Janes in Love...random thoughts

Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg.

It's always a bit hard to talk about a sequel, isn't it? Or that could just be me, I suppose. But Janes in Love pretty much picks up where The Plain Janes left off. We're still following the exploits of P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art In Neighborhoods), a group of somewhat misfit high school students who perpetrate "art installations" in their town.

As I sat reading this last evening, Rich interrupted and said, "That sounds like quite the amusing book." Until then, I hadn't realized how often it had me giggling. And yes, humor does play a part. But really this book is so much more than that. It's about so many things, really. Dealing with fear. Taking chances. Following your dreams. The difference that art, and creativity, and beauty can make. Falling in love. Sticking with those you love. And friendship. The ups, the downs, and real gift that friendship is.

The thing about having a good, true friend is that it's ok if you cry so hard that snot runs down your face. Because their arms are strong and their heartbeat is loud...and you can be your smallest and ugliest in front of them.

I loved this book! I'm tempted to say that I enjoyed it even more than the first, but I'm not sure that's quite true. I think it might be truer to say that I loved the first book even more than I did previously because of this one. Honestly, I think you need to read both. They really belong together.

*****
For more opinions:
--Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings (The Plain Janes)
--Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings (Janes in Love)
--Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf (The Plain Janes)
--Eva at A Striped Armchair (The Plain Janes)
--Amanda at Zen Leaf (The Plain Janes)
--Amanda at Zen Leaf (Janes in Love)
--Susan at You Can Never Have Too Many Books (The Plain Janes and Janes in Love)
--Kailana at The Written World (The Plain Janes)
--Lenore at Presenting Lenore (The Plain Janes)
--Alison at So Many Books, So Little Time (The Plain Janes)
--Alison at So Many Books, So Little Time (Janes in Love)
(If I missed your review, please feel free to leave a link in the comments and I'll add it here. Thanks.)

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents...random thoughts

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett.

Let me say right off the top here that there is no way I will ever do this book justice. It is simply so utterly brilliant.

Okay, so I'd been on a streak of reading rather depressing things. Good stuff, but depressing stuff. I was craving something fun and light. For the last couple years, I'd been wanting to give Discworld a try, but balked because I just didn't know where to start. Nymeth kindly put up with all my questions about where to start and whatnot, and suggested that this book was the perfect choice, being a good stand-alone. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally put her advice to use. And did it meet my expectations? Well, yes and no. (In the sheer awesomeness category it surpassed them by like half a gazillion miles.) But as for fun and light... Well, fun gets a yes, yes, YES! Light, well, not so much. And by that, I don't for a single minute mean that it's heavy, tedious reading, or that it's obscure or pretentious...I just mean that it really has a lot to say. And in retrospect, I have to say I was an idiot for ever imagining that it would be a light, "fluffy" story...because Nymeth has the most remarkable gift for finding books that satisfy and delight and challenge on a number of levels. And that is exactly what this book does!

So what's it about? Well, let me quote from page 1, where that very question is addressed:

Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats, and--

But there was more to it that that. As the Amazing Maurice said it was just a story about people and rats. And the difficult part of it was deciding who the people were, and who were the rats.

But Malicia Grim said it was a story about stories.

Doesn't seem to tell you much, does it? Of course, after you read it, you realize just how much it says. I'm sorry. I'm really not trying to be so obtuse here. I'm just having a hard time putting this all into words.

Okay. Let's try this again.

The Amazing Maurice is a cat. A talking cat, who is sort of the unofficial leader of an odd group of con artists. The rest of this band consists of a boy named Keith and a bunch of educated rodents. Only I'm not sure "educated" is precisely the correct word. Thinking rodents. And it's not that all cats and rodents can think and talk. No, this is not the norm. (How they came to be this way, I'll leave for you to discover when you read this book. Because you should read this book.) Anyway, this little group has perfected a scam. They head into an unsuspecting town. The rats wreak havoc. And do so in ways that no ordinary rats would even dream of doing. Seriously, how would you react if a rat went tap-dancing across your table before "widdling" in your cream? Okay, so not all the rats are fabulous dancers, but Sardines is quite proud of his talent. Anyway, so the rats put the town in an uproar, and in comes Keith, a piper, and offers to lead the rats away. For a price, of course.

Now this unlikely gang makes quite a fine living at this for a while. Until they come to the town of Bad Blintz. And it is here that the story really takes place. And this is where it turns dark. I don't want to give away any more of the actual story, but I've got all these really cool things floating around in my head that I really wish I could talk about. *sigh* So, I'll just add a couple of disconnected thoughts here, and then urge you once again to go read this yourself.

*I love the names of the rats, and the story of how they got their names. I won't tell you the story. Think you can guess if I tell you some of my favorite names? Hamnpork, Bestbefore, Nourishing, Additives, Inbrine. And my very favorite of all...Dangerous Beans (though I'm dying for someone to explain the "circumstances" of that one).

*This is the PERFECT book for Once Upon a Time. It fills nearly all the categories at once. :) Fantasy--check. Fairy tale--yep, definitely a cool retelling of the Pied Piper. Folklore--again yep, rat kings. *shudder* And you know, someone more learned on such matters might be able to find a way to stick this under myth, too.

*It's loaded with humor, sometimes subtle, always smart.

*And finally, let me leave you with this question:

What is it that defines "civilized"?

Oops, sorry, I'm not really going to leave it at that. But don't worry...I've got a good reason for continuing. See, I have a copy of this wonderful little treasure to give away. NO, not mine--this is a keeper! But a brand new copy, because I accidentally bought two. Want it? Just say so...and I'll do the random draw thingie sometime Monday.

*****

Other views:

Annie at Words by Annie
Jennifer at Jennifer's Book Blog
Lara at Lara's YA Reading Log
Nate at The Chronicles of Nate-ia
Rebecca at Just One More Page
Jenclair at A Garden Carried in the Pocket

Oh, and it won the Carnegie Award...so I'm guessing the judges loved it, too. :)

I'm sure there must be other reviews out there, so if you've got one, please feel free to leave a link in the comments, and I'll add it here. Thanks.

American Born Chinese...random thoughts

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.

To be perfectly honest, this book is so incredible that I'm pretty much at a loss for words. I really don't know how to do this book justice...and I really wish I did, because if I could convince even one person who hasn't yet read this book to do so, it would make me very happy.

The book is three stories in one, told in alternating chapters. The first story is that of the Monkey King, a Chinese legend. The Monkey King of Flower-Fruit Mountain isn't happy being a monkey, and he works very hard trying to turn himself into a god, The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven. Second, there is the story of Jin Wang, who moves from his apartment near San Francisco's Chinatown and finds himself the only Chinese-American kid at Mayflower Elementary. It's not an easy place to find oneself. And finally, there is the story of Danny, an American teenager. Each year his Chinese cousin, Chin-Kee, comes to visit for a few weeks, and Danny finds his life so ruined that he transfers schools. Chin-Kee is the epitome of a negative Chinese stereotype. Eventually the three stories mesh into one. And maybe I'm just slow on the uptake, but the way this happened took me by surprise...it was simply brilliant.

In fact, the whole book was simply brilliant. Deceptively simple to read. For it is truly so sophisticated. It contains so much depth. To be perfectly honest, I suspect that if I read it again, I would discover things I'd missed. And if I read it again after that, I would find even more. The book addresses many themes: identity, racism, friendship, self-acceptance, and how these things play off of one another, how they affect one another. It was humorous, and it was painful. Bottom line, it was amazing.

*****

Want to read what others thought?

Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf
Nymeth at Things Mean A Lot
Alison at So Many Books, So Little Time
Chris at Stuff As Dreams Are Made On
Ali at Worducopia
Kailana at The Written World
Joy at Thoughts of Joy

And if you've read and reviewed this book, please feel free to leave a link in the comments, and I'll add it here. Thanks.

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea...random thoughts

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti.

Again with the short and sweet here.

I really, really wanted to like this book. Okay, that's a dumb thing to say, because of course, I want to like every book I read. But still, do you know what I mean? I hoped this book would be simply wonderful, because it involves such important issues.

Because of this, I have to admit when I first began reading, I was a bit disappointed. It started out feeling so cliche. Tal Levine, a 17-year-old Israeli girl, begins writing after a suicide bomber blows up a cafe in her neighborhood. A diary sorts. She feels nearly compelled to write. As she says:

When the fear comes back, like now, we all seem to forget who we are. We all become potential victims, bodies that could end up lifeless and covered in blood just because someone chose to blow themselves up right next to us. I want to know who I am, what I'm made of. What would make my death any different from any other? If I said that to my parents or friends, they'd be really shocked and would tell me gently that I needed to rest. That must be why I've decided to write: so I don't frighten the others with what's going on inside my head...and don't let them declare me a raving lunatic.

Tal decides to reach out in the only way she can think of...by putting a letter in a bottle and throwing it into the Gaza Sea. She imagines that a Palestinian girl her own age will find the letter, and that they'll begin this amazing friendship through e-mails.

But it's not a girl who finds her letter. Gazaman, as he calls himself, seems angry and bitter and sarcastic. See what I mean about stereotypes--the sweet, peace-loving Israeli girl and the angry, hate-filled Palestinian boy.

Gazaman also writes in a journal of sorts. But a journal he can't keep. He explains his reasons:

I get angry very quickly if I think too much, but I don't want to stop thinking. My head is the only place where no Tsahal soldier, no guy from Hamas, and not even my father or my mother can get in. My head is my home, my only home, a bit small for everything I've got to put inside it, and that's why I started writing, several years ago now. I didn't have to wait for that spoiled little Tal from Jerusalem to get me started. I write and then I burn the paper, tear it up, soak it, and throw it down the toilet; I'm too frightened someone will find it. But at least it does me some good, it soothes me a bit. There are too many people I hate, too may people stopping me from living my life, and too many signs (which aren't actually there but I can see all over the place) that say: EVERYTHING IS BANNED.

And it is through Tal's and Gazaman's "diaries" that we read part of the story. The other part is read through their e-mails. As this "conversation" between them begins, I have to admit that I was still feeling a bit let-down. It felt too pat, too unoriginal. But guess what--I am so very grateful that I stuck with the book. Somewhere along the way, it seemed to grow in depth. I began to see these characters as more than caricatures. Tal experienced a life changing event and grew. And while she didn't lose her yearning for peace, she did lose some of her naivete. And as the book moves forward, we get to know much more about Gazaman and his life. He is, in reality, far from the stereotype we are first introduced to.

So, in the end, I found this a satisfying read. Not perfect, but well worth the time it took to read.