Liar & Spy

"was it a lie, or was it a game?"

"What if you decided to make your own rules?"


Setting: Brooklyn, New York
Main character: Georges 7th grader, named after French pointillist painter Georges Seurat
POV: Georges, 1st person
Themes: Friendships, secrecy, shame, redrawing boundaries,

Plot: Georges moves in to an apartment building and is befriended by Safer--a boy his age who trains (and manipulates) him in the art of spycraft.  Together they will discover the "secret" of the mysterious Mister X-a tenant who dresses all in black and carries suitcases. Or will they?    Will Georges flunk the taste test in Mr. Landau's class, and will he get the better of the bullies in his class? Will Georges' father find a job and will his mother come home from work? Along the way, mysteries will be examined, secrets revealed, and truths restated.

This story is like a charm bracelet. Each element of the story stands on its own like a bright, shiny object (like Safer's sister Candy loving candy, or "Bob who draws" who can't spell, or the scrabble tile messages Georges exchanges with his absent mother, or the funny fortune cookie fortunes, and the falling gum wrapper), but each of those charms is linked together spelling out the importance of the big picture as well as all those little  dots. Stead's craftsmanship is superb. Her prose is pitched to the characters and her audience perfectly.  I thought Liar & Spy was distinguished in every way.

Time to Vote!

The moment has finally come to cast your vote!  Here is the final poll to choose our 2013 Mock Newbery champion.  You will find listed all of the books we have discussed thus far and a few others that we will talk about in the coming days.

So ready, get set, vote!

Starry River of the Sky

Next up for discussion in our second round reading list is Grace Lin's, Starry River of the Sky (Little Brown).

A companion book to Grace Lin's 2009, Newbery Honor book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Starry River of the Sky is much the same and yet very different. Like the earlier book, Starry River of the Sky contains Grace Lin’s beautiful artwork, features folktale vignettes, and revolves around a journey.  But while Minli’s journey in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, is an actual journey full of obstacles to overcome, main character, Rendi’s journey, in Starry River of the Sky, is an introspective journey of understanding and self-discovery.

The story opens with a miserable and distressed Rendi traveling as a stowaway in a merchant’s cart,

Rendi was not sure how long the moon had been missing.  He knew only that for weeks, the wind seemed to be whimpering as if the sky were suffering.  At first, he had thought the moans were his own because his whole body ached from hiding in the merchant’s cart.  However, it was when the cart had stopped for the evening, when the bumping and knocking had ended, that the groans began.

Rendi’s story is tied inexorably to that of the moon, though it will take some time for him to determine why the moon is missing and why he, and he alone hears the moaning of the sky each night.  He is discovered by the merchant and left in a dying town, the Village of Clear Sky.  With no other prospects, he becomes the chore boy for Master Chao, owner of the local inn.  Master Chao’s daughter,  Peiyi, takes an immediate dislike to the sullen young boy. It is not until the mysterious Madame Chang, the inn’s only guest, arrives, that fortunes begin to change.  Madame Chang is a beautiful and captivating storyteller, recounting age-old folktales that have particular significance to Rendi; the neighbor, Widow Yan, and her daughter; and Mr. Shan, an elderly, doddering dinner guest who frequents the Inn.  As Madame Chang shares her stories and encourages Rendi to do the same, his protective layer of insolence is removed like layers of skin from an onion.  Starry Village of the Sky is many-layered as well - each character has a hidden story that is coaxed out by the storytelling of Madame Chang.

This is a captivating story that, while holding deep meaning, may be enjoyed in many layers. A magical fantasy, a Chinese folktale, a tale of a boy lost and found, a love story, a mystery, a journey of self-discovery -- all may be found in the tiny and remote Village of Clear Sky.

Starry River of the Sky is another star-filled book for Grace Lin, already garnering three starred reviews and a Junior Library Guild selection.

Your thoughts?

(Reprinted from an earlier post by Shelf-employed)

The Great Unexpected

I can think of no better way to introduce this next book on our reading list than to let the author tell you about it herself.  Is it realistic fiction, or fantasy?  You decide.

Here's author, Sharon Creech, reading from The Great Unexpected (Harper Collins).

Many things are unexpected in The Great Unexpected, but none more so than the dead boy's body that drops from a tree, nearly landing on Naomi Deane, who notes,

Leaves have fallen on me, and twigs, and a branch during a storm.  bird slop, of course, everyone gets that.  But a body?  That is not your usual thing dropping out of a tree.

And as the body opened his eyes and slowly looked up and looked all around - at the meadow, at the cows in the dist tree out of which he had fallen, and at me, and then he yelled, "Oh no!" and fell back on the ground and his eyes closed and he was dead again.

Unexpected, indeed! The boy, in fact, is Finn, a mysterious, young, flirtatious boy about 12-years-old, with whom Naomi and her best friend, Lizzie, are smitten. 

Half of the story takes place in the small indeterminate town of Blackbird Tree, where many "unfortunate souls," reside - including Naomi and Lizzie - both orphans, "Witch Wiggins," "Crazy Cora," Mr. Canner, and the huge and unruly clan of Dimmenses.  Naomi narrates the story with a generous helping of Sharon Creech's delightfully descriptive prose, as in this description of the newcomer, the Dingle-Dangle Man,

His head jerked slightly to the left and then to the right, like a bird on a worm prowl.

or in this depiction of Witch Wiggins' house,

If you had to guess which house a witch lived in, this would be it.  The house tilted to one side, as if eavesdropping on its neighbor.

The other half of the story takes places in Rook's Orchard, Ireland.  The connection between the two is also unexpected, and early in the book, unexplained.  Rook's Orchard chapter names are prefaced with "Across the Ocean," and are third person narratives of the activities of Sybil Kavanaugh, her constant companion, Miss Pilpenny, and Mr. Dingle (known stateside as The Dingle-Dangle Man).

The Great Unexpected is a story of possibility, of friendship, of first loves, and the nature of true love.  Many things are unexpected, and if we greet them with open arms and there is a hint of magic in the air, who knows what may happen.

Have you read it?  Your thoughts?

Splendors and Glooms-First Response #2

  Like the brilliant Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Splendors and Glooms (a line from Percy Shelley's pastoral elegy Adonais written on the occasion of John Keats' death) is more than a dark story set in a particular time and place, it is a theatrical performance that demonstrates just how like marionettes we are when we experience art and then how that art releases us to retrieve ourselves.

     For me, S&G is a book about reading children's books and how we (I) go about fitting each book (consciously or not) within a genre-defined reading space. The story itself is intriguing, multi-stranded, diabolical, and expertly written. but it is my experience of reading S&G that distinguishes it from others I have read.   One book that kept coming up for me alongside S&G was The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (1975 Newbery Honor)  My initial experience of reading S&G: (remained throughout from start to finish)  I had to recalibrate my reading pace.  I had to slow down and eventually let the story take me where it would.  I had to reexamine what my expectations are of what a children's book's "should" feel like while it's being read, and in this case it did not mean wavering between deciding whether this is a J book or a YA book,  but whether all this densely packed detail had to be there to make a compelling story.  Why, I kept asking myself, did the story need the Cassandra/Grisini nexus?  Is Cassandra redeemed because she too had been dealt a cruel blow as a child and was able to admit her own cruelty?  Is Grisini the unredeemable villain? The whole story appears to operate between and within 3 spheres: the world of adults-love, loss, power and cruelty,  the world of children-survival, resilience and friendship, and the world of magic. The marionettes epitomize both the ability to create and escape control, and the creativity inherent in those enterprises. The collision of one or more of these worlds at any given time gives this story its dramatic suspense.  There are several dramas here: the adult struggle for power is one; loss of love another; (adult loss results in cruelty to children),  survival and resilience dependent on friendship between children is yet another.  Ultimately, the reunion between these spheres of action is forged as a result of the creation and destruction of a magical talisman.  Is it the existence of this amulet and the power that it confers which keeps relationships polarized?  But there is humor and cleverness and affection.   What to make of this?

     The ending--irony?  A happy funeral.  This story on one level is about selfish conniving  adults who use children as pawns in their ongoing drama.  On another level this story is about family and how even desperate souls (adult and children) can survive to reconvene and care for eachother.  And on another level this story is about death and mourning and the rituals society provides to alleviate loss.   At the end of the book Schlitz acknowledges her indebtedness to Barry Smith who "shared his encyclopedic knowledge of Victorian burial customs"  which is a sign once again that death and ritual and theater are intertwined in this story.   Is this a Newbery contender? Of course.  Will it win?  It's up to the committee members.  I for one would give the Oscar to Parsefall for oustanding performance in an historical tragi-comedy.

Splendors and Glooms: First Response

It always excites me to read an engaging, distinguished fantasy novel for children and in my opinion, Splendors and Glooms (Candlewick Press) fits the bill.  Victorian England is the perfect setting for this magical tale of witches, fantoccini, spells, and crumbling towers.  There is a darkness that pervades the story and yet Schlitz knows when to add a touch of lightness and humor.  With all of these positive qualities, the question remains – is Splendors and Glooms distinguished enough to win the Newbery?

One thing that struck me is the way in which Schlitz respects her young readers.  Although the story deals with dark issues and some adult themes, Schlitz does not water it down.  Take for example this quote from Cassandra when she is reminiscing about her childhood: "'My mother had chosen to abandon my father and me so that she could disgrace herself with a man.'" (pg. 268)  Numerous other passages deal with themes of magic, spells, and even unrequited love.  While Schlitz does not hold back from exploring these themes, she does so in an age-appropriate manner. 

In a similar respect, each character is realistically flawed and with the exception perhaps of Grisini, demonstrates moments of both kindness and cruelty.  Even Lizzie Rose, arguably the gentlest of all the characters, displays flashes of anger:  "Lizzie Rose lunged at him.  She grabbed his jacket and shook him.  Then she seized a handful of hair and yanked."  (pg. 117)  And Cassandra, the wicked witch of the story, is perhaps not purely evil: "She wanted to tell the children that at her eleventh hour, she had done one good thing; she had released Clara from her secret, and set her free to dance." (pg. 378)  Perhaps Schlitz even goes so far as to hint at Cassandra’s redemption. (pg. 379)   

In terms of setting, Schlitz’s descriptions are always crisp and clear.  I could see the streets of London with their fog and filth, hear the clip clop of the horse’s hooves pulling the carriages along the cobblestone streets, smell the clean, fresh air as Lizzie Rose skated across the lake.  Yet I never felt bogged down with unnecessary detail.  Although the story is close to 400 pages and might have been trimmed down a bit, I rarely felt a lag in pace due to superfluous descriptive elements. 

My only fault may be with the ending.

  (Spoiler alert!) 


 How did Clara know that the stone would be destroyed if she ran onto the ice?  Cassandra never considered this in all of her attempts to rid herself of the stone?  And was it plausible that Clara's parents would so quickly agree to taking in orphans?  At the end, everything fell into place quickly, perhaps too quickly for my liking, and yet at the same time, I felt that a happy ending was appropriate. 

So what are your thoughts?  Is it distinguished?  If so, is it in your top three?

Moving on

Invigorated by our trip to KidLitCon, ready or not, we're moving on!



On June 30, we posted our preliminary reading list of seven possible Newbery Medal contenders. Since July, we've been discussing these seven books and winners of the past.

In August, we posted a Survey Monkey link to allow voting for your top three choices.  A #1 vote was worth 3 points, a #2 vote was worth 2 points, a #3 vote was worth 1 point.  The results of our (somewhat limited) sample are as follows:

1. Lions of Little Rock
2. May B.
3. Wonder

Hopefully you'll see one of your favorites there!
(Because the number of votes was few, we're willing to revisit other first round titles at a later time.)

Thanks to everyone who participated in reading our Round 1 choices - great books all!

Round 2:

Here are our proposals for the next round (alphabetically by title):
 

• The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente (keeping in mind that this book is a sequel and will only be eligible if it has merit as a stand-alone)
• The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech
• Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz
• Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin
• Your suggestions!

Others that we are pondering, but not agreed upon are:

• Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead
• No Crystal Stair by Vaunda Nelson
• Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale
• (We'd like to add a nonfiction title, but have not agreed on which one(s) to choose - Bomb? Temple Grandin?)

So, what do you think?  Are you up to the task?  What suggestions do you have for our second list?