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Book Shop Blog
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Reviews are every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday, from staff, local writers, and from our fantastic Teen Picks reviewers. Agree with our picks? Disagree? Suggestions of your own? To comment on any post, just click on the title!
We're excited to say we're now all set with six Teen Pick reviewers. We're really gearing up this program to get Advanced Reading Copies of books into their hands ahead of time, so you can read about these books the second they come out.
Check out their favorite books on GoodReads here: Clare, Chase, Jenny, Marybeth, Kathryn, and Cynthia.
They're doing a super job staying on top of the freshest new books out there.
Our other reviewers can also be found on GoodReads, and they include local writers K. Bird Lincoln and Tina, former SHBS owner Luanne, and of course, other staff picks from the St. Helens Book Shop.
The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow, Teen Pick by Clare K.
New Release! I started this book kind of expecting a cheesy kid book, instead, I got a HILARIOUS read that I liked so much it took me a day to read! In "The Popularity Papers" two 5th grade girls, Lydia and Julie, research how you become popular. They do experiments (i.e. dying hair like a popular girl does, wearing an outfit like a popular girl does, etc.) and make observations and record them in their notebook along with illustrations and side conversations. On the back it says "For ages 9-13", I disagree- it's from age 9- 99!
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9780810984219Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harry N. Abrams, 04/01/2010
Going Bovine by Libba Bray, reviewed by K. Bird Lincoln
4 of 5 stars for this recent winner of the Printz award!
What do you get when you cross a spongiformed-brain adolescent outsider boy with the Dwarf of Destiny who overuses "pendejo" and Baldur, the Norse God, disguised as a garden gnome?
You get Going Bovine, the psychedelic tale of Cameron, a "slipped through the cracks" kind of student who finds himself diagnosed with Mad Cow Disease and confined to the hospital. An angel gives him a quest to find a Dr. X and save the universe. On the way, he and his little people friend Gonzo (the aforementioned dwarf of destiny) who is paranoid about getting diseases or injured, meet up with a vibrant cast of characters in a series of coincidences and interconnected events that leads Cameron to a realization about the nature of his life.
None of the philosophy in the book seemed that new to me or surprising. The pleasure in this book is going along for the ride with Cameron as he experiences all the crazy things life has to offer him on his last journey.
Frolicing fun, crazy smoothie-obsessed cultists, a jazz musician, and reality-tv hosts are what you'll find in this book. With just enough deep emotion to satisfy you without being too full.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: A strawberry-banana smoothie with added protein powder, for the frothy goodness of the story underlaid with a healthy message that's always just under the surface without making things bitter.
Going Bovine (Hardcover)
$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780385733977Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 09/01/2009
Closed for Easter
We will be closed on Easter Sunday. Hippity Hop!
Wings -- reviewed by Tina
New in Paperback!
The series recommended by Stephenie Meyer! Sweet tale about a high school girl who discovers she's a faerie. I felt there was too much emphasis placed on (light-skinned) physical beauty = inner goodness, and ugliness = inner badness, but otherwise it was light and entertaining. PG-rated and first of a series.
Wings (Paperback)
$8.99
ISBN-13: 9780061668050Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: HarperTeen, 04/01/2010
Easter Sale, part 2
From March 26th through Easter, we're having a Melissa & Doug Sale! Come in and crack open an easter egg to find out what your discount is. Besides the sale, we also have featured a group of $10 and under items, and a group of $5 and under items. Something for every easter basket.
Check out a sampling of the $5 & under Melissa & Doug toys and activities!
Except the Queen by Jane Yolen, reviewed by K. Bird Lincoln
4 of 5 stars
Midori Snyder and Jane Yolen are huge presences in the fantasy world, and I admire both of them greatly.
I couldn't wait to get my greedy little hands on this book, and as a result, high expectations are the glasses through which I viewed the story.
Meteora and Serena see the fey queen with her human lover and baby one day, and as a result, are banished to their "normal" appearance (old) to the human world.
However, things are not as clear as they seem, and their separate fates tied together through their letters brought by doves and their bonds of herbal lore and sisterhood slowly come together as friends and foes draw them into a fey political mess surrounding the queen's daughter.
On one hand, this is a lovely, poetic, loving tribute to the kind of fey that is earthy, herbal, and chillingly and unapologetically cruel. One of the bad guys is a highborn fey masquerading as a tattoo artist who cruelly torments and bloodlets young human girls while making them love him.
On the other hand, this is about how people see themselves and others, and what kinds of treasures we can find underneath unconventional exteriors.
One of my main issues with the book was that while we switched between the two sisters' points of view, their voices and circumstances were so similiar (both find human men who care for them, wastrels to take care of, herbal lore, and suffer ignorance of human ways) that I had a hard time keeping track of who I was reading about.
There was nothing new for me in the depiction of the fey sisters or the characters they meet, I felt I'd seen them all before, but what stood out for me was the quality and immense care, almost loving touch, given to the sisters and their friends. Read this book not for novelty or a twist, but for a comforting immersion in the warm pool of European fey myth in the hands of two masters of that domain.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Macaroni and cheese made with good cheese and hint of garlic and pepper for the comforting, homey, familiarity of the story with a touch of spiciness for the evil.
Except the Queen (Hardcover)
$23.95
ISBN-13: 9780451462732Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Roc Hardcover, 02/01/2010
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass, Teen Pick review by Chase P
One day in Atlantic City, a fortune teller told Jack Fink that he would die when he turned 40. His son Jeremy barely knew his father when Jack left the world, leaving his 8-year-old son and wife.
Since then Jeremy went on with his life until one month before his thirteenth birthday, when a mysterious wooden box came in the mail. There are four keyholes in the box, yet no keys came with it. Etched into the box it says “THE MEANING OF LIFE: FOR JEREMY FINK TO OPEN ON HIS 13TH BIRTHDAY.” The box was from his father, five years deceased.
This leads Jeremy and his best friend Lizzy on a whirlwind trip around Manhattan to find the four missing keys. As his birthday nears Jeremy begins to wonder if he will ever find the keys and learn the meaning of life.
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It is a beautifully written realistic fiction story about the adventures of two normal teenagers. Just about anyone could relate to Jeremy or Lizzy. This page-turner can barely be put down as you help Jeremy and Lizzy find the meaning of life.
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life (Paperback)
$6.99
ISBN-13: 9780316058490Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 02/01/2008
Easter Sale
From March 26th through Easter, we're having a Melissa & Doug Sale! Come in and crack open an easter egg to find out what your discount is. Besides the sale, we also have featured a group of $10 and under items, and a group of $5 and under items. Something for every easter basket.
Check out a sampling of the $10 & under Melissa & Doug toys and activities -- we'll post the $5 and under one on Tuesday!
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, reviewed by K. Bird Lincoln
4 of 5 stars
I had great expectations of this book when I started reading it after I found out it won a Newbery (Honor).
Yes, I can see it's Newbery material. The many old folktales woven into the narrative of how Minli leaves her parents and village and journeys to find the Old Man of the Moon are educationally delicious. Minli herself seems wise and naive at the same time, the perfect character to help a dragon, meet a weaving goddess, and finally sacrifice her own desires to help a friend.
The gorgeous illustrations were just ornate enough to feel Chinese while still retaining a flavor of childhood.
And yet...beyond the folktales, there wasn't much new or twisty in this story to keep me drawn into the narrative. While deftly done, a girl's- journey-to-discover-what-riches-truly-are didn't tug at any heartstrings for me.
Still, for an introduction to Chinese folktale culture, it's perfect to put in the hands of any grade-school aged person.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Steamed BBQ Pork Buns because of the slight blandness of the bun part in contrast to the meaty inside.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Hardcover)
$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780316114271Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 07/01/2009
Author Event - Jane Kirkpatrick, An Absence So Great
This Sunday, March 28th at 2 PM! Jane Kirkpatrick, the popular author of A Flickering of Light and A Gathering of Finches, comes to talk about her newest novel, due out in March 2010, An Absence So Great. She will read and sign books, so come join us for a lovely afternoon!
An Absence So Great (Paperback)
$14.99
ISBN-13: 9781578569816Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: WaterBrook Press, 03/01/2010
