Spooky: Ghostopolis

I'm still chugging down my list of Cybils nominees (hey, it it vaguely possible that I'll read one book from each category before they announce the winners!), and the latest up was the YA graphic nominee, Ghostopolis, by Doug TenNaple. A young boy who looks about twelve gets sucked into the land of the ghosts, and the ghost hunter who accidentally sent him there goes after him.

Garth meets up with his grandfather, Benedict Arnold, the ghost hunter, a bone horse, and other assorted allies and enemies. There are various themes of fatherhood, forgiveness, and renewal running around, but I was distracted by the harsh images. I'm not used to comics being so, um, ugly. It made me feel old. Also, the ending was a dorothy-in-oz click your red ruby slippers kind of thing, which made me feel old AND grumpy.

On the plus side, my 6th grader inhaled it in one long slurp.  C+

X: Confusing. When did the kid learn to use plasma? He just apparently could use plasma. What does he use to see out of?

Inadvertently Challenged Again: What's In a Name?

Again I'm signing up for a challenge that I hope does not involve any actual effort on my part.  I just like lists, especially checking things off them.  The What's in a Name challenge gives me a fun, arbitrary list, and one I hope just gets completed while I'm reading anyhow.  Why, I've probably practically finished the whole thing already!  Let's see what the six categories are this year:

1. A book with a number in the title: First to Die, Seven Up, Thirteen Reasons Why
• Aha, I knew this would be simple.  The Thirteenth Princess.
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title: Diamond Ruby, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Opal Deception
• Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through those Pearly Gates, by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
• Hmm.  I got nothing. (HA! Fixed that!)
3. A book with a size in the title: Wide Sargasso Sea, Small Wars, Little Bee
• High King of Montival, by S. M. Stirling.
4. A book with travel or movement in the title: Dead Witch Walking, Crawling with Zombies, Time Traveler's Wife
• Burndive, maybe? That's really weak.
• AHA!  Started Early, Took My Dog, by Kate Atkinson
5. A book with evil in the title: Bad Marie, Fallen, Wicked Love
• AHA! A better entry. Bad Prince Charlie, by John Moore
• AHA!  A real entry!  Secrets of the Demon, by Diana Rowland.
• I can't believe I'm empty here.  I read vampire books, for gosh sakes.  Troubled? dark? grey? all lame.  
• Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty, by Nick Bruel.  Although I believe this is an early reader book, so I may be cheating.
6. A book with a life stage in the title: No Country for Old Men, Brideshead Revisited, Bog Child
• I've got one!  Fueling the Teen Machine.  Also Spring Babies, but counting an early reader book feels like cheating.

Well, two (FOUR) out of six ain't bad, as the song would have said if it were talking about my progress on this challenge so far.  Hopefully the others will fall out of my reading tree without too much shaking.

In other challenge news, I've got three states done, 3/20 for 20/11, I've read four SF books, still have the Michigan book on the TBR shelf,  and read 7 Cybils.  No disasters yet.

Fly Guy and Fly Girl

We've been fans of Tedd Arnold's Fly Guy from the start, especially X and me. Now we've introduced the budding reading N to the cult, so a new book is always a treat. But Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl isn't one of my favorites.

Fly Guy meets super-woman Fly Girl, and they immediate imagine the whole jumping rope rhyme -- first comes love, then comes marriage, and before they can say MUZZLE-WUZZLE they've got themselves shacked up together. But then they realize that would mean leaving their beloved people, so they quickly decide to just be friends.

But why would two little kids want to go all romantic about each other? Of course, Fly Guy is probably a fully functional adult insect, but let's not go there because the path of realism in Fly Guy books leads to madness. Also, any preschooler could tell you that if you are worried about missing your parents after you get married, just don't leave home! You and your beloved can live under the dining table or something. And why does Fly Girl get to be better at everything than my hero Fly Guy?

The illustrations still keep the flies buzzing, with lots of tricks and super-gross menu items. All the kids liked it, but I think it rests too heavily on the rest of the series. As a stand-alone, it's good but not great. B-

Athena: The Grey-Eyed Goddes

With two Greek sons and a closet full of memories of Greece and Greek islands and temples, I'm inclined to give the middle-school graphic novel Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess (Olympians) a thumbs up for the cover alone. I didn't get to it until late because both kids took it independently and read it, which is another plus. They've read a bunch of the other Cybils, but usually I'm offering. Sometimes pushing. This one they grabbed on their own.

And I see why. George O'Connor's pictures are bright and vivid, with several stories centered around Athena's aegis. I hadn't heard of Athena's mother, Metis, and I wonder where that part came from (Zeus ate her, that's how Athena was born inside him). Then the story of the name Pallas Athena, and stories of war and battle and craftsmanship. The appendixes recommend further reading and discuss the origins of the myths, and the family tree in the front helped keep all the family connections straight. A

Comments from my peanut gallery:
P: It was aimed at middle school but was still good for fourth graders like me. Good for boys and girls. Made you want to finish it.
X: Recommended.  Good for kids from 8-12, both boys and girls.  Greek mythology is good stuff.

By the Numbers: Kalayna Price

Urban fantasy books tend to follow a formula -- girl with special powers lives a bit on the edge with the help of her quirky friends, gets in over her head, has at least two possible boy friends, also with special powers, but doesn't commit to one by the end of the first book.  I think Patricia Briggs even talks about her publishers specifying bits of this.  Of course, there are exceptions (I'm looking at you, Harry Connolly, and where is your next book, eh?) but that's the basic pattern.

Kalayna Price hits all the notes with Grave Witch (Alex Craft, Book 1), and it makes for a fun, swift read that delivers what it promises.  Alex Craft is that rare type of witch who can speak with shades and sometimes ghosts (there's a difference, and it matters).  There's a chance that shades will be allowed to speak on the witness stand, which would make for a lot more contracts for her, but in the meantime she's living a hand-to-mouth existence, glad that the faerie who is her landlord sometimes gives her some extra time with the rent.  Death drops by sometimes for coffee, as he has since she was a kid, but she's still shocked the day he pushes her out of the way of a bullet.  And the new cop with long blond hair didn't see it, so he thinks she set the whole thing up.  Oh, and he seems to think she's hot, too.

OK, plot, now go!  Mix in a secret dad with secrets and a political weak spot, a missing best friend, evil types with grandiose plans involving murders and eclipses, and Price keeps things ticking along until the last page.  Nothing soul-stirring, but a fun way to avoid my run on a drizzly Sunday afternoon.  B-

Guilty Eyes Have Got No Rhythm

Blah blah blah age limits.  Clearly a bad idea whose time has passed under the bridge and over the hill.  I mean, it's not like I'm going crazy or anything.  Music is important, and just because I'm checking out more than I'm returning doesn't mean that there is a problem here.  It's a slow trend, which is almost the same as a reversing trend.  And soon I'll start turning the music back in, and everything will be fine.

I barely even picked up my holds because of an unfortunate incident involving a foot impacting other people that not even loud shouts of SORRY could expunge, so we had a hasty exit that precluded extensive browsing.  It's very handy that the CDs are kept next to the hold shelf, indeed.

On hold was:

• Guardian of the Dead.  I think this is a Cybils book.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer Panel to Panel: the Art of the Comics.  I don't actually like the comics, but maybe I'll like reading about them.

And not technically on hold (except the kidz bop) but practically sitting up and asking me to check them out:

• Trust Me On This, Jennifer Crusie. From the top picks, and really, this is for my sister. I'm sure she'll let me read it, though.
• Once Upon a Royal Superbaby, from the new picture book sections.
• Art and Max, also new picture book.  
• Kidz Bop 6. I recognize none of these songs. This was during my kids music and classical period.

Turning around, I grabbed 4 CDs from the middle shelf of the music section, so that we are listening to:

• La Fuerza del Amor, which does not appear to be in English
• Ghazal: Lost Songs of the Silk Road: Persian and Indian Improvisations, which looks fascinating
• Pocket Full of Gold.  I guess this is about leprechauns? I seem to have been in the regional section of music.
• Nobody Love, Nobody Gets Hurt. This one looks like I might have picked it with my eyes open.

There will not be nearly as much singing-along in the car this week, I tell you.

Which brings my total to 48, which is actually the same number as last week. I must have turned in more than I remembered.  But at least one book isn't showing up on my list; I think the librarian forgot to scan it.  Or maybe she just likes me.  X is also over his limit, but he has the excuse that I made him check out a bunch of music for me.  The library loot button is at Clare's at The Captive Reader this week; I'll go sign in.

Tale of Tails: A Beach Tail

We gave A Beach Tail the roughest test of any of our Cybil's nominees. I read it, the boys read it, and then X took it along to read to first graders for his middle school field trip. Karen Lynn Williams wrote this delicate book about a boy and his stick on the beach, and Floyd Cooper provided the gentle, expressive illustrations. We all liked it, but no one really loved it.

I think my family all leans towards bolder, more exciting pictures, so we are a hard audience. My favorite page was the turn-around, when Gregory realizes how far he's gone and his face shifts from interested and slightly sneaking adventuring to worry. The fourth grader's favorite was when Gregory retraces his steps past the nickname he drew in the sand -- G E R G. X liked the dad on the beach, and he liked my theory that the dad was secretly shadowing the little boy. The first graders seemed to like it, but didn't linger.

So, a cute book, but one I doubt we would return to often, even if the boys were in the right age group.  B-