Shelf Life

Summary: Kaylee knows when someone is about to die. The premonition comes in the form of an irresistible urge to scream. And not just a normal scream, a soul-wrenching, throat-burning, inhuman scream. It is accompanied by what seem to be visual hallucinations of fog and shadows. Her aunt and uncle call these incidents panic attacks but Kaylee knows they are something different. Then Nash comes into her life and tells her that she is a bean sidhe, or banshee and that she can not only predict deaths but prevent them. An unknown force begins killing off young girls in their town and only Kaylee and Nash can stop it.

Why I picked it up: I downloaded and read the free prequel for the Kindle and liked it.

Why I kept reading it: There is a good mystery here with a little Irish folklore thrown in. There is also romance, family tensions, and an undercurrent of horror.

Who I would give it to next: Fans of Stephanie Meyer, Amelia Atwater Rhodes, and Vivian Vande Veld.

Recommended for grades 8-12
By Mr. Doyle

Summary: America, a severely depressed, suicidal teen in a psychiatric hospital, is counseled over several years by dedicated therapist. As the teen slowly opens up past abuse and abandonment, as well as love and kindness, are remembered.

Why I picked it up: E.R. Frank’s Life is Funny is banned in our district. That book, while containing very graphic scenes, presented an amazing look into the minds of teens in a variety of bad situations. Wrecked, about a teen involved in a fatal traffic accident, was also very good. I have been meaning to read this one for several years.

Why I kept reading it: E.R. Frank, a therapist and social worker, understands trauma better than almost any other young adult author. She remind me of Patricia McCormick, just edgier. Her writing puts you inside the mind of her protagonist and lets you feel his pain and joy. You can’t stop reading because you care about America too much.

Who I would give it to next: I want to give this to some of our male students who are too “tough” to show emotion. Students dealing with depression, foster care, group homes, etc. would benefit from it. It is not for younger kids.

Highly recommended for grades 10-12
By Mr. Doyle

Summary: This book picks up where Crispin and the Cross of Lead leaves off. Crispin and his guardian, Bear, have escaped the clutches of the kings army and set off to resume their lives. No sooner do they hit the road then they run afoul of the Brotherhood, the secret society that Bear was helping. They believe that Bear and Crispin have betrayed them. Once again the pair have to run for their lives. They are joined by a disfigured girl, Toth, after her guardian is killed for witchcraft. Toth teaches Crispin important lessons in tolerance and leads him to examine his long-held beliefs.

Why I picked it up: I loved Crispin and the Cross of Lead. Avi is one of those remarkable authors who just keeps writing great books.

Why I kept reading it: It is a great story that examines big issues like tolerance, religion, war, and the nature of kindness. I think it was not quite up to the level of the first book but it is definitely worth reading.

Who I would give it to next: Avi fans and lovers of historical fiction.

Highly recommended for grades 5 and up.

By Mr. Doyle

Summary: This sequel to the excellent Blackbringer reunites the reader with his favorite fairies and imps and introduces a new cast of engaging characters. Magpie Windwitch and her friends travel the world searching for the sleeping djinn to bring them back to Dreamdark and help save the world. Their travels bring them to the Sayash mountains where they come across survivors of two fairie clans long believed extinct: the Silksingers and the Mothmages. Each survivor caries a clan secret and each is in constant danger.

Why I picked it up: Blackbringer got me hooked on this series. It is fantasy, horror, and adventure all wrapped up in one.

Why I kept reading it: It is just as good as the first book. There is non-stop action and the characters are so well drawn you can’t help but get caught up in the story. I dare you to start reading and try to put it down. I double dog dare you!

Who I would give it to next: Anyone who enjoys high fantasy, adventure, and/or horror. Fans of Tamora Pierce, Tolkien, and Terry Brooks will love this.

Highly recommended for grades 6-12.
By Mr. Doyle

Summary: In addition to dealing with the usual teen issues (relationships, family, the future, authority, etc.) Mary has to contend with zombies. Mary’s village—maybe the last human village in the world, is surrounded by infectious, flesh-eating zombies. Only the fence, constructed generations ago, and the discipline of the sisterhood keep death at bay. The sisterhood comprises a theocracy that controls all facets of life in the village. When Mary loses both her parents, is rejected by her brother, and runs afoul of the sisterhood her future is in jeopardy. Then the unthinkable happens, the fence is breached and Mary a few others must escape into the forest and try to escape the ever-present living dead.

Why I picked it up: I love post-apocalypse stories so this one was right up my alley.

Why I kept reading it: In places the story is very exciting and I had to know what happened to the Mary and her friends. There were times I wanted to slap Mary because she gets whiny and does some stupid things. I also wondered why the village hadn’t reinforced the fence or spent more time killing zombies. But all in all it was a very good story.

Who I would give it to next: All of those Stephanie Meyer fans—there is life after vampires. I might even try to slip to some Darren Shan fans.

Recommended for grades 8-12.
By Mr. Doyle

Summary: A toddler, whose family is slaughtered, wanders into a graveyard. He is adopted by the spirits who inhabit the graveyard. They raise him and educate him, teaching him everything a ghost needs to know. The evil that killed his family is still looking for him, even after many years.

Why I picked it up: I love Gaiman’s writing and this one won the Newberry Medal. Gaiman may well be the most inventive author out there. He is also a great story teller.

Why I kept reading it: Great writing and a riveting story. The end was very exciting.

Who I would give it to next: My nine-year-old daughter. She reads above grade level and would enjoy the story. It is not really a high school book but I will probably add it to my collection because the writing is so good and some students will appreciate it.

Highly recommended for grades 4 and up.
By Mr. Doyle

Summary: Clay is a poor, C student, working at a hospital to try and make ends meet. After a long, tiring shift he goes to visit his wealthy, straight-A best friend to patch things up after an argument. He finds Joey in the midst of a drug-induced psychotic episode. Joey attacks Clay. Clay defends himself, accidentally injuring his friend. Now Joey is on life support and Clay has to find out who gave Joey the drugs and clear his own name.

Why I picked it up: My wife asked me to bring the book home so she could verify one of her student’s reading logs. She read it and recommended it to me.

Why I kept reading it: Clay reminded me of myself when I was in high school.

Who I would give it to next: Anyone who likes buddy novels or good mysteries

Recommended for grades 9-12

By Mr. Doyle

Going Bovine by Libba Bray.
Summary: A teen boy, generally considered a loser, is diagnosed with Mad Cow Disease. In the face of iminenet death he goes on an epic road trip with a hypocondriac dwarf and a Viking warrior disguised as a yard gnome to save the world and, hopefully, his life.

Why I picked it up: Mad Cow Disease, road trip, yard gnome– need I say more? Actually I stumbled on the author’s web site and found it very entertaining and decided I needed to read one of her books.

Why I kept reading it: It is very trippy and the protagonist becomes very likeable. Bray is very creative and original.

Who I would give it to next: I can think of dozens of boys at my school who would like it. Nice, intelligent kids who usually go unnoticed. Anyone who likes Catcher in the Rye, Spanking Shakespeare, and Robert Cormier’s books.

Highly recommended for grades 8 through 12.
By Mr. Doyle

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