Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

Hold Me Closer Necromancer

Lish McBride

Sherman Alexie (on of my favs) is quoted on the cover of this book saying “This is a SCARY funny book OR a FUNNY scary book.  In either case, it is a GREAT book.”  Dude totally nailed it.  I could not put this book down, which, honestly doesn’t say much because I rarely put books down.  In fact, in the future, just know that if I could put the book down, it probably wasn’t that great.

Sam (Samhain) is your typical floundering young man – I think he’s about 20 – working at the local grease pit.  He finds out through a series of extremely confusing events, including being man-handled by a werewolf and having one of his good friends murdered and her head reincarnated (how can a book be bad with a talking un-dead best friend head?), he finds out that he is a Necromancer, or a magical person able to control the dead.  Unfortunately, the head Necromancer in town, Douglas Montgomery, is not a fan of competition.  He kidnaps Sam and forces him to become his apprentice.  Sam has to figure out how to escape and how to help the super hot were-girl Douglas is also keeping captive in his basement.  I could give you more of the storyline (there’s WAY more), but not knowing will make it just as fun to read.  In fact, I picked the book up having been given a completely different description.

This book is perfect for just about anyone – those of us who love fantasy but are really tired of vampire books, anyone who likes scary/paranormal books, or a high school student who likes a laugh-out loud page turner.  Unfortunately for this middle school librarian, it is not appropriate for middle grade students (my favourite line – “So you’re the guy who did the no-no cha-cha with my baby sister”).  So if you are over 15 years old and enjoy books, you should put this book on your reading list!

The Reader (Der Vorleser) by Bernhard Schlink

The Reader

Bernhard Schlink

Yes, I am fully aware that I’m about ten years late on reading this book.  But I assure you I have a good reason.  Ok, so I don’t really have a good reason, but I have a reason.  See, I have tried to read this book two other times, but couldn’t get through it.  Not because of the writing – it is exquisite.  I couldn’t get through it because of my language barrier.  Somewhere along the line (probably around 2001) I decided that I needed to read books written by German authors in German (I also decided I needed to read cheesy romance novels and YA lit like Harry Potter in German so that I wouldn’t be so “embarrassed” by reading them.  Well, I got over that about six years ago).  So I’ve tried to read the original version of The Reader (Der Vorleser) on two other occasions.  I could get through the first few chapters, but then I was confronted with words and concepts that I didn’t understand – especially when Michael is in law school and discusses abstract concepts.  Anyway, I finally decided that I really wanted to read the book and I “wussed out” and read it in English.

I’m so glad I did.  What a beautiful novel about life, hardships and how our perceptions of people can be completely wrong for the silliest/craziest reasons!  This book reminds me quite a bit of the movie Crash because it takes difficult situations and looks at them deeply and honestly.  Anna’s reasons for working at Kraków had nothing to do with her political leanings or beliefs, but people were (and can still be) so blinded by the atrocities of WWII they couldn’t see the truth.  Not that I think what happened to the millions of people persecuted during the Holocaust is in anyway acceptable.  What bothers me the most in many cases is that when we look back on history, we blanket what happened and blame haphazardly – much like Michael found himself doing in the book.  He wanted to blame his parents for not doing more, and he wanted to find Anna guilty.  And in many ways, he can and did.  But he realized, as I hope we can continue to realize as we examine history honestly, that their guilt is not as simple as it seems.  Fear, hunger and oppression were not hardships faced only by the prisoners of those camps.  Fear, hunger and oppression don’t make any of the events of WWII acceptable, but trying to understand what daily life was like for Germans during that time helps us understand how they could allow such things to happen.  And if nothing, understanding the why of the every day person during that time will help us identify the possibility of it happening again in the future.  Hopefully, we can see that when a people are hungry, jobless and scared, leadership can come in and take advantage of that weakness, and disaster can ensue if we aren’t careful.

Ok, so back to the book.  Michael is a young man who, early in life, has an affair with a much older woman.  As their relationship progresses Anna has Michael read to her – something that Michael perceives as romantic and loving.  Later in life, Anna is put on trial for crimes she committed as a guard at the Kraków work camp near Auschwitz.  Michael, a young law student, attends her trial and tries to reconcile this new Anna with the old Anna.  He realizes, during her trial, that she is covering up a secret that is much deeper and darker than he could have imagined, but her shame in both her actions as an officer and her secret confuse him and he is at a loss for what to do for her.

The ironic part of my experience reading this book is the fact that I shied away from it because of my “reading barrier”.  I could have experience this book in all it’s splendor years ago but I didn’t because of my stupid bilingual pride.  And now that I’ve finished the book, I’m left with the question – am I really that different from Anna?  Granted, I didn’t work at Kraków, and I’d like to think I have enough humanity to save people from atrocities.  But reading and good literature are such a huge part of my life, yet I’ve kept myself from so much great literature with my stupid rule.  Now I’m moved to try to find other areas of my life where I’ve unknowingly created barriers for myself.  And I totally plan to read the original version now so I can look at his writing style!

Any thoughts?

Swim the Fly by Don Calame

Swim the Fly

Don Calame

Here are the two short reviews I heard about this book.  First: this book is a must read for all teenage boys.  They love it! Second: I seriously almost wet myself laughing.  Since I find that most realistic fiction isn’t geared toward young male readers, and since I quite enjoy laughing myself silly (all urination aside), when I saw Swim the Fly on the shelf at Central High School, I immediately grabbed it and asked to check it out (much to the chagrin of Shar, their library secretary.  Guess it was on her reading list too).

Swim the Fly has actually nothing to do with flies.  I was a little confused by the title until I realized that “the fly” is a swimming term…I know, I’m not very smart. Matt Gratton is, well, a wimp, but he is a dedicated member of his local swim team, and when he sees an opportunity to impress the über-hot Kelly, he volunteers to swim the 100m butterfly (should that be capitalized?  See, I know nothing of swimming).  The beginning of Matt’s problems is the fact that he really can’t swim the fly.  At all.  The good thing about this book is it really isn’t about swimming “the fly”, it’s about the summer adventures (and embarrassments) of a teenage boy who has two really great friends, uncontrollable hormones, and not the slightest clue about girls.

I loved this book.  It was hilarious.  Some of the situations Matt finds himself in are painfully funny – for example, drinking an extra dose of protein shake that turns out to be fiber laxative (totally not a spoiler, you kinda see it coming).  My tummy actually hurt thinking about it.  The best part is every crazy situation Matt gets himself into, I can totally imagine one or more of my former “super smart” students getting into.  It’s almost like the time I went to see SuperBad with some of my co-workers and we spent the entire movie laughing, not because it was funny (though it was) but because we kept naming students we could see trying to pull those kinds of pranks.

However, I will say that I’m not completely sold that this book is a “guy read”.  I actually think it’s more of a chick read about how guys think.  But I’m not sure – I don’t know any guys who have read it.  It won’t ever be in the collection at GMMS because it’s not middle school appropriate, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to find a guy to read it.  I thought about asking my dad, who loves to read, but I’m pretty sure it’s not his cup of tea.  He’d think it was funny, but anyone who loves Motherless Brooklyn  by Jonathan Lethem is kind of on a different level.

Regardless, I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a light, fun summer read.  And if you happen to be a teenage boy (wow, this sentence TOTALLY started out creepy) let me know what you think!

Hereville: how Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword

Barry Deutsch

Amulet Books

2010

I swear I did not seek this book out based on my love and adoration for the book Hush.  I swear on everything holy.  It just happens to be another book about an Orthodox Jewish girl.  This one, however, has the imagination that rivals J. K. Rowling.  And it’s an award winning graphic novel (it was named one of the 2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens).

Mirka lives in Hereville – an Orthodox Jewish community – with her family:  her father, her stepmother and her many siblings.  She has an amazing imagination and has always dreamed of fighting monsters – she even hides a book about monsters under her bed (because they live in an Orthodox community, they aren’t supposed to have or read non-Jewish books).  One day when she gets lost on the way to school, she comes across a peculiar house and sees a witch and angers a very large talking pig.  The pig starts to follow her and steal her homework, knocking her over and creating havoc in her world.  When she continually tells people that it’s the pig’s fault, no one believes her.  She devises a plan to get the pig to leave her alone only to have to save the pig shortly thereafter.  The witch appears and offers her a reward, which sends her on a quest to fight and defeat a troll.  The only person who can help her fight the troll is her stepmother, Fruma, a woman Mirka adores and fears all at once.

While I found the story extremely entertaining, I don’t know that students will be as drawn to it as I was.  I’ve tried finding out as much as I can about the author because I’m curious as to what would make him write a book about Orthodox Jews.  But I couldn’t make the connection – he doesn’t mention being Jewish and doesn’t look Orthodox.  He is, however terribly funny and extremely sarcastic – something that I enjoy, but I’m not sure students will identify with.  I think Deutsch intends to portray Orthodox Jewish customs respectfully, but it comes across as challenging if not a bit judgmental.  Maybe he simply intends to get people thinking about the customs in their own personal “Hereville”.  Whatever his intention, I don’t know that it will come across to middle and high school students.  I think they might miss the subtlety, and I definitely think they will be turned off by all of the un-translated Yiddish phrases.  If he’d included a glossary at the end so that people would know why Zindel says talking to Mirka is like “red tsu der vant” (red’ zu der Wand or talking to the wall).  The only reason I enjoyed some of his jokes is because I speak German and could figure out the Yiddish.

I can see why reviewers loved the book; I’m just not convinced that reviewer enjoyment will translate to student enjoyment.  But that’s the joy of books – ten people read a book and you get ten different opinions!

Here are some other reviews of Hereville:

 School Library Journal 

The Whole Megillah

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

A Long Walk to Water

Linda Sue Park

Clarion Books

2010

In my life I have read many moving books – books that made me reconsider my world view and books that have made me reconsider my view of self.  As a middle school librarian, sometimes the books that move and inspire me are books that I cannot add to my collection because they are inappropriate for the grade level I serve.  But the issues still remain, and because I want to encourage young people to become reflective members of society, I constantly look for books that will help them see the world in a broad, non-egocentric way.  There is a great, big, fascinating world out there, and the sooner we can teach young people to embrace it, the better off our future will be.

Over the past two years, I’ve read several very moving books about the struggles of misplaced natives all over Africa.  But none were middle school appropriate.  Enter Linda Sue Park and her short novel about two young people in Sudan.  A Long Walk to Water many not be the best book I’ve ever read, but it is written in such a way that it will inspire and inform middle school students about the lives of people who live half a world away.  It is a short novel – about 120 pages – and it is mostly the story of Salva and his struggle to survive.  After violence strikes while he’s at school, he is forced to walk to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, and then years later to another in Kenya, all the while not knowing whether his family is alive or dead.  At the beginning of each chapter there is a short narrative from the perspective of young Nya, a girl growing up some twenty years later in southern Sudan, who must walk for eight hours each day to fetch water for her family.

What struck me most about the book is that I could not imagine how these two stories would intersect.  I didn’t notice at first that the accounts were over 20 years apart, so I assumed that Nya and Salva would meet, she would save him and they would marry, or something like that.  Having read other novels by Park (A Single Shard is another one that really made me think), I should have known that it would be different.  And I loved it.  Park does an amazing job of creating an inspiring, realistic story (well, it is based on a true story so it should be realistic) that explains the trials occurring in Africa in a way that young people will relate to and possibly be moved to action.  The one thing I would recommend to making this book just a bit better would be a resources list at the end.  Salva’s organization is mentioned, so there’s a possible starting point for those interested in getting involved, and I suppose it wouldn’t be too difficult for students to find information on their own.  But I’ve seen how middle school students conduct research (and I’m working daily to make them better, more saavy researchers) so I feel like a list of trusted organizations might be helpful to them.

All in all the book may not have moved me in the way that other books did, however, I think it is perfectly written for young people, and I hope that it is a catalyst for them to see the world in a different way and to understand that sometimes making a change in the world happens one step at a time.

Salva Dut's Organization - Water For Africa

Other books about the Lost Boys & Girls of Africa

What is the What? by Dave Eggers

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Other Reviews of A Long Walk to Water

5 Minutes for Books

Meredith Dias