A Real Contender

The reviews written in advance of this book’s debut were certainly eye-catching. One independent bookstore’s newsletter (57th Street Books in Chicago’s Hyde Park) proclaimed it was “the best middle grade novel of the year” even though it is just July. It came up again on my radar and I noticed it was getting starred reviews–from everyone. So I ordered it last week to see for myself.

It is the real deal.
The book is “When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead. I was just finishing Neal Shusterman’s ”The Schwa Was Here” when the book arrived and I thought this new book had better be good. I enjoyed SCHWA–it was imaginative and humorous–exactly what I like in a middle grade novel.

Then I read Stead’s book. Whooaaa.

I finished it last night and I’m still thinking about it. The main character, Miranda, is a fan of “A Wrinkle in Time” and the book weaves that story into its storyline. WRINKLE must have come out when I was in my WWII books phase in grade school because I do not remember reading it then. Of course, now I’ll have to go and read it now, like right today.

So is WHEN YOU REACH ME the Newbery Award winner for the year? We’ll have to wait and see, but in my book, it’s a real contender.

A Tale of a Book, a Studio, and an Adaptation

Well, I had my fingers crossed that someone would finally make a good adaptation of one of Kate DiCamillo’s great books, but the reviews seem to be mixed on The Tale of Despereaux. Manohla Dargis in the NY Times had this to say today:

“The main difference between the source and its adaptation is that while the book exudes charm, the movie leans toward cute, a substitution that largely speaks to the influence of Disney on animation. In the movie Despereaux wears a red cap that makes him look more like a well-dressed bunny than like a mouse. But at least he’s not wearing Mickey’s gold clodhoppers and bottom-line grin.”

Roger Ebert gave it three-stars, loved the animation, but wasn’t crazy about the story. (He also made a boo-boo when he said the book was “based on four Newbery Award-winning novels by Kate DiCamillo, all unread by me. . .” Of course, dear children’s book lovers, we all know the movie is based on just one book. Another review I heard said that the movie alternatively bored and scared her young companion. Yikes.

I will probably see the movie, however,  just to listen if narrator Signourney Weaver says the word, “perfidy.” Because it is perfidy, dear reader, when Hollywood gets the adaptation of another children’s classic wrong. When will DiCamillo learn (as Louis Sachar was smart enough to figure out with “Holes”) that if you want something done write in Hollywood you have to do it yourself.

The Gift of Laughter

It’s the season for shopping and gift-giving. Usually at this time of the year we’re shopping for others, but sometimes we’re just shopping for ourselves. No matter who the intended recipient is, here are two books I enjoyed this weekend.

The first book introduced me to Canadian author Tim Wynne-Jones, REX ZERO, KING OF NOTHING. I hadn’t read the first Rex Zero book, but I will now. Wynne-Jones sets his story in 1962 Ottawa. Eleven-year-old Rex Norton-Norton (called Zero because Norton minus Norton equals zero, get it?) has two mysteries to solve–what secret is his dad hiding and whose black address book has he found. His dad’s secret centers on Armistice Day (misunderstood by Rex to be Our Mistress Day). The mystery of the address book centers on an entry in the book as “Nate,” which Rex discovers is actually a beautiful woman  named Natasha.

Rex has to contend with his family, his friends, and a crazy substitute teacher while he solves his mysteries. (Actually, I picked the book up to read because it has a crazy substitute teacher and the novel I’m working on has a crazy substitute teacher.) But Wynne-Jones layers his story not just with humor, but with warmth and a tale of a boy on the bridge to adolescence.

The other book that made me laugh was VOSS: HOW I COME TO AMERICA AND AM HERO, MOSTLYby David Ives. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this book when I started reading. It reminded too much of the movie BORAT–broken English with cultural misunderstandings and immigrant stereotypes. Fifteen-year-old Vospop comes to America from Slobovia with his father and uncle in a freight container of black market Cheez Puffs (which have been misspelled on the packaging as Chiss Poffs). By the time I finished the book I was laughing out loud at Vospop’s adventures, but I did still wonder if I was being culturally insensitive about the stereotypes of Eastern European immigrants, even though this was a mythical country. Has anyone else read this book and had a similar reaction, or am I just being hypersensitive?