Book Review: Pyongyang

Comic book writer Guy Delisle spent several months living and working in North Korea, the most unknowable country of modern times. In Pyongyang : a journey in North Korea, Delisle recounts his experience using spare black and white cartoon drawings to accompany his autobiographical tale.

This poignant and bittersweet tale can be read in one sitting and can be enjoyed by comics fans and current events enthusiasts alike. Unlike many of our other graphic novels, Pyongyang is shelved on the first floor; its call number is 951.9304 DEL.

Book Review: Coraline

Coraline
by Neil Gaiman

My first introduction to Neil Gaiman was when I read Good Omens, which had been a collaborative project between him and Terry Pratchett. As a result, I was confused as to which one was the "funny author." I first investigated Gaiman's work and discovered that he was not a humorous writer. But his dark, otherworldly style of writing was very intriguing and I

quickly became a fan. One of his most well-known books, Coraline, has been made into an
animated film that will be arriving in theaters this year. For that reason, I thought I would share the story and my thoughts on it for anyone else who is, or will be, a Neil Gaiman fan.

Coraline is a young girl with a boring life and a thirst for exploration. She and her parents have recently moved to a new apartment, and Coraline starts exploring the house and its other tenants, all of whom are fairly quirky and hint at a danger that Coraline doesn't understand. When her mother and father are away for the day, Coraline unlocks a door in that only
opens into a brick wall...except that this time, it leads into an eerie copy of her home. She even finds two people who are just like her parents, but have black buttons for eyes. They give her delicious food, a room full of toys, and a troupe of black rats entertain her. Her alternate neighbors have a theater with talking animals. However, Coraline feels uneasy about
her alternate parents when they want to replace her eyes with black buttons. She returns to her old home, but her real parents never return from their respective errands. Soon, Coraline realizes that they have somehow become trapped in the alternate world. Now Coraline has to return to that world and confront the danger there in order to rescue her family.

Anyone who has ever been frustrated with their parents will relate to this coming-of-age story. Imagine a very dark version of Alice in Wonderland, with a few significant differences. Instead of falling through a rabbit hole, a bored little girl opens a door into a "looking-glass" world. Instead
of charming and enigmatic characters, she meets menacing and deceitful ones. Like Alice and the Queen of Hearts, Coraline and her alternate-world mother go head to head for her parents' freedom. There is also a theme of mothers and daughters, which is a Gaiman trademark. Coraline's real mother doesn't seem to listen to or understand her. The alternate mother loves Coraline like a possession, and wants her complete obedience in exchange for giving her everything she wants. Coraline has to decide which kind of love she is happiest with, and whether or not getting everything she wants is worth the sacrifice.

Although the plot and imagery are often unsettling, it is not so much a horror story as a dark, cautionary fairy tale. The moral is that children often think they want one thing (whether it's more indulgent parents, fewer rules, or more toys) and realize soon enough that it isn't what they want at all. It also features a brave and clever female heroine who must rely mostly
on her own wits in order to rescue her parents and avoid being trapped by her evil alternate mother. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the style of Neil Gaiman or wants to become familiar with his work before seeing the movie adaptation of Coraline.

Reviewed by Nell Curley

Book Review: New Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl : the time paradox
by Eoin Colfer, Hyperion Books for Children, 2008
(Brooks Library has both the book and the audiobook on CD)

If any fantasy-loving readers of For the Love of Books have read Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony, they remember very well Eoin Colfer's ill-advised attempts to introduce a love interest for young super-genius Artemis Fowl in the shape of one golden-haired, female super-genius named Minerva. While not as bad as most Obvious Love Interests, Minerva was enough to upset many Artemis fans, who complained that she was too perfect and too much like Artemis to possibly be his One True Love. Fortunately, Colfer proved his respect for his fans and their opinions by excluding all mention of Minerva from Time Paradox. I was relieved when I got to page 101 and there'd been no allusion to the girl whatsoever. Well done, Colfer. Well done.

But there is more than just the purging of a canon Mary Sue to rejoice over in this final chapter of the Fowl saga. Artemis/Holly fans have their long-awaited moment in the sun as well. But perhaps I should get to the actual summary of the story first:

Artemis is enjoying quality time with his parents and two-year-old twin brothers after having returned from a trip to a demon dimension that caused him to go missing for three Earth years. Having used his newly acquired fairy magic to mesmerize his parents into believing he'd never gone missing, Artemis thinks nothing can interrupt his life with his newly expanded family. However, his mother contracts a mysterious disease that causes massive organ failure, and when no doctor can properly diagnose her, Artemis calls in Holly Short and Foaly to do their best. Foaly diagnoses Mrs. Fowl's illness as Spelltropy, a thought-to-be-extinct strain of fairy disease that can be cured only by using the brain fluid of lemurs. This would be encouraging news…if Artemis hadn't killed the very last lemur at age ten, which his mother had adopted and he later destroyed as a way of lashing out at her neglect in the face of his father's disappearance.

Without the lemur's brain fluid, Mrs. Fowl's death is guaranteed in a matter of days. But going back in time to prevent himself from killing the lemur has plenty of risks as well. For one, Artemis must follow his ruthless ten-year-old self to the zoo where the lemur resides and manage to kidnap it without being recognized—or killed. Needless to say, complications arise almost immediately. Artemis winds up battling with Young Artemis, but a pro-extinction villain who wants the lemur for his own purposes and has promised to pay Young Artemis for it. And does anyone remember the psychotic, power-hungry pixie Opal Koboi? As it turns out, she plays an extremely significant part in all this as well.

This is a thrilling, delightful book with exceptionally touching moments here and there. But there also are moments when the plot seems to go "Well, that about wraps up this—WAIT! THERE'S MORE!" It occurred to me that maybe Colfer had more than one ending in mind for his very last Artemis adventure, so he mashed them all together in the last book. Take a lesson from JK Rowling, sir—plan your very last ending out years in advance. And if the fans don't like it, tough! Kids today are too spoiled anyway!

If you have little patience for situations that go from bad to worse to better and worse again, this might not be a satisfying read.

If, on the other hand, you are a fan (however closeted) of interspecies romance or want to see just how far seventeen-year-old Artemis has come by getting to know the ten-year-old criminal he once was, you will probably enjoy this last hurrah.

--Nell Curley is an avid book reader (and writer) and she volunteers at the Library.

4 Incredible Reads 4 U...

Feed by M.T. Anderson
(1st Floor YA Fiction)

Phew! When I finished this book I felt my brain had had a workout. Imagine a time in the future when there are direct connections to the internet emplanted in your brain. Think a question and an answer will appear. Then imagine that the whole thing is run by corporations eager to influence what you buy. You think “I’d like a better car” when yours isn’t running right and you head is flooded with ads ... ads tailored to you because the corporations know your taste, your income,your feelings about cars, everything that will help them market to you as an individual.

On top of it all, the book is written in the language of the text message and teen slang. Kids have apparently loved the book. I thought it interesting, but also scary in a not very good way. I found it all too easy to believe that it might come to pass that generations in the future might want to have the equivalent of a very high tech communications device actually embedded in their brains. No call phones to charge, no Blackberries to lose tract of, no i-Pod to load.

On the down side (besides all those ads aimed just at you manipulating your consumming habits) “the Feed” limits your choice of news sources to those approved by the government and the corporations. A president could start wars that the “news media” wouldn’t cover. Details of enviromental disasters could be kkept secret to avoid “upsetting” the populace and exposing the corporations to regulation.

Geography Club by Brent Hartinger

(1st Floor YA Fiction)

Have you seen the comment slips in the back of the newer books at Brooks Memorial Library? I love reading what others have to say about books ... and adding my own comments, too. There’s only one comment on this book: “Brilliant and moving, don’t pass it up.” I agree, and the book shows enough
wear that I’m pretty sure it’s been read by quite a few folks.

The title is not one whih grabs you (unless you have been the advisor to a geography club) but that’s the point. A group of gay and lesbian teens and their friends use it as a cover for their support group. The author has obviously “been there,” and writes about high school and the loneliness of thinking one is uniquely outcast with empathy and humor.

The characters he created range from funny and smart, the kind of kids anyone would enjoy spending time with, to real jerks. Yet there are enough twists and turns here to reveal that first impressions can be wrong and sometimes ... right. It is a story about heros who face not physical danger, but cruelty and soul destroying fear. Nevertheless the overall impression I was left with is one of hope, and gratitude that I have had a chance to get to know these kids.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

(741.5 YAN)

Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award (for young adult books)
and a National Book Award finalist

The Printz award is a relatively new one, brought to you by the same folks who sponsor the Newbury and the Caldecott medals (the American Library Association). Not to worry, this is NOT a heavy, feel bad treatise on the burdens of being Asian American. It is a graphic novel of considerable sophistication, and laugh out loud funny.

Three seemingly unrelated stories are woven together, that of Jin Wang, a student who has just moved to a new school from one in San Francisco’s China Town; the Monkey King of traditional Chinese tales; and Danny, an ordinary kid who is plagued by annual visits from a cousin who represents all the worst Chinese stereotypes ever known. That all these threads will become one story seems impossible, but Yang pulls it off.

I’m still trying to figure out things about this book, although they in no way detract from my enjoyment of it. The pictures are simple, they look like real people (except the gods, godesses, demons and so forth) and the story is grounded in an American high school which fulfills every stereotyped expectation going. The ground covered is not unfamiliar, but there’s nothing here which is predictable or dull. And as every student knows, it has the great appeal of being short, a fast read, but serious and worthy of a book report.

I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier

(1st Floor YA Fiction)

Cormier, author of The Chocolate War, was not one to repeat himself, except in writing books about teens which leave the reader unsettled. In alternating chapters we follow a sixteen year old boy from Central Massachussetts as he rides an old beat up bike to “Rutterburg, Vermont” (read Brattleboro) and we also read the transcription of his sessions with ???? a shrink ???? The question marks represent the basic mysterious creepiness of the book.

Adam, the bike riding main character, is driven by a compulsion he never sucessfully explains. The mysterious “doctor” who questions him seems to be from another universe. Adam’s bike ride is grueling, and puzzling. He knows there are things he believes which don’t make sense in the world he encounters. Why is the motel where he stayed the previous summer abandoned? Is he being followed? Why is his mother so sad?

And for someone who lives in Brattleboro the question lingers, is the place Adam is riding to ... is questioned in ... is imprisoned in ... the Retreat?

A book with tantilizing questions.

The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson

(1st Floor YA Fiction)

A Michael L. Printz Honor Book.

Dickinson never disappoints. In this acclaimed fantasy he introduces us to a vaguely familiar Empire where one even needs permission (and to pay a tax and a bribe) to die. No wonder the people of the Valley don’t want anything to do with the Empire! Neither do they favor invasion by the barbarian horsemen from the North. Four brave souls set out to renew the magic which protects their homeland, never guessing the challenges they will encounter.

Some of the dangers are physical (a raft trip on a river in flood), many are magical (will the Watchers get them before they find the master magician?), some are spiritual (will they be corrupted?). Inventive and utterly believable, a story which features teenaged girl and boy, a crippled grandmother and a blind grandfather, up against forces as evil as they are banal. Breath taking.

All Reviews written by Linda Hay, former librarian at Academy School and Brooks Library volunteer.

THE OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE OF OPHELIA

Ophelia by Lisa Klein, Bloomsbury USA Children's Books (2006), ISBN-10: 1582348014,$16.95

“Dear Mr. Shakespeare, I respectfully but completely disagree. Sincerely, Lisa Klein.”

This could easily be the philosophy behind Klein’s first novel, which describes the life and times of Hamlet’s doomed lover, Ophelia. This heroine’s famously tragic death has made her one of the most sympathetic characters in Shakespeare’s plays. But while the Bard portrayed Ophelia as altogether rather pitiful, Klein takes the opposite approach and constructs a strong-minded, witty and intelligent Ophelia who plays a surprisingly significant role in the events that unfold during the dark days at Elsinor Castle.

Ophelia’s personal history is discussed at length in this novel. She is motherless, but educated as well as her brother Laertes. From a young age, Polonius does his utmost to groom his children for a life in the royal court, hoping by extension to improve his own social standing. He cares more for Ophelia’s station as lady-in-waiting to Queen Gertrude and Laertes’ friendship with Prince Hamlet than he does for their happiness.

Ophelia first meets Prince Hamlet when she is eight and he is fourteen. Although he treats her like a child until years later, her fascination with him only grows. In their adolescent years, he is attracted to her wit and sharp intelligence when she wins a debate with him. Ophelia knows that her romance with Hamlet is risky, and the lovers go to great lengths to keep it secret from the court. Hamlet himself is as complex in the book as in the play. He is romantic and kind, yet secretive and melancholy. Early in their courtship, he gives Ophelia a coin with the two-faced Roman god Janus on it. Like Janus, Hamlet has a dual personality that confuses Ophelia, though Hamlet professes he truly loves her.

After the assassination of King Hamlet and the ascension of Claudius to the throne, Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship becomes even more serious, culminating in an elopement. But their happiness is short-lived once Hamlet is given the responsibility of avenging his father’s death. Ophelia is alarmed by the change in her husband and his talk of committing murder. She agrees to help him, but secretly plans to deter him from his goal with her love. Together, they devise a startling scheme to both discredit and protect themselves from all who would endanger their lives. Unfortunately, the main events of the story stay true to the play, and neither Hamlet nor Ophelia’s best efforts can prevent the tragedy that ultimately ends their relationship.

What must be remembered about this book is that this is Ophelia’s side of the story, not Hamlet’s. Lisa Klein creates a strong heroine who must take her destiny into her own hands if she is to survive. There is a lot that can’t be revealed without spoiling the story. But if you are curious to know how Ophelia took up arms against her own sea of troubles, I highly recommend this book.

---

Nell Curley is an avid book reader and volunteers at the Library.

Teen Brooks Blog Starts Up again

OK. We have been a little asleep here for a couple months. But we are ready to go again. Teen Brooks will be publishing reviews of books in the Library's teen collection. And speaking of the teen collection, have you seen the new rolling book shelves on the Main Floor?

More about this later, but let me introduce Nell Curley. Nell is a volunteer at Brooks and is an avid book reader. She likes to write and here is her second review which is to appear in the Brattleboro Reformer Thursday, January 17. She will be writing more reviews for the newspaper which also will appear here.

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, by Rennison, Louise.

2000. 256p. HarperCollins, hardcover, $15.95 (0-06-028814-0); HarperCollins, library edition, $15.89 (0-06-028871-X). Grades 6-9.

If you had a hard time understanding the humor of Bridget Jones, or if you were too young to be interested in it when it first debuted, you might be highly interested in British author Louise Rennison's first of eight adolescent fiction books, Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, about a hilarious fourteen-year-old British girl named Georgia Nicolson. Georgia records the days and months of her life in diary-like entries. She attends a strict all-girls school where she and her friends, the "Ace Gang," combat their boredom by applying makeup and making up dance routines during class. Georgia's home life consists of avoiding her highly embarrassing parents and catering to the unpredictable whims of her little sister, Libby. The aforementioned Angus is her half-wildcat pet, who terrorizes the next-door neighbors and makes plenty of extra trouble for the Nicolson family.

When Georgia's best friend Jas develops a crush on the local grocer's son, Tom, Georgia agrees to approach Tom under the guise of wanting to purchase vegetables so as to learn more about him. While she is in the store, she meets his gorgeous older brother Robbie, whom she becomes instantly smitten with and dubs him "The Sex God.” Jas and Tom's relationship flourishes, but Georgia learns that the Sex God is older than her and involved with a girl in Georgia's school, the tall blonde prefect Lindsay. The two girls are not on friendly terms at school, so Georgia has serious competition. Even worse, the Sex God seems to have a rather low opinion of Georgia and the company she keeps. Between staving off boredom (as well as parents) at home, school, and the constant revision of the Ace Gang's "snogging scale" to accommodate what number Georgia and her friends have got to with boys, Georgia wonders if Robbie the Sex God will ever be hers.

When I first read Angus, I laughed harder than I have before over a book. Really! Georgia has no inhibitions about being sarcastic or rude to anyone, and the reactions from her family members are very funny, especially during an incident where she accidentally shaves off her eyebrows. She frets over her appearance and boy appeal as much as any girl, often finds herself caught in highly embarrassing situations, and wants to have as much fun as possible. Louise Rennison creates an unrepentantly immature character in Georgia, but if you find yourself wishing she’d grow up a bit, simply read the next few installments (On the Bright Side I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God, Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas, Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel, Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers, Startled By His Furry Shorts and most recently Love is A Many Trousered Thing) and watch how she grows.

For those of you who were baffled by the titles listed above and have yet to grasp what “snogging” refers to, there are handy glossaries in the back of each book translating Georgia’s vernacular to plain American English. She’s considerate like that.