10.30.2009

Angry Management: Review Haiku


Might be nice stories
without the heavy thwacking
of moral lessons.


Angry Management by Chris Crutcher. Greenwillow, 2009, 246 pages.

10.29.2009

Dude. I am TOTALLY famous.

Somehow I made OnlineSchool.net's list of 100 Best Book Blogs for Kids, Teens, and Tweens. Clearly they were smoking something. [slinks away secretly thrilled]

10.28.2009

If I Stay: Review Haiku


Unfathomable
loss, sensitively handled.
It will stay with you.


If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Dutton, 2009, 201 pages.

10.26.2009

The Summer I Turned Pretty: Review Haiku


But wait a minute --
I wanted her to end up
with the other one!


The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. S&S, 2009, 276 pages.

10.23.2009

10.21.2009

The Chosen One: Review Haiku


Chilling look at what
happens when men become God.
Hide your daughters, folks.


The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams. St. Martin's, 2009, 213 pages.

10.19.2009

The Guinea Pig Diaries: Review Haiku


We get it, A. J.:
your wife is a saint and you're
a work-in-progress.


The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A. J. Jacobs. S&S, 2009, 256 pages.

10.16.2009

Lunch Lady: Review Haiku


Love these, but I can't
get Adam Sandler out of
my head. "Sloppy Joes . . . "


Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute and Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by Jarret J. Krosoczka. Knopf, 2009, 96 pages (both).

10.14.2009

Home Game: Review Haiku


Sort of like labor
stories: most interesting to
the people in them.


Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis. Norton, 2009, 190 pages.

10.12.2009

Lost in the Meritocracy: Review Haiku


Midwestern boy goes
East to find -- surprise! -- he's no
F. Scott Fitzgerald.


Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever by Walter Kirn. Doubleday, 2009, 211 pages.

10.09.2009

Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle: Review Haiku


Perfectly captures
the selfishness of pre-teens.
A winning debut.


Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino. Roaring Brook, 2009, 154 pages.


P.S. "Grabowskys." "Grabowskys'." Or if you prefer, "Grabowskies" and "Grabowskies'." Just please, for the love of God, NOT "Grabowsky's."

10.07.2009

Life Among the Lutherans: Review Haiku


Warmed-up retellings
from APHC. Just like
leftover hotdish.


Life Among the Lutherans by Garrison Keillor. Augsburg, 2009, 183 pages.

10.05.2009

Change-up: Review Haiku


Kept me on the
exercise bike twice as long. Plus,
Aaron Bleeping Boone!



10.02.2009

Wishful Drinking: Review Haiku


Somewhere in here there's
a lightsaber/electroshock
therapy joke.


Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. S&S, 2008, 163 pages.

P.S. Happy birthday, Boy Scout!