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KLIATT publishes reviews
of paperback books, hardcover young adult fiction, audiobooks,
and educational software recommended for libraries and classrooms serving
young adults. The following code is used to help readers determine if
the material reviewed is appropriate for their needs:
J -- Recommended for junior
high & middle school students
S -- Recommended for senior high students
A -- Recommended for advanced students and adults.
* -- The asterisk highlights exceptional
material.
SAMPLE REVIEWS FROM KLIATT'S LATEST ISSUE:
HARDCOVER YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Myers, Walter Dean. Sunrise over Fallujah. Scholastic. 304p. map. c2008.
978-0-439-91624-0. $17.99. JSA*
Twenty years ago, Myers wrote Fallen
Angels, a classic YA novel about a 17-year-old African American
soldier’s experiences in Vietnam. In this companion novel, that
man’s nephew, Robin, writes to his uncle about his experiences serving in Iraq in 2003, and once again Myers
(who served in the army himself, and whose son is a career officer who
served in the first Gulf War) succeeds in communicating the horrors of war
from a YA’s perspective. Robin is part of an
advance Civil Affairs Unit whose mission is to help Iraq’s noncombatants, “making
friends with anyone they don’t kill.” But in this complex conflict, it’s
hard to figure out who the good guys and the bad guys are, and winning
hearts and minds isn’t easy when you’re busy ducking IEDs
(Improvised Explosive Devices: a glossary is appended). In the episodic
tale, Robin is befriended by blues-playing Jonesy
and feisty Marla, endures a two-day sandstorm, and participates in a secret
mission to negotiate for kidnapped children, among other adventures. All
the while, he tries not to show his fear as he experiences all the noise,
smell, confusion and terror of war.
Myers succeeds in making the
reader feel what it’s like to be in Iraq, though Robin remains something
of a blank slate. His friendship with Marla helps shine light on what it’s
like to be a woman serving in today’s army. This somber novel will help
anyone trying to understand the war and the experiences of our military
there. Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT
SCIENCE FICTION
Popescu, Petru. Birth of the
pack. (Weregirls.) Tor.
347p. c2007. 978-0-7653-1641-7. $9.95. JS
Lilly Willson thinks her school needs a girls’ soccer team, so
she and her three friends start a club team, called the Weregirls
after a Native American story her dead father used to tell. Little do they
know that Lilly’s father was a supernatural Guardian, and the team is about
to get pulled into a supernatural battle: there’s a new girl in town, and
she wants magic powers more than anything. Andra
will stop at nothing to steal the power of the Weregirls,
and only by tapping into their own supernatural natures will the Weregirls survive. This first book in the series is a
rollicking good adventure, with sports, boys, cliques and the power of love
and friendship. Recommended for all collections. Deirdre Root, Ref. Libn, Middletown PL, Middletown, OH
GRAPHIC
NOVELS
Tamaki, Mariko. Skim. Art by Jullian
Tamaki. Groundwood.
208p. illus. c2008. 978-0888997531. $18.95. (hardcover.) S*
Kim
Cameron (Skim to everyone) wants to be a witch, but hasn’t quite gotten the
hang of it. She breaks her arm tripping over her altar; the Wicca ceremony
in the park turns out to be an AA meeting; and when she and her best friend
Lisa try to channel the spirit of Michael Reddear,
the boy who killed himself, nothing happens. When Lisa asks what they would
do if he appeared, Skim says—“nothing, I guess. Ignore him.” Skim goes to a
private high school for girls; ever since Michael Reddear
died her classmates are obsessed with suicide. Skim’s self card is the
Lovers, reversed. She is in love with her teacher, Ms. Archer, who should
know better.
Skim
is about being
in a certain place in your life—friends come and go, falling in and out of
love; being 16, and liking it. The narrative is first person, with diary
entries, and manages to avoid the usual clichés; the characters don’t line
up to tell us their life stories. The b/w art is fluid and curvy and looks
like it came straight out of a sketchbook. The little details are
wonderful—the sun face on Ms. Archer’s door; the Girls Celebrate Life
bulletin board; Lisa tugging at Skim’s jacket. Skim contains
vulgarity (s and f-bombs), witches in training and tobacco use by minors.
Highly recommended for high school graphic novel collections, especially
those catering to girls. George Galuschak, YA Libn, Montvale PL, Montvale, NJ
HISTORY
Richards,
Leonard L. The California Gold Rush and the coming of the
Civil War.
Random House,
Vintage. 289p. illus. notes. index. c2007.
978-0-307-27757-2. $14.95. A
California’s
history has always seemed more sprightly than that of other states, and
anything connected with the 1849 Gold Rush makes it seem especially so. Popular
histories of the gold-fueled emigration are plentiful, but this book takes
a slightly different angle. Before the first nuggets were pulled from the
millrace at Sutter’s Mill, California was a remote and thinly
populated backwater only two years removed from Mexico’s sleepy jurisdiction. The
demographic landslide that shortly took place, however, transformed California not only into a rip-roaring
frontier territory, but a political prize of great significance in the
brewing dispute over slavery. The 1840s were, of course, a time of
wide-open and uninhibited political expression throughout the new republic
anyway. In California, the situation was exacerbated.
Author
Leonard Richards, a professor of history with roots in the Golden State,
enjoyed himself in putting together this story of crude politics and often
cruder men, clever maneuvering and outright chicanery, all spiced with a
heady mixture of gold miners, entrepreneurs, outlaws and vigilantes. Fully
annotated and with a fine index, Richards’s book is academically
respectable, yet his delight in the subject will convince AP students and
adult readers that history can be enjoyable in its own right. Raymond
Puffer, Ph.D, Historian (retired), Edwards AFB, Lancaster, CA
AUDIOBOOKS—FICTION
Danticat, Edwidge. Krik?
Krak! Read by Robin Miles & Dion Graham. 5 tapes. 5 hrs. Recorded Books.
1991-1995/2007. 978-1-4193-9563-5. $33.75. Vinyl; content notes. A
This marvelous collection of short stories
records the violence and brutality of life under the dictatorship of the Duvalier family in Haiti. The
stories represent many perspectives on women’s lives in this culture and
reflect the continuing struggle to preserve family and self-respect in this
oppressed country. “Krik?” is the call of the
storyteller and “Krak!” is the response of the
enthusiastic listener. In this way, Haitians pass on a rich oral tradition
from generation to generation. These tales are somber in tone, full of
sadness, struggle, and suffering. Stories introduce the listener to the
tragic separation of lovers when one, a rebel, must flee the island by boat
for his life; a daughter who watches her elderly mother abused in prison; a
woman who earns her living as a prostitute while her son sleeps; an
infertile woman who picks up a dead baby and cares for it; and a Haitian
immigrant mother who must adapt to life in New York City, including her
daughter’s marriage to a non-Haitian.
Stating
in her Epilogue that her writings are “a testament to the way these women
lived and died,” Danticat, a Haitian American
herself, brings them to life again as part of the living chain of women
through history. Miles and Graham share the narration, sometimes
alternating voices in a single story, more frequently alternating stories.
Miles, an acting and accent coach as well as an assistant professor of
speech, renders realistic, deeply emotional portrayals of her female
characters. Graham, an experienced actor and veteran audiobook
reader, brings the sometimes pathetic, often ill-fated characters to life
by utilizing a wide variety of accents and inflection in these eye-opening
stories. Susan Allison, Libn, Lewiston HS, Lewiston, ME
AUDIOBOOKS—NONFICTION
Cathcart, Thomas & Daniel Klein. Plato and a platypus
walk into a bar; understanding philosophy through jokes. Read by
Johnny Heller. 4 cds. 4.25 hrs. Recorded Books.
2007. 978-1-4281-7379-8. $51.75. Vinyl; content notes. SA
What a refined, intelligent, hilarious hoot!
Move over, Woody Allen. The authors see philosophy and comedy as flip sides
of a coin. From Aristotle to Augustine, Nietzsche, Descartes, and Sartre,
many philosophical schools are revisited through jokes. Most of the jokes
are hilarious: e.g., a Buddhist walks up to a hot dog stand and says, “I’ll
take one with everything,” pays, and asks for his change. The vendor says,
“Change comes from within.” Even the ones that aren’t so funny make you
think. This doesn’t soft pedal philosophy—your eyes will still cross as you
attempt to grasp the explanations; but, at least you’re offered the gift of
laughter as the authors skillfully move from expurgation to another great
joke.
Heller’s
narration is lively, with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek pomposity that fits
the framework of the production. Covering a huge territory, this is a great
Cliff Notes comedy that reviews the main points of the major philosophical
traditions. Nancy Crowder-Chaplin, Libn, VCCW,
Goochland, VA
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