The Chicken Dance

In his first novel, Jacques Couvillon presents teens with a heartfelt story about love, family and, of course, chickens. Eleven-year-old Don is instantly transformed from "the new kid" who nobody notices or cares about to a local celebrity when he becomes the youngest person ever to win his town's chicken judging contest. Finally, Don has friends who want to spend time with him and a mother who seems interested in what's going on in his life. Everything is turned upside down, however, when Don accidentally finds a birth certificate for a child with his birthday but with a different name. Who is this Stanley? And what does he have to do with Dawn, the dancing sister who has been dead for years and who no one can seem to get over? Set in Louisiana in 1980, this intriguing story of Don's breaking family and his struggle to find his place in it is all at once touching and tragic. Nothing is what it seems in this novel - except for the chickens, who despite their place in the book's title as as a moving symbol play a very minor role.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this book is the way that Couvillon has managed to present some very complicated and dramatic themes in the authentic voice of an 11-year-old. Often one runs the risk of making a character older than his years when writing about some of these themes, but Don's take on things is always believable for a child of his age.

I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys books about families or friendships.

Overall Grade: A

The Boy Who Saved Baseball

John Ritter's book, The Boy Who Saved Baseball, is a moving underdog story about our national pastime. In this story, a small California town is torn in half as developers come in to try to "fix up" the area. They're already made vast improvements on part of the town by fixing up homes, bringing in new businesses, and supplying their youth baseball team with a brand new field and equipment. Many of the townspeople, however, do not want to see this happen to the rest of the area despite the benefits, fearing that they will loose their connection to the surrounding countryside and their small town way of life. It is decided that the fate of Dillontown is going to be decided by a baseball game between the town's two teams. If the Wildcats, a rag-tag team of kids who barely have bleachers on their field can win, then the town will remain as is. If the well-equipped team from down the hill wins, however, then progress is truly the answer and the developers will be allowed to move in. It is up to a strange kid named Cruz de la Cruz and a washed-up former major leaguer to teach the rest of the team to really see the ball and play to win. Will the Dillontown Wildcats come out on top?

This book is a great baseball story that is sure to please sports fans. However, I would encourage those who perhaps aren't quite as baseball savvy to consider this book as well. Everyone can appreciate this underdog story. The poetic language is also sure to please, and the description really transports the reader to the California countryside.

Overall Grade: A-

Nick and Norah - The Movie

I went with some friends to see the film version of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist over the weekend. For the record - they made a LOT of changes from the book, all of which bothered me. The movie isn't exactly great cinema, but it would have been entertaining enough if I hadn't been so caught up on the book.

The movie have a few very gross moments that I won't get into here. And Michael Cena is really not the actor I would have chosen to play Nick no matter how adorable the guys is. Nick and Norah's friends also have much more prominent roles than they do in the book.

Of the five of us who went to see the movie, all but one had read the book. I was the only one really bothered by all of the changes. Like I said, the movie has the potential to be entertaining if you can get over all of the changes.

The movie was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sexuality, language, and crude behavior - but it was far less vulgar than the book.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

In honor of yesterday's release of of the film staring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, I finally present my review of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, co-written by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

The story is told in alternating voices, with Levithan writing from Nick's point of view, and Cohn writing from Norah's perspective. Nick has recently been dumped by his girlfriend of 6 months. When she appears at the club where Nick's band is performing, he is so desperate to avoid her that he asks the nearest girl - Norah - to pretend to be his girlfriend for five minutes. Filled with her own excess baggage from a past relationship, Norah responds by kissing him, leading to an intense night of falling in and out of love and finding closure with their pasts.

I can definitely see why someone would love this book. It's an edgy exploration of love, rejection, and recovery. And while the book starts a bit strangely as we jump headfirst into the story without much of a reason given for why Nick and Norah seem to be so strongly drawn to each other, it finishes strongly with the promise that our protagonists' hearts can and will heal.

Unfortunately...I honestly didn't much care for the book. Perhaps this is because in the past I've not been a fan of David Levithan's writing. It might also be that I had a hard time identifying with the characters. Wisconsin is very different from NYC, and the characters have a super-hip lifestyle that is almost completely foreign to me. I also found the book to be excessively profane. Normally, swearing in a book is not enough to completely turn me off, but given my other reasons for not liking the book, the profanity seemed way over the top. If you worry about your ears burning, this might not be the book for you.

Overall Grade: B/B+

But don't let my opinions stop you from reading. It truly is not a terrible book, just not my cup of tea. It may be especially worth checking out if you're planning on seeing the movie - from what I've heard, they took a number of liberties with the book to bring Nick and Norah to the screen.

One Voice Please

Many readers may recognize Sam McBratney as the author of beloved picture books, including my own personal favorite Guess How Much I Love You. Now, McBratney has put together a collection of short stories for older readers under the title One Voice, Please. In the books introduction, McBratney explains how he once heard this phrase silence a crowded pub so that one man could share a story with the entire crowd. This is a fitting title, given the nature of the book's collection of tales. Many of these fables will be familiar to readers, including the story of the ion and the mouse, and the Pied Piper of Hamlin. However, most of these stories were unfamiliar to me. This pleasant combination of the familiar and the unfamiliar made the transition from story to story smooth and comforting. Each tale is a sort of fable with a lesson or moral at the end, but the collection is not overly moralistic, preachy, or didactic. The writing is smooth and pleasant, and as indicated by the subtitle, would be perfectly suited to be reading aloud.

The stick-like illustrations found within the text are the work of another well-known picture book author/illustrator, Russel Ayto. The sketches are an edgy yet whimsical accompaniment to this smooth text. This book is truly a good transitional book, with aspects that will be greatly appreciated by readers ranging from preschoolers who are being read to, to grade schoolers looking for a simple, comforting text, to the adults who share this book with their children.

My only criticism is the fact that while this collection contains stories from all over the world, no note is ever made of the stories' origins. Granted, it is somewhat refreshing to not have multiculturalism slammed down our throats in an obvious way, and this lack of information almost makes the stories blend together a bit more seamlessly. The stories come together under the category of "story" rather than under the guise of "world cultures" - which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, it may have been nice to at least have a note or appendix at the end of the text with this information so that readers can easily investigate a story or its culture more thoroughly should they desire.

Overall Grade: A