The Screaming Staircase

Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
Release Date: September 17, 2013

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This review describes an uncorrected proof. The published version may be different.

My brother read this. Behold his comments!

What if Harry Potter was actually spooky? What if Rooby Roo had a lot more action? Jonathan Stroud answers these humble questions with a fun, well-built adventure yarn about teenaged ghost hunters.

Stroud creates effective characters and guides them through suspenseful paranormal murder mysteries. The thrills are real, and the action is invigorating. The most obvious Potterism is the rival gang of ghost hunters, which is clearly lead by Draco Malfoy. The strongest parts are the hauntings and the "ghostology" (taxonomy of ghosts). Stroud's attention to detail and choice of ghosts creates an atmosphere of creepiness. These scenes were well written enough that I actually cared what happened next. The same cannot be said for the character interactions.

What's with the way Stroud writes the adults? Stroud acts like the adults are mean because they won't let a bunch of underprepared kids go fight ghosts. Then the kids totally bungle the ghost-hunting, which proves the adults right! Those adults weren't mean- they were smart! In spite of this, Stroud never lets up. In a classic YA writing misstep, he makes every single adult out to be mustache-twistingly mean and hopelessly stupid. This makes no sense in the setting, however. According to the rules of Stroud's world, only teenagers can hunt ghosts. That means that eventually ghost hunters outgrow hunting and turn into adults. Wouldn't at least some ex-ghost hunters have a sense of understanding for the teens? By pandering to teen angst, Stroud misses the opportunity to add an ex-ghost hunter mentor character. Furthermore, some of these nagging interpersonal scenes and the plot thread about the rival ghost hunters don't really make any plot difference in the long run. They just bog down the narrative and get in the way of the ghost-hunting.

I would like Jonathan Stroud to explain the setting of this book. Parts of it feel deliberately Dickensian, but then the characters use modern technology. It's like an old Universal horror film where some of the extras are dressed like medieval peasants, and other are dressed like '30s gangsters. Sooner or later, you just scream out, "What year is this supposed to be?"

Complaints notwithstanding, I recommend this to Harry Potter fans who want something a little more creepy. There are strong, believable male and female characters, so it should appeal to boys and girls equally.

 This book is the next big thing! Go buy a copy at The Blue Manatee or your nearest independent bookseller!

American Indian Stories

American Indian Stories by Zitkala-Sa
Release Date: 1921

Free ebook on Project Gutenberg
Free Librivox audiobook of a different Zitkala-Sa collection

This is not an upcoming release. This is a plea for more people to read an overlooked classic.

 This book should be required reading in middle-school and high-school American history classes. Using flawless prose, the author conveys her life, first as a young girl on a Sioux reservation, then as a teenager in an Indian school, and lastly as a teacher-cum-activist. The writing is immediate and speaks clearly across the decades. The subjects and descriptions emphasize the universality of childhood and coming of age. This book eloquently and accurately depicts the predicament of the Sioux (and of most American Indians) at the beginning of the 20th century.

I fail to understand why this book is not heralded and taught as a classic. I pulled a chapter out of it almost at random and used it as a mentor text in my 8th grade writing classes. It exemplified everything good writers do- clear, descriptive language, deft pacing, small details that speak to larger issues, masterful organization, etc. The only thing I can think of that holds this book back is an increasing hostility toward white men (or "palefaces" as she calls them in the early chapters) and the "white man's religion." It is possible that this makes some readers uncomfortable, but the way that it is presented makes her perspective easy to empathize with.

It should be added that this book is a hodge-podge. The essential portion of it is the autobiographical chapters right at the beginning. After that, Sa or her editors filled out the remainder of the pages with short fiction, essays, speeches, and a fan letter from Helen Keller!

Go read the autobiography. You won't regret it. I double-recommend this book to fans of House on Mango Street.

The Lord of Opium

The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer
Release Date: September 3, 2013

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This review describes an uncorrected proof. The published version may be different.

My sister in law read this book. Here are her impressions:

Everywhere you look today, you see The Hunger Games, Twilight, and Harry Potter, or their unwelcome imitators. Wouldn't it be nice to find an action/fantasy book that offers something different? Here's Nancy Farmer to the rescue!

Nancy Farmer returns us to the futuristic US/Mexico border conflicts that she introduced in The House of the Scorpion. We pick up where we left off with a plot which brews together the drug trade, cloning, and illegal immigration. Farmer delivers a book that contains science fiction without being limited by the Sci Fi label. This feels like a book about important issues that happens to take place in the future, rather than a more stereotypical book like Divergent, which is basically another, "What if an evil future government did x for no reason?"

Fans of the first book should be mostly satisfied. The story progresses logically, and is mostly unpredictable. The most disappointing aspect is the way a previously subtle, tastefully done romance angle devolves into something more cliché by the end of the book.

It also seems incongruous that a book about drug gangs has violence that is either strangely absent or awkwardly peppered in. Still, this book is so much better than any other YA sci fi titles out there that I would still recommend it.

This book would appeal to Hunger Games fans. It would cross over well to both male and female audiences. Anyone who enjoys a thrilling story about serious issues will enjoy it.

Everyone's excited about this book! Get your copy from The Blue Manatee or your nearest independent bookseller!

The Chaos of Stars

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White
Release Date: September 9, 2013

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This review describes an uncorrected proof. The published version may be different.

My mom read this book. Here are her unflattering remarks:

You know how The Flintstones came out because of The Honeymooners? Then The Jetsons happened because of the Flintstones? This book is like the Jetsons. It happened because somebody wrote a hit book about a kid who is actually a wizard,  then somebody else wrote a book about a kid who is actually a Greek God. Hoping for lightning to strike a third time, the publishing industry cranks out a book about a girl who is actually the child of Egyptian Gods.

[Editor's note: I actually enjoyed The Lightning Thief.]

Isadora's conflict in this book is mainly with her parents. They're immortal, she's not, and it's just not fair! (Slam!) Isadora is a stereotypical shallow, self-involved teen. Over the course of the book, she develops from being unlikeable to somewhat more likeable. She did become closer with her parents, but not in a way that involved outgrowing her abrasive immaturity.

I wish there was less Egyptian folklore stapled onto the story. The way it's integrated is jarring and contradictory. For example, her parents are millennia-old Gods with access to the internet, but they find San Diego baffling? More baffling, say, than the Book of the Dead?

I would reluctantly recommend this book to teenaged girls, but I would demand that they read something intelligent afterwards.

My mom was not the target audience for this novel. For a more positive review, see:
Proud Book Nerd 
 Dark Faerie Tales
The Nocturnal Library 

For a less negative, but not totally ebullient review, check out:
My Friends Are Fiction 
Sarah's YA Blog 
Bookworm 1858 
Punk's House of Books 

Or a negative review that's just less brutal:
Nawanda Files

If all this misanthropy hasn't scared you off, go pick up your copy at The Blue Manatee or your nearest independent bookseller.

The Nazi Hunters

The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the Worlds' Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb
Release Date: August 27

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The review describes an uncorrected proof. The published version may be different.

Mossad vs. Eichmann! Simon Wiesenthal! David Ben-Gurion! Isreal's toughest agents risk everything to bring down the greatest living war criminal! Finally! I've been waiting years for someone to tell this story in a teen-friendly format, and I'm grateful to Neal Bascomb for taking up the challenge.

The title of this book is truth in advertising. As a reader, you follow the effort to catch Eichmann step by step over the many years it took to bring him to face justice in Israel. You cheer when the agents get closer, grit your teeth every time Eichmann lives one more day of freedom, and recoil at the inner workings of Eichmann's mind.

Bascomb's greatest strength is his vivid snapshot characterizations. Each character is introduced carefully, with distinguishing attributes that make them stand out in the reader's mind. The frequency that the Holocaust enters into the characters' lives serves as a constant reminder of the mission's importance.

As much as I was prepared to love this book, I was still irritated by the organization and pacing of the narrative. The whole book kicks off with an intimidating character list, followed by a cryptic prologue. It's a shame that these two obstacles come first, because I can see many middle school readers giving up before they reach the first chapter. The first chapter is one of the strongest points of the whole book, so why not lead with that? Structurally, this is a cops-and-robbers story. Extra front matter just clouds the narrative.

If a character list is necessary, I would rather see it as an appendix or parsed out at the chapter heads as in Bomb. The prologue is more confusing than suspenseful and should just be deleted.

The stretch of narrative between the beginning of Chapter 2 and Harel's spine-tingling speech at the end of Chapter 7 is very frustrating. Anyone who's seen the front cover of the book knows that the Israelis will eventually go after Eichmann, but here they have to plow through chapter after chapter of indecision. There's so little tension that the book loses connection with the audience. I am especially frustrated, because I wanted to love this book so much, and the problem looks to be easily fixable.

I don't know how I'm supposed to feel during these meandering chapters. How about some chapter titles? You could go with picaresque (In which Bauer scours the world for a team to hunt down a war criminal) or noirish (TRAINING THE JUSTICE-HUNTERS). Either one would impart a sense of movement to the narrative.

More importantly, there is excellent material on the bad guys that Bascomb holds back for much too long. Details about the lies and manipulations within the Eichmann family would make him seem like more of a threat and less of an impotent old man. Description of ongoing sympathy for Nazis within the Argentine government would create more suspense over whether the spies will be caught. Linking international threats to Israeli identity to the Holocaust would give more urgency to the mission. Finally, details about Argentine Neonazi gangs and the Eichmann sons' potential for participation in them would greatly boost the atmosphere of threat and evil. Any of these elements, judiciously used, would compel readers more urgently through those early chapters.

The payoff begins at the end of Chapter 7. The mission to capture Eichmann is described with depth, precision, and energy. The portion on the safe house was especially shocking, and it gave the entire book additional weight and purpose. I hope that readers persevere through the early chapters to arrive at this, the meat of the book.

The portion about the airplane started off weak. Again, I couldn't see how the mission was threatened. It seemed like Mossad overpreparing for something that was not going to be that hard. Gradually, Bascomb introduces information about the Tacuara Neonazi gang and the Argentine police's inclination to help Eichmann. This, paired with the Holocaust stories of the flight crew, boosts the urgency effectively. I just wish these elements had been pushed right at the beginning of the plane portion, and not closer to the end.

The closing chapters of this book are resonant and powerful. As I have claimed throughout this review, the material of this book is top-notch and long overdue. I only wish it had been organized and presented in a manner that would be accessible to the greatest possible number of readers.


If you love justice, then go find this book at The Blue Manatee or your nearest independent bookseller!

Just Like Fate

Just Like Fate by Cat Partick & Suzanne Young
Release Date: August 27, 2013

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This review describes an uncorrected proof. The published version may be different.

My mom's comments:

What if you had to lose something, but you got to choose what it would be? What if you had to choose between family loyalty and new love? Many of us face these choices, but we never get to find out how it would have turned out if we'd chosen differently. In this novel, Caroline lives both outcomes of a vital choice, and the results reveal much about the importance of choosing well.

The authors of this book up the intellectual ante of the YA genre, with engrossing results. Caroline travels a more complex mental road than most protagonists of other teen novels. At the beginning, she must choose between staying at home with her dying grandmother and going to a party where she might find romance. The chapters alternate between parallel descriptions of these two outcomes. Although the outcomes are different, both paths lead Caroline to a deeper maturity and a broadened understanding of life.

Caroline's parents are especially notable characters. They present differently in the two plot lines, and the contrast reveals a complexity of character that most YA titles lack. Although, as a grandmother, I disliked the sexual situations and the plotline of high schoolers dating college boys, I appreciated the complex approach to character, the theme of reconciliation, and the discussion of choice vs. fate.

This book is targeted at teenaged girls, but I would also recommend it to parents who want to understand the issues their daughters grapple with. In fact, the themes are so universal that many people would enjoy the book.

My students and my mother agree on one thing: This book is solid! Go buy a copy at The Blue Manatee or your nearest independent bookseller!

The Dragon's Soul by Keagan Noll
Release Date: August 15, 2013

Amazon Listing

Battle to the death with an evil twin! Dragons reincarnated! Swords clash in the ultimate limit-breaking duel! Explosive excitement overflows in this short novel by a budding 9th grade writer. Enjoy!

Keagan was a student of mine last year. I enjoyed editing this story with him, and I hope that other readers will enjoy his story as well.