Library Mama

Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore Love, friendship and the mob mix in surprising and fascinating ways in this classic graphic novel. Katchoo and Francine are roommates. Francine is broken-hearted when her boyfriend leaves her after she refuses to sleep with him. Katchoo exacts a fearsome revenge on him, but refuses to tell Francine she’s in love with her. Meanwhile, Katchoo meets a persistent young man, David, at an art gallery. Even though she refuses the romantic relationship he wants, they develop a strong friendship. One might even go so far as to call it a love triangle. And then it turns out that Katchoo has old connections with the mob, and the mob is no longer willing to let them stay in the past. (I have to give a shout-out to my old library school friend Erica of Librarian Avengers, as I just realized after reading this book that her fabulous “Look it up” image comes from this book. Small revelations… moving right along here…) With realistic yet expressive illustrations and a new twist with every turn of the page, this is one to get lost in.

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen A small mouse in a flowing cape raises his sword defiantly against the snake looming over him. It was this image that convinced amnachaidh to buy the book. In this world, mice have settlements, protected from their many predators by the fearless Mouse Guard. The body of a traveller has been found, carrying the secret plans for Lockhaven, the stronghold of the Guard. Who was the traitor meeting? The Guard will do everything in their power to protect the safety of the mice and their Matriarch, Gwendolyn. The plot is fairly standard swashbuckling – which is to say, lots of fun. The setting is unique, and the illustrations gorgeous. For me, figuring out graphic novels, I’ve seen comics with constant narration where the pictures illustrate what’s described in the text; I’ve seen comics where the dialogue is cringe-worthy, clearly squeezed in around the pictures. Mouse Guard is told mainly through the pictures, but when there is text, it’s essential to understanding. It’s an excellent fusion of art and adventure.

Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe A young but worldly-wise priest is writing his memoirs. It started when Chris was put in a monastery school in Cuba and decided he didn’t want to take orders. When he left the monastery, the Havana he knew was gone, replaced by a much smaller one. Without money, food or shelter, he found work on a pirate ship. He made friends with Cap’n Burt, but didn’t want to become a murderous pirate himself. So much for good intentions. After several more adventures, he finds himself captain of his own pirate ship, pursued (romantically) by the wily and courageous Novia. The straightforward prose suits the book well, telling the plain facts of real pirate life. The action is violent without being romanticized and the plot does several quite unexpected flips. And while Father Chris is writing his memoirs and working at the Teen Center, he’s plotting how he can get back in time to the wife he left behind. I hear Neil Gaiman’s calling it essential reading.

Here’s one that I started in my Dear Reader emails and then finished. The book was not at all what it seemed like it would be after reading the first 20 pages.

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. Narrated by Kim Mai Guest. Fifteen-year-old Daisy is only a little nervous when she leaves her pregnant stepmother in New York to stay with her aunt and cousins in the English countryside. She loves suddenly being part of a large family, and the old farm house with its animals. Then, her aunt leaves the country for a few days. England is attacked and the borders are sealed, leaving four teens and nine-year-old Piper alone in the big house. Somehow, Daisy falls in love with her younger cousin Edmond (fourteen), who seems to be able to read her thoughts. In spite of the ickiness factor, but aided by the war, they have a tender romance that gets only as explicit as “not chaste”. Then the children get discovered and separated, the oldest brother joining the military, Daisy and little Piper to one house, Edmond and his other brother to another, hours apart. As the war gets worse, Daisy knows that it’s up to her to reunite the only family she’s ever felt she belongs in. And as food gets scarcer, the eating disorder she brought over from New York, while never made a focus of the story, starts to look very different.

At the height of the book, Daisy and Piper are traveling secretly across England by foot, foraging for food, and trying to find Edmond, whom Daisy can still hear faintly in her mind. What started off looking like a loveable family drama turns quickly into a survival adventure, with quite explicit and gory violence. If you’re up for that, the story is compelling, with steady action and characters you really care about. The setting is close enough to reality to feel close to home, yet just removed enough to keep it from being a direct commentary on current events. The tangential treatment of an eating disorder worked a whole lot better for me than writing a whole book focused on Girl with Eating Problem. The narrator of the audio book sounds utterly believable as a young teen, making the horrors she experiences that much more vivid. This is a book that will have you inventing reasons to keep listening.

Well… it’s been a month or two since my last post. I have been working madly on running the teen area – a full time job – on top of my own. Now that a real sub has been hired, I should have more time again, except for all of the work that I didn’t get done before. So (over the course of several days, I expect), I’ll try to do a super-condensed version of all the books I’ve been reading. Here's a first go:

Keys to Interfaith Parenting by Iris Yob This book starts from the refreshing premise that everyone has faith in something, even if it’s cynicism. It includes short summaries of some major world religions, followed by possible approaches to interfaith parenting. As opposed to the last book on interfaith parenting I read, this book says it’s important for children to learn about the faiths of both parents, even when they’re being raised as one.

The End: Hamburg 1945 by Hans Erich Nossack A moving and poetic first-hand account of the bombing of Hamburg. Less a lecture on the evils of war than a look at the psychology of first-hand traumatic change.

Bring Me the Head of Oliver Plunkett by Colin Bateman A comic caper for teens, as an orphan and a couple of would-be gangsters try to find the stolen head of Ireland’s most beloved saint.

Becoming the Parent You Want to Be by Laura Davis and Janis Keyser This is the practical companion to Unconditional Parenting. Where that book was heavy on rhetoric and research and short on actual practical technique, this one is full of practical guidelines for working with your children to help them become good people. They talk about things like how to incorporate your values into your family and how to teach young children conflict resolution. It’s full of first-hand stories from families of all different types.