End-Of-Year Catch-up: Teen Fiction

 The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks

• Very funny story about pathetic, spindly, whiny vampires with recurring gastrointestinal issues and no superpowers whatsoever.   

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

• Another near-future dystopia, this one in a post-oil world where sea levels have risen dramatically. Nailer is a desperately poor boy from a ship breaking yard trying to survive and escape his grim circumstances.  The story is well-written, with plausible characters, some good adventure, and a little social analysis.  Well done. 

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

• Jenna Fox awakes from a long coma with no memory of her previous life.  As she pieces her world together she begins to question her own humanity and the ethics of biomedical advancements. 
• I wasn't entirely satisfied with this book.  As a personal-identity exploration, it worked just fine, but the broader social issues were addressed shallowly.  I was also irked by a character being morally let off the hook for beating someone nearly to death just because he was a drug dealer.  

The Declaration by Gemma Malley

• This book peeved me so much I almost didn't finish it.  The characters were fairly flat and the premise is unconvincing.  Science has discovered a way for people to live forever, but due to overpopulation fears, childbearing is largely criminalized.  Plotholes abound.  People would not blindly accept this.

Catch-up Post 4: Children's Fiction

I Am in a Book by Mo Willems

• Another glorious addition to my favourite series of readers, the Elephant & Piggie books.  In this metafictional story, Elephant and Piggie realize that they have a reader, and consequently have the power to make someone else say whatever silly words they want.  Their only fear is what will happen when the book ends... But don't worry.  They have a solution that everyone should be happy with: "Will you please read us again?"

Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst

• Lulu hates to hear the word, "No."  She screams and screams until her parents give her whatever they want, but when she asks for a brontosaurus for her birthday they will not budge.  She sets out to get one for herself, only to learn that the brontosaurus has other ideas.

Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee

• Three short episodes about two friends, featuring imagination, colourful socks, and a golfish.  Good for new readers.  

Catch-up Post 3: Comics for Adults (Four by Gilbert Hernandez)

Gilbert Hernandez is pondering life beyond his fictional town of Palomar in these four graphic novels.   Having written several trade paperbacks focused on Luba, the hammer-wielding mayor of Palomar, these recent titles shift attention to Luba's half-sister Fritz.  I don't mind Fritz, but she isn't a character I'm particularly fascinated by, and I miss the magic realism of Palomar.

High Soft Lisp

• The story of Fritz, her multiple marriages and b-movie film career.    

Chance in Hell

•  A standalone story.  When I read it I hadn't realized that it's a fictional movie with Fritz in a small non-speaking role.  The story is bloody and inconclusive.  A small child referred to as "The Empress" lives in a garbage dump until a man takes her home to give her a better life.  We see her as a cynical, violent adolescent, then jump ahead to her adulthood.  She is inscrutable, showing little emotion or connection to any other people.  It is difficult to get attached to a character like this.  Not one of my favourites from Hernandez.

The Troublemakers

• Another film starring Fritz, this time in a major role.  A handful of con artists try to trick each other out of a pool of money.  I'm not terribly fond of stories where everyone is out to get everyone else and no one knows who is on their side and who is betraying them.  Consequently, I'm lukewarm on this title.

Speak of the Devil

•  A third comic version of an imaginary movie that I would never watch.  Voyeurism and senseless murder without enough character developmen to explain why a teenaged girl would act this way.  Perhaps if I were a fan of slasher movies I'd get more out of this.  At least the art is as beautiful as ever even if the story isn't to my taste.

Catch-up Post 2: Children's Comics

Definitely Not for Little Ones by Rotraut Susanne Berner

• Brief retellings of Grimm fairy tales as comics.  Humourous and a little wicked, these are not as sanitized as common versions parents tell their preschoolers.  The book includes a mix of popular and lesser known stories.  Some episodes feel too abrupt, but this should appeal to young readers in elementary school who like their stories quick and just a little dark.  

Binky to the Rescue by Ashley Spires

• In Binky the Space Cat's second tale, the eponymous kitty must survive an adventure into outer space (outside his house).  His companion and copilot (a mouse toy) has fallen out a window and is in danger from aliens (wasps).  Binky is a hilariously delusional cat and readers will enjoy his misunderstandings and imagined dangers in a very normal home environment.  Spires has created some fun comics for new readers to devour. 

Catch-up Post 1: Teen Fiction

Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

• Mechanical marvels, monstrous genetically engineered beasts of burden, intrigue, adventure and war.  A girl dressed as a boy regularly exhibits more valour than anyone else.  Air heroics and good-natured characters are reminiscent of Oppel's Airborn series.  Good for the younger end of teen lit readership or advanced elementary aged readers.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

• This was a disappointment to me.  I either disliked, or didn't feel much connection to most characters, and I wasn't thrilled by the plot.  Multiple elements of the story felt like alternate-era rehashing of Clare's previous series.  Some language read awkwardly (ie overuse of "your precious ____").  Didn't work for me

The Giver by Lois Lowry

•  A dystopian classic I'd somehow missed reading.  Gentle pace allows readers to think and feel their way through the story, which contrasts with the frenetic plots of the Hunger Games and other current dystopian yarns.  Nice story; might need to read the sequel to see how everything turned out.

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

• Seven teenagers return from a camping trip to find their town empty, pets dead or dying, and communication lines and power cut off.  When they realize that their country has been invaded they set out to discover where their families are, whether they can help, and how to survive through the war.  Characters are believable; strong and smart but confused, upset, and fallible. Small acts of heroism and bravery are exciting to read, and are written carefully enough to allow for reflection. 

Alice, I Think (and sequels), by Susan Juby

 October became Canadian teen trilogy month for me.  Susan Juby's informative and sarcastically funny Nice Recovery inspired me to read her Alice series, set in Smithers, Juby's hometown in Northern BC.

Alice took me a little time to warm up to.  I spent the first half of Alice, I Think gritting my teeth at her intense self-centredness and wanting to shake some sense into her.  Part of my pain may have been influenced by the recognition that at age fifteen I was probably only a little less selfish and reactive than her.

Alice cares too much about looking good, but has the most bizarre fashion sense that anyone in her town has ever seen.  She has nothing in the way of social skills, which she blames on spending most of her life homeschooled, but may have as much to do with her near-complete absence of empathy.  Alice has beyond-terrible judgement. She stalks customers at her workplace (convinced they're all shoplifters), freezes up when physically attacked by a drunken teen delinquent, and tells half-truths to her therapist so he doesn't have a breakdown like the last one did.

By the end of Alice, I Think, I'd laughed hard enough and been sufficiently charmed to read the rest of the series.  Miss Smithers, my favourite of the three, sees Alice competing in the local pageant and sabotaging herself at all turns.  She spends most of her clothing-allowance for the contest on a pair of leather pants, leaving her almost nothing to cobble together the rest of her outfits.  She publishes (somewhat unintentionally) scathing articles about friends, family, and fellow contestants in her zine.  And sadly, with a combination of neglect and unreasonable demands, she chases away her endearingly awkward boyfriend. Alice Macleod, Realist at Last, continues with more romantic foibles, false representations to employers, and failure to complete a single act of housework.

All three books end fairly abruptly, but as the stories are character rather than plot-centric, I didn't mind too much.  I would have liked to know a little more about what was happening with other characters, but this is Alice's diary, and Alice doesn't care enough to talk too long about anyone else.  Sigh.  I laughed enough that I'll forgive her. 

Airborn, Skybreaker, and Starclimber, by Kenneth Oppel

Kenneth Oppel is a superstar of Canadian teen lit.  I'd been feeling terribly neglectful for failing to read his popular, multi-award winning steampunk series, so a couple of weeks ago I set about reading all three.

Airborn, Skybreaker, and Starclimber are adventure stories with elements of survival, fantasy, and (very) light romance.  Matt Cruse, a cabinboy when we meet him, is a resourceful, hardworking, and thoughtful fellow.  Confident without arrogance and eminently capable, he saves the day on more than one occasion.

In Airborn, I found Matt to be a little too perfect, but Oppel takes him out of his comfort zone in the sequels and bestows him with a few human flaws.  His friend Kate De Vries is a  bookish-but-tough girl born into priviledge and out to prove herself in a man's world.  In other words, she's a little cliche, especially when paired against Matt's poor working-class upbringing.  Nevertheless, they're an enjoyable pair to read about, and contribute to the series' appeal to both male and female readers. 

Steampunk elements are introduced mostly as background to the story, providing cultural context or technological challenges.  Each book sees Matt and Kate aboard a different kind of air or spacecraft with structures and characteristics that our own world has never seen.

 My library shelves this series in the teen section, but the story is light enough that I'd happily recommend it to strong readers in elementary school.