The Lemonade War: Review Haiku

Fourth-grade MBA:
If life should give you lemons,
just beat your sister.

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. HMCo, 2007, 173 pages.

It's Cybils time again!

Calloo, callay, it's Cybils time again. I'll be on the judging committee for MG/YA nonfiction (huzzah fewer books to read! huzzah after Christmas!). Check out the Cybils site for more information and, starting Monday, October 1, to nominate your favorites.

Now is when I start throwing things

Unfortunately, Downham's publisher has handicapped Before I Die by
labeling it a young-adult novel, thus ghettoizing this gem to the back of most
bookstores. It's a shame, because this book is vastly superior to most so-called
adult novels with high-school-age protagonists that have been embraced by the
literary establishment.

Read the rest of the review (which is glowing) here.

It reminds me of a cocktail party conversation a former colleague once had with a non-kids' book person about Tony Earley's book Jim the Boy. Upon being told that, given the subject matter and voice, the book could've easily been published as YA, the NKBP said, "But it's so well-written!" Yearrrgh.

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either: Review Haiku

Is this where we'll find
Britney: crime-solving dorm chief?
One can only hope.

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot. Avon, 2006, 344 pages.

Three Bags Full: Review Haiku

Sheep find the baaaaaaad guy.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
Not fluffy: profound.

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story by Leonie Swann. Translated by Anthea Bell. Flying Dolphin, 2007, 341 pages.

Where have you been, young lady

What I've been doing in the last week that is not blogging:

• Escorting the Munchkin to preschool
• Overseeing two seven-hour portrait sessions for the new photo directory at church
• Presiding over a board meeting
• Starting but not having time to finish Three Bags Full
• Proofreading for money
• Visiting the Boston Children's Museum, which is made of awesome
• Listening to William Golding read Lord of the Flies in a terribly amusing British accent
• Entertaining my visiting parents
• Watching the Red Sox assume their destiny of September suckage (P.S. Yankees suck)
• Messing up a Christmas order with BN.com and swearing repeatedly in several colorful languages when their "customer service" options are entirely unhelpful (P.S. I hate you, BN.com, so no link to you)

It's weeks like these that make me question my decision to create a blog of book reviews, since its very existence is dependent on my having time to read. More soon, really.

The Aurora County All-Stars: Review Haiku

Aurora County:
where there always has to be
a happy ending.

The Aurora County All-Stars by Deborah Wiles. Harcourt, 2007, 242 pages.

Now with more cowbell

Lookee here! I shelled out the big bucks and now have my very own domain. Please redirect your links (I know there are millions of you out there) to http://www.emilyreads.com/.

Dude, I am bathed in coolness.

The Iliad: Review Haiku

D'oh! Homer, I tried;
but pierced eyeballs don't thrill me.
Better luck next time?

The Iliad by Homer. Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin, 1990, 704 pages.

#20 on The LIST.

Just like graffiti

I decided enter the Web 2.0 revolution and start tagging my posts. I'm not wild about the way they look -- those huge white panels on an otherwise lovely page -- but I can't seem to change the color.

The tags are pretty basic and may not be interesting to anyone but me, but it's amusing, at least, to note that I've read almost twice as many MG/YA books (126 combined) as adult books (75), and three times as much fiction (142) as nonfiction (49). I've loved way more books (35) than I hated (10), but when you add in the books I was just meh about (26), the two reactions are equivalent.

Just about ready to abandon The Iliad, by the way . . . I just don't have the stomach for thousands of lines of disemboweling and eyeball-stabbing, I guess. I'll keep trying for another couple books.

Parrotfish: Review Haiku

The problem novel,
millienial-style: earnest,
if optimistic.

Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger. S&S, 2007, 294 pages.

What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know: Review Haiku

Ah, to be fourteen:
a body full of hormones
and a mind confused.

What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones. S&S, 2007, 219 pages.

The Wednesday Wars: Review Haiku

It's got "award bait"
written all over it, folks.
P.S. Yankees suck.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. Clarion, 2007, 264 pages.

A Wrinkle in Time: Review Haiku

Never have I felt
so smart, so dumb, so Christian
all at the same time.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. FSG, 1962, 212 pages.

Listened to on a Playaway device.

#19 on The LIST.

My Mother the Cheerleader: Review Haiku

Limited portrait
of integration-era
New Orleans. Tough stuff.

My Mother the Cheerleader by Robert Sharenow. Harper, 2007, 304 pages.

Slogging through The Iliad

Boys and swords, angry gods, women as chattel, Greek Guy #1 led the army of Greek Place #24, featuring the noble warriors Greek Guy #96 son of Greek Guy #126 . . .

Egad. Hera, give me strength.

First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover: Review Haiku

The way politics
should be. But I have to ask:
is she too perfect?

First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover by Mitali Perkins. Dutton, 2007, 192 pages.

Hatchet: Review Haiku

Brian demonstrates
survival of the fittest.
(I won't even camp.)

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. 189 pages.

# 18 on The LIST.

Love Is a Many-Trousered Thing: Review Haiku

Snogosity is
getting old; still, "the cakeshop
of love" is brilliant.

Love Is a Many-Trousered Thing by Louise Rennison. Harper, 2007, 288 pages.

Middle School Is Worse than Meatloaf: Review Haiku

A tour-de-force of
ethnographic research! (A
nightmare to proofread.)

Middle School Is Worse than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff by Jennifer L. Holm. Atheneum/Ginee Seo, 2007, 126 pages.