avengingsybil

Oh, Tim Curry!

Happy Halloween! Here's a treat:

I love this star-studded 1986 adaptation of Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch. I have to admit I've never read the book. I'll have to put it on my list for next year.  Not that I did any holiday appropriate reading this year (probably because I'm too busy screwing around on youtube), but I like the idea of it.

Fact about yours truly: I'm easily freaked out.  In other words, a wuss. Stephen Kellogg's awesome illustrations from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark--which I haven't set eyes on in decades--still give me the creeps, and don't get me started on Coraline. So what would the scaredy cat put on a Halloween-themed reading list? 

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis (not strictly children's or YA but too creepy and excellent to not include)
Bag of Bones by Stephen King (ditto)
Devilish by Maureen Johnson
Feed by M.T. Anderson
Blubber by Judy Blume
Fade by Robert Cormier
The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert

Ten's enough, I think. Here's to tomorrow's sugar hangover.

Written material © 2007 Dawn Emerman

Superheroes, Indians and Queen Bees

It's a busy time, so quickly now:

Recent reads

I liked Perry Moore's Hero a lot, but frankly wanted a little more from it. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, however, I loved. And I mean LOVED. More than I've loved a book in a long time. Junior Spirit is one in a million. I'll forgive that it's established in the beginning that he's a stutterer and then never actually stutters. For me, Diary was 99% golden. More Sherman Alexie, please.

TV time

I was never a big fan of the books, but I feel like I'm missing out on something by not watching the Gossip Girl series. Is it honestly worth catching up from the beginning when rerun season comes around, or is my time better spent revisiting my Veronica Mars library when in need of a teen television (and Kristen Bell) fix?

All the books on my library queue came in at once so I'll have more to say soon enough.

Written material © 2007 Dawn Emerman

TRW Eternal

Is it really Teen Read Week? Dang, this year's gone by fast. I know that TRW was dreamed up in order to get teenagers reading, and I think it's necessary in this world of ever-increasing competition from electronic games and the youtube and whatnot. But I've noticed--and I don't know if it can be attributed directly to the campaign or if I just live in an area with a book-happy teenage population--that even with all the millions of things demanding their attention, teenagers read. And they are passionate about books they love. Just ask Holly Black or Stephanie Meyer or Sarah Dessen or John Green. Or any author whose appearance in a bookstore results around-the-block lines populated with 13-19-year-olds, or whose inbox is lit up with just one message from a young person saying that her life was touched by the author's work. Reading rocks, teenagers rock, and there is so much good stuff out there just for them. So suck it, this guy.

Anybody have a profile on Goodreads? My friend sent me an invitation and it was like she gave me all the presents from all my birthdays at once. If anyone's interested in peeking into my stacks (and giving me access to yours-- I always love to know what people are reading), my profile can be found here.

Written material © 2007 Dawn Emerman

Dream Teams

I'm the last to know, as always, but I can't help commenting on the news that Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is going to be made into a movie! Starring Michael Cera! And Kat Denning! Exclamation point-o-rama! Even with its traded first-person narratives, the book does have a cinematic feel and I look forward to seeing how it plays on the big screen, as well as what the actors do with their roles.

I heard about that just after finishing Cohn and Levithan's Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List. I'm undecided about that book, actually. I liked it, definitely. But loved it? Maybe not. I'm a sucker for the point of view of born-and-raised New York City teenagers, and the supporting characters were fabulous. Very well fleshed out. Still, there was something missing for me. Perhaps Naomi's prickliness set the off-putting tone for me? I did especially enjoy Bruce #2 and his slow slide into love with Ely. Bruce is such a fresh voice and strikes me as entirely genuine. The way Ely changes and grows because of him is lovely as well as believable.

If I may compare N&N with N&E, I'd have to say that I liked the main characters better in the former title, and the supporting characters in the latter. Plus Nick and Norah, to me, was a whole lot sexier. By my calculations, if we're lucky enough to get a third collaboration from Cohn and Levithan, it should be a perfect book.

In continuation with my inadvertent gay protagonist streak, the next book on my to-read pile is Perry Moore's Hero. I've heard great things about this one, and it looks like I'll be squeezing it in wherever I can between baseball championship games.

Go Sox!

Written material © 2007 Dawn Emerman

Banned in Boston

Happy Banned Books Week!

Yes, I'm nerdfighting while trying to display my excellent Banned Books bracelet, with mixed results. You'll just have to take my word that I'm wearing it, and I proudly sport it it year-round, not just during BBW.

So what's everybody reading in observance? I'm just about done with Naomi and Ely (which hasn't been banned yet as far as I know, but I'm sure will end up on some no-no list sooner or later) and now I've got the urge to go out and finally get my own copy of It's Perfectly Normal, because really, whose library is complete without it?

Written material © 2007 Dawn A. Emerman