didn't feel the main character's voice stood out from the others, which was too bad. The more I think about it, the voice I remember the best was that of the Magician. DiCamillo excelled, however, when it came to theme. As a budding author, I struggle finding the overarching theme to my books. In this one, the themes clearly resonated with me: love, magic, and above all, hope.

Forgive my scattered notes, but like I said, I struggled with this review. Here are my other thoughts:

--Due to its lyrical nature, I think this book would be better absorbed if read aloud. I didn't check, but I'm curious to know if there's an audiobook and if so, who the voice is.

--Someone on Goodreads compared this book to Polar Express. I thought that was an appropriate analogy. Beautiful story, but again, I'm not sure how much it appeals to kids, or parents who want to feel like kids again.

--Maybe this is because the elephant is my absolute favorite animal. Fave. Ever. Hands down. About 3/4 of the way through, I paused and asked myself, "Is the elephant going to live?"** I found myself wanting to know about the physical and emotional state of the elephant, especially once it was put on display.

(**= Some other time I'll go into how Charlotte's Web scarred me for years, but trust me when I tell you that I am INCREDIBLY cautious of books where animals might die. Cautious as in, I just won't read them. I know my limits, they include animals.)

My own MMGM post

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, aka MMGM, is a weekly blog hop powered by bloggers who cover middle grade books or topics. I've followed this for a while, making notes and adding to my TBR pile, but I never felt like I was ready to participate.

However, I recently finished a middle grade book, so I consider this my first under-the-radar MMGM post. If I ever get ahead on my TBR crit pile, I might be able to read a few more MG books, which would be great seeing as this is where I write.

For now, on to my review...

Title: The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere, Vol. 1)
Author: Jacqueline West, web page
Date published: June 30, 2010**
Description (from Goodreads):

Source

When eleven-year-old Olive moves into the crumbling old mansion on Linden Street, she's right to think there's something weird about the place, especially the walls covered in creepy antique paintings. But when she finds a pair of old-fashioned glasses in a dusty drawer, she discovers the most peculiar thing yet. She can travel inside these paintings to Elsewhere, a world that's strangely quiet . . . and eerily sinister. Olive soon finds that Elsewhere has secrets to hide and the most annoying of them is Morton, a small boy with a big temper. As he and Olive form an uneasy alliance, Olive finds herself caught in a plan darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined, confronting a power that wants to be rid of her by any means necessary. It's up to her to save the house from the shadows, before the lights go out for good.

What a fun idea! The main character, Olive, moves into an old house and inherited the belongings of the previous owner. As any good, curious 11-year-old would do, Olive explores the house and finds glasses that allow her to crawl into the paintings. A fun mystery ensues as Olive tries to figure out which characters from the paintings are friendly and who is trying to keep her trapped in the paintings forever.

What worked for me: 

1. Her parents

I know some MG stories get a bad rap for having the absent parent thing going on. West handled this really well by creating parents who were brainiac math professors while their daughter has no mathematical inclination. This created a believable disconnect between Olive and her parents.

2. Fear

Olive was alone in the dark basement when she realized she wasn't alone. Something as simple as the absence of light created a perfectly creepy setting. Being in a dark situation played a part later in the book as well and I thought both were handled quite well.

3. Mentor figures

West created three highly entertaining mentor figures to help Olive navigate the paintings and thwart the enemy. I understand there are two other books in the series (one out already, the third due out in 2012) and I hope these three characters make appearances in the next books. They provided comic relief and were able to help Olive out of some serious jams. 

The Shadows was nominated for a number of awards and won a Cybils award in 2011 for the best middle grade fantasy and science fiction book. As an aunt to two boys (nine and six years old) who enjoy reading, I would gladly give this book to them to read. I think they might relate more to a boy main character, but the story itself is highly appropriate for their age.

(**--I realize this isn't necessarily a "new release" but I'm going back a year or so and reading MG books in my genre instead of waiting in line for current MG new releases at my library.)