Shelf Life

I loved the book If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Wheres My Prince? by Melissa Kantor. The character Lucy has to move to Long Island to live with her dad and his new wife and kids. Lucy hates it because her dad is always out of town away while she there in Long Island trying to adjust to her new school but then when she attracts the schools varsity basket ball star and finds two new friends, she then goes from the new girl to the Popular girl.

By Laura Gutierrez

I love this series and im only on the third book. I got hooked after the first three chapters but the first book Working For The Devil, in a nut shell, its set in the future where a woman named Dante Valentine gets contracted by the devil to kill a escaped demon that can not be killed by neither human or other demons. She agrees and goes on a eventful bounty hunt. Its amazing. Great read.

Cover Image

(Read on the Kindle app on my iPhone)

A modern-day Catcher in the Rye? Probably not. By Wizner’s Shakespeare Shapiro is certainly a direct descendant of Salinger’s self-absorbed protagonist. Shakespeare is whiny, petulant, pessimistic, and laugh-out-loud funny. He is a senior in high school and nothing in his life is going right:
-He is burdened with an awful name.
-He worries endlessly, about everything.
-He counts among his closest friends only two people—Katie, an angry alcoholic in combat boots and Neil who is obsessed with bowel movements.
-His younger brother has a far richer social life than he does.
-His dad drinks like a fish.
The list goes on and on. But mostly he worries about his senior memoir, a year-long writing assignment about his favorite subject—himself.

Wizner unflinchingly takes on all of the most embarrassing moments in a boy’s life and makes them fodder for his protagonist’s twisted, self-deprecating sense of humor. Nothing is off-limits (and I do mean nothing). There are moments when the over-privileged Shakespeare’s woe-is-me attitude is grating but the humor in this book is more than worth it. A dose of reality, provided by a struggling classmate, helps wake him from his self-pitying stupor and redeem him for the reader.

Recommended for grades 10-12.

By Mr. Doyle

Blackbringer cover image

Fairies, and Imps, and Devils– oh my! Not my usual choice for reading material, but wow! This is a great fantasy read. It was an unsolicited donation from the publisher along with an advanced reader’s copy of the sequel, Silksinger (which I can’t wait to read). Both are part of the “Dreamdark” series.

This one is tough to put down. It’s got Magpie Windwitch, a spunky, half-wild, adolescent fairy (she is only 100 years old) as the protagonist. Thousands of years have passed since the Djinn and the fairies won the devil wars, locking the “snags” in magically sealed bottles and tossing them into the ocean. Since then, the Djinn have withdrawn from the world they created and faeries have grown complacent and have been letting magic slip away bit by bit. Now new creatures, humans or “mannies”, have arisen and are accidentally releasing the captured devils. Magpie and her band of crows travel the world hunting down the newly freed demons. But the latest devil to escape represents a different type of evil and it may mean the end of the world. Can she stop the Blackbringer before it destroys everyone and everything?

Magpie is a great protagonist. She is coarse, tough, brave, and determined. She is surrounded by an engaging—and sometimes terrifying—mix of characters. The crows, the imps, the devils, and the other faeries all help bring the story to life. There is plenty of action to keep kids reading and just enough of the dark side to lure the vampire-addicts into a different genre. This is excellent fantasy—even for non-fantasy readers.

Highly recommended for grades 7-12.

by Mr. Doyle

I finished the e-book on my Blackberry. I am sold on the technology and am beginning to consider what my next phone will be. I am leaning toward the iPhone because of the Kindle software, the larger screen, wi-fi access, and compatibility with iTunes. I have a music player on my Blackberry (MiuTunes) but it is harder to use and while I like my iPod I really want just one device. The calendar/organizer program will probably be the deciding factor, though. I miss the Palm organizer on my old Treo. I still covet the Kindle but, as I mentioned, I want one device and the pocket portability is great.

The small screen and the back-lighting did not bother me nearly as much as I thought. The only time my eyes were tired was when I actually read in the dark. It probably helped that the book (Infected by Sigler– review coming soon!) was very engaging. I have already downloaded The Omnivore’s Dilemma so I’ll see if non-fiction reading is any different. The only problem I had was a few thumb cramps from advancing the text when I sat down to read for long periods of time. It would be nice to be able to program different buttons for navigation functions (in Mobipocket Reader on the Blackberry the space key, at the very bottom of the device, is used to advance the text).

I received a response from tech support about Mobipocket Reader not finding the memory card in the phone. Their instructions did not help. It may be that I have the original Pearl model and there are some technical differences between it and the newer ones. A work-around that solves the problem is to manually drag and drop the e-book files from the computer to the correct folder on the memory card. I had to change the settings in the software so it did not automatically transfer new items to the phone because my news feed filled the phone’s main memory. All things considered it is a minor inconvenience but it is still a little frustrating.

One surprise was that the tech support reply came from Amazon. Turns out they own Mobipocket. Between Kindle and Mobipocket, Amazon has a pretty sizable chunk of the e-book market already cornered…hmmm.

And today, in the Monday morning rush, I left my cell phone at home. I NEVER leave my cell phone at home. I am lost without my organizer but the first thing I thought was, “oh no! My book is on there!” Of course I was standing in the middle of a room with 15,000 books when that thought occurred to me

Mr. Doyle

Mobipocket still won’t directly add books to my memory card but a work-around is to drag and drop the e-book files from the My Documents/My eBooks folder onto the phone’s memory card. Mass storage cababilities have to be enabled in the phone’s settings for this to work. Hopefully this will work with ebooks from the public library also. It’s a little annoying that Mobipocket won’t find the card directly but the drag-and-drop is not terribly time consuming.

I bought the Collins English Dictionary from the Mobipocket bookstore and installed it on the phone. It is massive, with 500,000 entries. Mobipocket automatically recognized the dictionary and now I can use the word look-up option while reading other books and it will find the word in Collins and display the definition. Pretty slick.

Mr. Doyle

I have been thinking about getting an e-book reader for a while now. The Amazon Kindle is very intriguing but the price is pretty steep so I have been holding off. Recently Amazon released Kindle software for the iPhone. Now the Kindle looks like something I could read with, but the iPhone? How could anyone enjoy reading a novel on that tiny screen? Ridiculous! But recently one of my professors, Dr. David Loertscher, posted a link to a Wall Street journal article about ebooks (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123980920727621353.html). The article got me thinking about the experience of reading and how electronic device will change (are already changing) that. I decided I should try reading, really reading, some etext.

Now I have been using smart phones for about 4 years. Given that I have the memory of a fruitfly the personal organizer part is essential. But aside from the calendar, address book, and phone functions I don’t use my Blackberry Pearl for much. It has a mediocre camera and I have a few games on it but I just don’t get into electronic games. I also do not have a data plan or text messages on my AT&T account so I don’t do any web browsing or e-mail on it. So I am not used to spending more than a few seconds at a time looking at the 1 ½” x 1 ½” screen.

For my first e-reading experience I copied and pasted the 2nd half of the WSJ article onto the primitive text editor in the phone. Surprisingly it was not too uncomfortable reading from the phone. But what about an entire novel? There are plenty of free books available on the Web but copying and pasting chapters into a text editor would be ridiculous. So I looked for an e-book reader for the Blackberry. And just like for the iPhone, there’s an app for that. I found Mobipocket (see review below), a free program, and installed it. For my first book I chose Infected by Scott Sigler. First it is science fiction—totally appropriate for entering a new age of literature, and second I heard about it while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Escapepod, a science fiction story site—doubly appropriate.

The Verdict: I was prepared to hate reading on my phone but I actually enjoy it. Reading a good paperback is great but the convenience of always having a book with me is pretty hard to beat. I find I am reading more often (though some of that is in small increments). If I have a few minutes to spare I always have a book handy, whether it is waiting for a class to arrive in the library, warming up on the stationary bike at the gym, or if I have a few minutes before I need to pick up my son, the book is always there. In that respect it has the Kindle beat. Mobipocket also allows you to subscribe to tons of newsfeeds in many different languages so also have news articles in English and Spanish on my device. And I have not really been that bothered by the small screen. Once you master the navigation the text flows pretty easily. A bigger screen would be better but I really like being able to put my phone in my pocket. I won’t stop reading ink-on-paper books anytime soon but I will be downloading more e-books and continuing to read on my phone.

Next steps:
• Figuring out how to download e-books from the public library to my phone
• Figuring out how I can use e-books to get kids to read more

The Good:
Since I don’t have a data plan with AT&T for my Blackberry the most important feature for an e-book reader for me is the ability to download e-books to my computer and send them to the phone. Mobipocket does that very well. You can browse several e-book stores and a large collection of free news feeds from the desktop and you can set it up to automatically push content to the phone when it is docked.

The app is free, which is another good thing. The books however are not. Current titles are priced like audiobooks, which is to say expensive. A recent release science fiction novel cost me $24.00. There are free downloads of books out of copyright available through one of the Mobipocket stores but modern books are going to cost you.

Navigation is fairly simple and the program responds pretty quickly. That makes reading easier. You can set colors and font size and there are several pre-sets for quickly changing the screen if ambient conditions change.

The Bad:
Navigating the stores could be easier. There is a keyword search but the categories are overly broad and there is no breakdown into sub categories so you may end up having to go through dozens of screens to find what you want.

Menu navigation is not entirely intuitive. Making a book mark is easy but it took a little fiddling to figure out how to get back to it (bookmarks are kept in an “annotations” list).

The Ugly:
The program can’t find the SD card in my phone so it is using main memory which cannot hold much. I have e-mailed support but have not heard anything. If this problem isn’t resolved quickly I will have to find another reader.

By Mr. Doyle

Andrés Segovia, named after the world-renowned classical guitarist, was a beautiful boy. But now he is an angry and sometimes violent man. His rage has landed him in jail and his lawyer has delivered him to the doorstep of therapist Grace Delgado. Like Andrés, Grace is haunted by her past. And, like Andrés, she can’t see how to put the ghosts behind her, to bury the dead.

At the age of 10 Andrés is suddenly orphaned. A well-meaning but terribly misguided older brother snatches Andrés and his sisters from the comfort of a loving foster family in El Paso and brings them across the Rio Grande to Juarez, Mexico. There the older brother, Mando, tries to keep the family together but life in a poor neighborhood in Juarez is brutal and soon the family is destroyed along with Andrés’s innocence and hope. Years later he comes to Grace Delgado with no real expectation of getting better.

Grace, a widow, meanwhile struggles with a strained relationship with her only son, Mister, and newly diagnosed cancer. In Andrés she sees the beautiful boy he once was and the fiercely intelligent man he is now. Even though she knows “people can be totaled, just like cars,” she refuses to give up on him. But even as she pushes Andrés to keep going she herself has given up and refuses treatment for her disease. Will their near-suicidal fatalism bring them both to bitter ends or will they find a way to push through the pain and fear that constrains them and find a way to survive?

Saenz, a National Book Award winner for poetry, writes in gorgeous, lyrical prose. He conveys pain and sadness, light and love as only a poet can. Like his young adult book, Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, In Perfect Light is peopled with beautiful but damaged characters. He makes the reader love them which makes their experiences that much more painful. Though time shifts and changes in narrative voice make the story complex, and maybe confusing for weaker readers, this is a compelling, heart rending read.

Highly recommended for mature readers grades 10 and up.

By Mr. Doyle

Click to hear an excerpt.
California Young Reader Medal Finalist 2009-2010
Ender Wiggins, Katsa, Iggy Corso, Sammy Santos, Ray-Ray, Miles Halter, Katniss Everdeen, Clay Jenkins, Melinda Sordino… these are a few of my favorite characters from YA literature (can you name the books?). Arnold “Junior” Spirit now takes his place very near the front of that line. Sherman Alexie’s protagonist (and maybe his alter ego?) is a memorable, lovable guy. He is brave, honest, sensitive, self-effacing, and, sometimes, laugh-out-loud funny. This book is a must-read.

Arnold is a Spokane Indian living on a reservation (The Rez) in Washington State. He was born with hydrocephaly (”water on the brain”) which left him with a large head, hands, and feet, a skinny body, and poor eyesight. To say he and his tribe are poor is to vastly understate their situation. Poverty, violence, alcoholism, and worst of all, hopelessness surround Arnold. Even his loving father regularly disappears into an alcoholic haze. Death, as Arnold points out, is a large part of his world. He estimates that he has attended over 40 funerals in his short life. But though Arnold cries and grieves for his family and his tribe he refuses to give in to despair. He is determined to make a future for himself. At a teacher’s urging he transfers to an all-white school more than 20 miles from his home. He becomes a part-time Indian and, in the eyes of many of the members of his tribe, he becomes a traitor. He faces hatred and violence when he is home on the rez and racism and hostility when he is at school. But this is a hopeful and funny story. Arnold’s indomitable spirit helps him create a unique space for himself. He finds beauty and kindness in both of his worlds and helps create large amounts of both for others.

In his protagonist, Alexie has created a unique voice in YA literature. With poignancy, humor, and insight he guides the reader through the mostly undiscovered world of the reservation. Ellen Forney’s drawings perfectly complement the story and help bring Arnold to life for the reader. We can only hope that a sequel is in the works because one Arnold book is not enough.

Highly recommended for grades 7-12

By Mr. Doyle

Click to hear an excerpt
California Young Reader Medal Finalist 2009-2010
Iggy Corso is one of my favorite characters in YA lit. His story is so heartbreaking that many readers may be moved to tears. Iggy has had many, many obstacles to overcome in his short life: born addicted to crack, drug-addict parents, living in extreme poverty, etc. etc. But Iggy never wallows in self pity. Instead he genuinely wants to do good, to make a difference.

The book opens with Iggy being suspended from school pending an expulsion hearing. When he returns home there is no one to tell—his father is stoned and unconscious, his mother has disappeared, and the phone is dead so he can’t even call his social worker. In 5 days he will be expelled unless he can show he is worthy of another chance. So he vows to do something to change people’s opinions of him. He vows to make a contribution.

Iggy’s quest brings him to Mo’s door. Mo is the college drop-out who had been tutoring Iggy. Mo is from an affluent family but is rudderless, trying drugs and religions to find his way. Iggy acompanies Mo in his search for some pot, silently wondering if he will find his mom. Mo leads Iggy to a tenement drug den, resulting in a fateful meeting between Mo and Freddie, the vicious drug dealer.

Iggy is a truly good soul in a terrible situation. He is not perfect; he makes some bad decisions but he accepts the consequences. He will haunt readers long after the book has been closed. Reluctant readers should eat this up.

Highly recommended for grades 9-12

By Mr. Doyle

Click to hear an excerpt
California Young Reader Medal Finalist 2009-2010
Deanna is a 13 year-old eighth grader when her father finds her having sex in a car with a 17 year-old (her older brother’s best friend). The boy’s spin on the story and the lurid details invented by the school-gossip grapevine make Deanna the school slut. Even 3 years later she is dogged by that incident. Her formerly affectionate father can’t even bear to look at her. Her older brother has added to the family shame by getting his girlfriend pregnant. The brother, girlfriend, and baby all live in the basement. Add in the father’s underemployment and the rapidly aging, overworked mom and you have a fully dysfunctional family.

Deanna finds her home life unbearable and school is no better. She fantasizes about moving out with her brother and his family and the four of them setting up a home away from her father’s disapproving glare. To enact her “plan” she needs money- first and last months’ rent and a security deposit in the San Francisco Bay area requires a pile of cash. Jobs in Pacifica are scarce though so she ends up at a run down pizza parlor. To her horror her coworker is Tommy– the boy her father caught her with. Out of desperation to keep her dream of a new home alive she keeps the job, daily facing the leering young man.

Deanna’s voice is authentic and her needs and fears feel very real. The author’s presentation of the tense, dysfunctional household and the decaying blue-collar town are very well done. Her growth and transformation are artfully rendered and very believable. There is no deus ex machina resolution to all of the protagonist’s problems. Deanna enters her junior year with many of the same problems to face but the author gives her hope and a new sense of herself. Who could ask for more?

Highly recommended for high school.

By Mr. Doyle

The California Young Reader Medal Committee announced the finalists for next year. The Young Adult nominees are:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Saint Iggy by K.L. Going
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

I haven’t read Alexie’s book but it has received superlative reviews and is an American Library Association Best Books For Young Adults title. It is sitting on my bedside table and I will start it tonight. The other two are great books and if The Absolutely True Diary… is anything like them then this may well be the best groups of finalists ever. I can’t wait for next year. Check back here soon for the reviews to all three YA finalists.

Mr. Doyle

Click to hear an excerpt.

This amazing debut novel was another impulse buy at Barnes and Noble (note to self: must trust my impulses more). In it Cashore has created a compelling story with memorable, complex characters—especially the protagonist, Katsa. The author has combined the best of fantasy and romance and created a story that will appeal to all readers (even teen boys—if they are brave enough to open it up).

Katsa is Graced. That is to say she has a talent of almost supernatural ability. Many Gracelings are feared and avoided because they are different, but Katsa is especially reviled because her Grace is killing. Against her will, she is used as a tool by her uncle, the brutal king Randa. At his orders she scares, tortures, and kills those who dare to defy him. Over time she has come to see herself as others see her—a brutal killer. She hates the king, hates her Grace, and, frequently, hates herself. She feels powerless to change her fate until she meets Prince Po, a Graceling fighter from a distant kingdom. He sees the real Katsa beneath the killer exterior and helps her to see herself differently. Together they embark on a dangerous mission to unravel the mystery of Po’s grandfather’s kidnapping. They push themselves to the limits of their considerable physical abilities, risking life and limb to free a kingdom from a tyrant and, in the process, discover their true selves and true love.

Cashore’s writing skill is impressive. While she is very descriptive, the story never bogs down. The book is peppered with enough action sequences to keep the reader in a state of anticipation but not overwhelmingly so. And Katsa is a heroine that you will not soon forget. She is reminiscent of the similarly named Katniss in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.

Highly recommended for grades 8-12.

By Mr. Doyle

Click here to hear an excerpt.
Author Paul Griffin’s work in New York City schools and juvenile detention facilities is apparent in his realistically-drawn characters and their authentic dialog in this impressive debut novel. We can only hope that Griffin takes us back to the streets of New York again soon.

Jose, a.k.a. The J-Man, and Raymond, a.k.a. Ray-Ray, are fugitives from foster care and juvie. They are “friends to the end,” watching out for each other and committing small-time crimes to survive. When asked about their parents they reply, “Don’t got ’em,” and “Don’t need ‘em.” Jose is older but smaller. He is movie-star-handsome and the leader of the pair. He has charm and wit but is mostly illiterate. Ray is almost the complete opposite of Jose. He is huge, 6’3”, 230 lbs. Although he is highly intelligent and an avid reader of almost anything, Ray is not as quick with his mouth as Jose is and is frequently tongue-tied. The two live in an abandoned train station In New York City’s Ten Mile River Park with stolen and scrounged furniture and a pack of abandoned dogs.

Like Lenny and George in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the two stick together through thick and thin, fighting the system, violent men, bad luck and poor decisions. Even their love of the beautiful Trini cannot break their bonds of friendship. Readers will fall in love with Ray. His intelligence and introspective nature recall Sammy from Benjamin Alire Saenz’s Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood and his big heart and desire to do the right thing bring to mind Iggy Corso of K.L. Going’s Saint Iggy—good literary company indeed. Though the ending is less than satisfying the writing is excellent and the story is compelling.

Warning: lots of harsh language.

Highly recommended for high school.

By Mr. Doyle

Ask Click and Clack: Answers from Car Talk by Ray and Tom Magliozzi

I subscribe to the Car Talk podcast on iTunes and listen to it every week as I drive to work. Ray and Tom are hilarious and very informative. Yes, a radio show about cars can be hilarious. If you have never heard them then go to iTunes or to their web site (Http://www.cartalk.com) and listen to the podcasts.

I got this book from Santa this Christmas. It contains letters from their weekly car advice column. Like the radio program, it is hilarious and you learn a lot about diagnosing car problems. I read it in 2 or 3 days. Highly recommended for anyone who owns or will own a car, drives a car, rides in cars, or has ever seen a car.

And as Click and Clack say, don’t drive like my brother! Seriously, my brother wrecked two of my cars by backing into them with his dump truck. And both times I was out doing him a favor when it happened.

By Mr. Doyle

Today Kermit is reading Mark Twain’s classic The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Some day Kermit hopes to make a pilgrimage to the Calaveras County Fair Grounds where the annual contest is held. It just a short drive from Livingston High School.

If you have any suggestions for frog-related reading for Kermit please forward them to Mr. Doyle (tdoyle@muhsd.k12.ca.us)

Knucklhead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka.

I have been a fan of Mr. Scieszka since The True Story of 3 Little Pigs came out. I read some of the Time Warp Trio series to my kids. Recently I read The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Stories to my kids and we were all very disappointed. The stories weren’t “fairly” stupid– they were very stupid. But we gave Mr. Scieszka another chance and decided to read Knucklehead. This book is hilarious. There were times when I couldn’t finishing reading a paragraph because I was laughing so hard. So many of the incidents took me back to my own childhood. My wife and I found it much funnier than our kids (8 and 9) but I think anyone could enjoy this book. The graphics add interest and the chapters are very short, making it a good pick for reluctant readers.

Highly recommended for grades 6 through adult (especially for adults!).

Kermit lives in a coffee cup on the window sill of my office. Kermit was a gift from one my student aides. The gift was inspired by a drawing by our resident hit-artist (a.k.a. Mr. Gehres) depicting me as Kermit while announcing a basketball game (apparently I’m no Bob Costas). Anyway, sitting in a coffee cup watching the students come and go gets old so, being a library frog, Kermit reads. Of course he reads frog-related literature. Here he is reading Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel. It is an easy read but it takes him back to childhood (tadpolehood?) when his mama used to read to him.

Here is the original charicature by Mr. Gehres, our photography teacher. That is supposed to be me behind the microphone. This is what happens when Mr. Gehres has too much free time.

Book 1 of the Gatekeeper Series

Horowitz’s Alex Rider series, beginning with Stormbreaker, is extremely popular, especially with boys. In Raven’s Gate he takes a break from the spy/thriller genre and delves into fantasy/horror. The result is a new series that will be just as popular as the Alex Rider books. It may also serve as a segue into another genre for his dedicated readers, leading them to meatier fare like Terry Brooks’ Shannara series and authors like David Almond and Kevin Brooks.

Raven’s Gate has everything a reluctant reader could want: a troubled hero with checkered past facing overwhelming odds, good vs. evil, and lots of heart-stopping action. The protagonist, Matt, is an orphan who is in trouble with the law. As an alternative to jail Matt is sent to a foster home in an isolated village, far from the temptations of the city. Matt lands in the home of Mrs. Deverill, a harsh, unsmiling woman with a bleak, run-down farm in the middle of nowhere. Matt soon discovers that something bizarre is going on. When he tries to get help people begin to die. Matt must either defeat the evil forces about him or become a tool in their sinister plot. The fast-paced action and the dark, foreboding atmosphere make this a real page turner and a fun read.

Highly recommended for grades 7-12.

By Mr. Doyle