See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

I never felt like the special youngest child before Charlie was born. Only that one day when I was sick. Most of the time I felt like the extra kid to clothe or take to the dentist. But when Charlie came along, my parents totally changed. They doted and coddled and adored. They filled a baby book with all of Charlie's firsts, while my own baby book remained mostly blank.

 Fern has always felt like the neglected child in her family. Her dad is always coming up with some new scheme to bring more customers into to their restaurant, her mom is always meditating somewhere private, her sister, despite taking a year off after high school, does minimal work at the family restaurant, and her brother is too busy running away from his problems whenever things get too real for him. Of course, there's also Charlie: the baby of the family and the child whom Fern feels is the most loved by her parents despite the fact that she seems to play a major role in helping raise him. If it weren't for her best friend Ran, Fern would be alone in the world. Which is exactly how she feels one unassuming morning when her family's lives are changed forever...

See You at Harry's is my first experience reading a Jo Knowles book but it will certainly not be my last. This book is special. And Fern, despite her resentment toward her family at feeling like a neglected child, does not come off as unlikeable in the least bit. She's a character you immediately empathize with and wish you could wrap your arms around to make up for all the affection she's missed out on from her self-centered mother and oblivious father. We get a sense of Fern's resentment at being the neglected child from the very first page when she declares that the best day of her life was the day she "threw up four times and had a fever of 103 degrees." Why was that such a special day for her? Well, it was because her mother actually spent time with her and doted on her. Until that moment and every moment after, she has felt ignored and unloved.

Normally when the main character of a book is in middle school you can usually bet that it is categorized as middle grade, but because it deals partially with the main character's brother struggling with his sexual identity,  I have to say that it straddles the line of middle grade and young adult. Right or wrong, there will obviously be people and parents out there who won't like the idea of their middle grade child reading about any character struggling with their sexuality and so it is bound to cause some controversy. But just as divorce has become a societal norm, so too has it become the norm to find families with children who are struggling to deal with their homosexuality. Again, whether or not you think it's right or wrong should not be the issue here. We need to put our own morals and prejudices aside for a moment and recognize that this is becoming a part of our society and we can't just ignore the fact that families are dealing with these issues.

This is a book that you will struggle with because it deals with a family that is slowly falling apart. It contains a great deal of sadness within its 300+ pages, but have faith in Fern. She makes it worth your while to keep turning the page to the very end.

I recently finished this book in a weekend. With my frantic schedule as the school year is quickly winding down, I haven't had time to sit down and devour a book in this way in quite a few weeks (maybe even months). But that speaks to what kind of book this is. It's one that, as Kate Messner said, "will break your heart and put it back together again."


See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles
Published: May 8, 2012
Publisher: Candlewick
Pages: 311
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audience: Middle Grade/Young Adult
Disclosure: Library Copy

If you buy this book or any book through Amazon, it is my hope that you also regularly patronize independent bookstores, which are important centerpieces of thriving communities. While I am an Amazon Affiliate, that by no means implies that I only buy my books through their website. Please make sure you are still helping small, independent bookstores thrive in your community. To locate an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound. 

Baconfest Michigan is tonight and I'm skipping lunch to save room

A few weeks ago I purchased tickets to Baconfest Michigan that will be taking place tonight at the Royal Oak Farmer's Market. I almost missed out on the opportunity because their Facebook page mentioned they were almost sold out. I think I was one of the last people to get my hands on a general admission ticket  because one of my friends tried to buy tickets a couple hours later and she was out of luck. Thankfully I WAS able to score two tickets to tonight's event and will be ecstatically feasting on all sorts of porky goodness.

It's no secret that I am a bacon fiend. My students know this. My family knows this. Even my friends on Facebook whom I haven't seen in years know this.

So when I saw the food lineup for tonight's event, I was like a kid on Christmas moring (and this is BEFORE I've actually SEEN any of the food). As someone who is always looking for new and creative ways to add bacon to dishes, this event will be like going to Disney World for me. Here are just a few of the mouth-watering bacon dishes they are offering at tonight's event:

• Bacon ravioli
• Pork belly slider on a pretzel roll with pickled red onion, bacon jam and grainy mustard
• Bacon & grit cake topped with thick-cut smokey maple & black pepper bacon in bacon-scented redeye gravy.
• Applewood-smoked bacon Cotswold grilled cheese
• Bacon fried rice w/Honey bbq sauce 
• Plantain-fried in bacon with mustard maple panchetta
• Bacon jam and goat-cheese toasts
• Bacon Cashew Carmel Corn
• Cvarci. (deep-fried pork belly crisps)
• Wasabi bacon chocolate pops
• Chocolate-covered candied bacon
• Butterscotch pudding with bacon
• Bacon cheesecake
• Apple + Bacon Caramel

 Are you hungry yet? I know I am. Heck, I'm going to skip lunch just to save room for all the bacony goodness I will be partaking in later! Expect a post later this week with a full report on how it went down (that is, if I don't suffer a heart attack first :p)

Cover Reveal: Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans

I don't often do cover reveals on my blog but I feel like this one deserves some special attention as it is for someone I consider a friend. When I found out the Lenore Appelhans received a book deal with Simon & Schuster I was so elated for her. She has one of the most quality book blogs in the blogosphere and I have always respected her opinion with every book she has reviewed. Now that she is a soon-to-be published author, she has cut down the number of reviews she does and I have missed them dearly. My only consolation from regularly reading her book reviews is knowing that I'll be able to read her book soon.

Check out this amazing cover that was revealed this afternoon on her blog:

I love how the girl looks so fierce and determined. This is definitely a cover that will stand out on bookshelves!

From Goodreads:

Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow prisoners, Felicia passes the endless hours downloading memories and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and the boy she loved, Neil.

Then a girl in a neighboring chamber disappears, and nobody but Felicia seems to recall she existed in the first place. Something is obviously very wrong. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, she learns the truth: a rebellion is brewing to overthrow the Morati, the guardians of Level 2.

Felicia is reluctant to trust Julian, but then he promises what she wants the most—to be with Neil again—if only she’ll join the rebels. Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself in the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.

Put Level 2 on your to-read list now!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5-28-12

 

Originally hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, Jen and Kellee over at Teach Mentor Texts host a kidlit version of It's Monday! What are You Reading?

Last week I only finished two books and they were audiobooks:

 

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood

The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler 

What I'm currently listening to:

 

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor

I'm still reading:
 
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner
Oh how I can't wait for #bookaday. I have finished many audiobooks recently but I just don't have any time to sit down and read right now. June 8th can't come soon enough!

What I reviewed last week (though it wasn't technically a review since I didn't finish it):

Paris in Love by Eloisa James

The "Did Not Finish" Chronicles: Paris in Love by Eloisa James

From Goodreads:

In 2009, New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James took a leap that many people dream about: she sold her house, took a sabbatical from her job as a Shakespeare professor, and moved her family to Paris. Paris in Love: A Memoir chronicles her joyful year in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

With no classes to teach, no committee meetings to attend, no lawn to mow or cars to park, Eloisa revels in the ordinary pleasures of life—discovering corner museums that tourists overlook, chronicling Frenchwomen’s sartorial triumphs, walking from one end of Paris to another. She copes with her Italian husband’s notions of quality time; her two hilarious children, ages eleven and fifteen, as they navigate schools—not to mention puberty—in a foreign language; and her mother-in-law Marina’s raised eyebrow in the kitchen (even as Marina overfeeds Milo, the family dog).

Paris in Love invites the reader into the life of a most enchanting family, framed by la ville de l’amour

I was so excited to get an offer to review Paris in Love because I love travel memoirs. I was certain this book would be right up my alley (I mean, my blog has the word "Wanderlust" in the title. How can I pass up a travel memoir?) And I'm sure it would have been, had this book been given a narrative structure rather than, well, I don't know how to describe the structure. It was told pretty much in Facebook-status-update-sized vignettes. And while I love telling my own little stories to my friends and family via Facebook, I'm not going to compile all of them and put them in a book. 

The book didn't feel crafted; it felt slapped together. I could assemble all the posts I've written about my teaching life on Facebook and make a book out of it, but to me that's not writing; that's just slapping something together. The difficulty of writing is honing your craft to create an engaging narrative or informational piece of text. As someone who hopes to be a published writer someday, I'm kind of irked by the way this book was put together. I mean, anyone can assemble Facebook status updates, paste them into a Word document and turn them into a book. To me, the purpose of a journal/writer's notebook or even social media is to inspire bigger writing projects, not BE the writing project.


Perhaps I just missed the point of the book, I don't know, but I like to sit down with a book and have it be a continuous narrative. I want to invest in the people and conflicts that are going on. Instead, all this book does is give you little scraps of scenes that do nothing to tide you over. They merely make you hungrier for something more sustaining. Even if the book were a series of essays, that would be more satisfying and sustaining than the little snippets of unrelated text you get on each page:

But maybe for someone else this is just the type of book that they need. Short, quick, and with little emotional investment. That's just not the type of book for me. 



Paris in Love by Eloisa James
Published: April 3, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 272
Genre: Nonfiction/Travel Memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Title received for review

Splash Into Summer Giveaway Hop

For my portion of the blog hop, I am giving away the following:

My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer by Jennifer Gennari
Published: May 8, 2012
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Format: Advanced Reader Copy
Pages: 121
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audience: Middle Grade

From Goodreads:

Twelve-year-old June Farrell is sure of one thing—she’s great at making pies—and she plans to prove it by winning a blue ribbon in the Champlain Valley Fair pie competition. But a backlash against Vermont’s civil union law threatens her family’s security and their business. Even when faced with bullying, June won’t give up on winning the blue ribbon; more importantly, she won’t give up on her family.

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway Don't forget to visit the other great blogs participating in the hop:

It's Monday! What are You Reading? 5-21-12

 

Originally hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, Jen and Kellee over at Teach Mentor Texts host a kidlit version of It's Monday! What are You Reading?

What I read last week:

 

See You at Harry's by Jo Knowels

It's not often that I finish a book in a weekend anymore, but with See You at Harry's, I finished it in about 24 hours. It's such a heartbreaking yet heartwarming story. I still can't get Fern and her family out of my head.

 

I Am Invited to a Party! by Mo Willems

I can't get enough Elephant and Piggie! :)

 

Zorro Gets an Outfit by Carter Goodrich

I will read any book with a pug in it. But a pug in a ridiculous superhero outfit? Count me in!

Audiobook I finished last week:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

I remember reading this book in 8th grade and really enjoyed it. I don't think I loved it this time as much as I did when I was in 8th grade but it was still a great story. I really enjoyed the audiobook narrator too.

What I'm currently reading:

Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner

I used to be a figure skating junkie all through middle school and high school. I never learned to skate myself, but I loved to watch it and wished I could feel that freedom of flying on the ice. So I love that Kate Messner gets a skating story right. Too many times I have read stories that involved skating and the author didn't come close to showing they knew anything about the sport of figure skating.

What I'm Currently listening to:

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Unseen Guest by Mary Rose Wood

I have listened to the previous two Incorrigibles books on audio because Katherine Kellgren is one of those narrators that makes the book even better than it would have been if you had read it. She's not disappointing with her third installment.

What I reviewed last week:

Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Steven Salerno