What is Mark David Bradshaw reading?
Mark reads like a house on
fire: He received his Master's degree in comparative literature from King's
College, London, and he can generally be found with a book in his hands. His
reading diet includes heaping servings of classics, current affairs, graphic
novels, and books for children and young readers. He writes Watermark’s
Teacher Feature
newsletter and leads the
Shakespeare Aloud reading group, which meets
every other Wednesday.
Currently reading:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky.
Take the
War &
Peace Challenge with me this summer!
Hamlet (the 1996 screenplay) by Kenneth Branagh,
adapted from William Shakespeare.
July 2008
The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS by
Elizabeth Pisani.
This memoir and
expose by an AIDS epidemiologist is dishy, bracing, and compelling. It peers
into U.N. bureaucracies and plunges through gritty scenes of Asian
nightlife. Pisani packs the book with a forceful, impatient humanity and
writes keenly of the frustrating obstacles that money, politics, and
ideology present
to disease prevention.
Coraline the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell.
Quantum Prophecy 01: The Awakening and Quantum Prophecy 02: The Gathering:
Read review
Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg.
The best teen novel I've read in ages. This book
seamlessly combines two genres, the sports novel and the coming-out story,
to tell of a star high-school quarterback who's coming to terms with being
gay while caught in a national spotlight. Konigsberg avoids all cliches and
instead fills his book with funny, fantastic, surprising characters. He also
makes each football game a riveting, high-stakes event. Out in September.
June 2008
Dishes by Rich Wallace.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.
Question: The Five Books of Blood by Greg Rucka.
I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry:
Read review
Bluebloods and Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz.
Beach reads with
fangs: Read
review
Trucktown books by Jon Scieszka:
Read review
Airman by Eoin Colfer:
Read review
The Spirit by Darwyn Cooke.
The Death of Captain America by Ed Brubaker.
Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange by
Melissa Marr: Read
reviews
The Merchant of Venice adapted & illustrated by Gareth Hinds:
Read review
Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword by George R. R. Martin:
Read review
Elephant & Piggie: I Love My New Toy
and I Will Surprise My Friend by Mo Willems:
Read review
May 2008
The Post-American World by
Fareed Zakaria: Read
review
The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv:
Read review
Moonpowder by John Rocco:
Read review
A Vengeful Longing by R. N. Morris.
A follow-up to Morris's fantastic
The Gentle Axe, this literary mystery offers the intense
pleasures of seeing Investigating Magistrate Porfiry Petrovich train an
inexperienced new colleague in the St. Petersburg police force as he works
to solve a double murder involving poisoned chocolates. Due out in early
June. (I would love to pre-order a copy for you.)
Read review
Pendragon: Merchant of Death graphic novel by J. D.
MacHale: Read review
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull:
Read review
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.
Green Lantern: No Fear by Geoff Johns.
Checkmate: The Fall of the Wall by Greg Rucka.
Laughing Without an Accent:
Adventures of an Iranian American at Home and
Abroad by Firoozeh Dumas:
Read review
Cool Zone With the Pain and the Great One by Judy
Blume: Read review
Found: The Missing, Book 1 by Margaret
Peterson Haddix:
Read review
United Tweets of America: 50 State Birds, Their
Stories, Their Glories by Hudson Talbot:
Read review
It’s Not Fair by Amy Krouse Rosenthal,
illus. by Tom Lichtenheld:
Read review
Prisoner of Tehran: One Woman's
Story of Survival Inside an Iranian Prison by Marina Nemat:
Read review
Battle of the
Labyrinth by Rick Riordan:
Read review
City of Bones and
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare:
Read review
A Dash of Style
by Noah Lukeman.
One either loves
punctuation or not, and I love it. This slim book by a literary agent is
filled with careful thought, an elegant grasp of style, and many examples
drawn from excellent writers. When I saw quotes from E. M. Forster and David
Leavitt on successive pages, I was hooked.
April 2008
The Spanish Tragedy
by Thomas Kyd.
This blockbuster
Elizabethan play was arguably the first modern English stage tragedy. It
ushered in new trends in individual characterization and started the vogue
for revenge tragedy. It's a vital pre-cursor to Shakespeare's Hamlet,
but I found it very enjoyable in its own right, especially in its moving
soliloquies by the grief-wracked Hieronimo.
Uncle Bobby's Wedding
by Sarah S. Brannen:
Read review
Thoreau at Walden
by John Porcinello:
Read review
Atherton: Rivers of
Fire by Patrick Carman:
Read review
Maps & Legends by
Michael Chabon.
Big Plans by Bob
Shea & Lane Smith:
Read review
Fancy Nancy's
Favorite Fancy Words by Jane O'Connor:
Read review
The Manny Files
by Christian Burch.
This middle-reader
novel is absolutely hilarious! I laughed, on average, four times per page. I
heartily recommend this to everyone who knows children, who enjoys a good
family in-joke, or who loves someone--a kid, an uncle, a male nanny--who
lives life outside of the box. I can't wait for the sequel!
Drama: Show, Don't
Tell by Paul Ruditis:
Read review
This YA series gets
richer and funnier with each installment. This third book thrusts lead
character Bryan further into the spotlight and starts to explore his own
personal drama and relationship hang-ups. I'd be happy to read a new sequel
every week if Paul Ruditis write that fast!
Shakespeare & Co:
Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher
& the Other Players in His Story by Stanley Wells:
Read review
New Mutants Classics,
vol. 3 by Chris Claremont & Bill Sienkiewicz.
These are some of
the 1980s X-Men stories of my childhood. A few are a bit iffy, but the Demon
Bear Saga is a total classic with amazing and unusual art from Sienkiewicz.
Mouse Guard: Fall
1152 by David Petersen:
Read review
Dog and Bear: Two
Friends, Three Stories and Dog and Bear: Two's Company by Laura
Vaccaro Seeger: Read
review
The Way Back Home
by Oliver Jeffers:
Read review
Searching for
Shakespeare by Tarnya Cooper, Stanley Wells, and James Shapiro.
This awesome
oversized book records an excellent 2006 exhibit hosted by London's National
Portrait Gallery: in its pages, curators and Shakespeare scholars examine
contested portraits of Shakespeare; key Elizabethan and Jacobean
manuscripts; period clothing; documents of births, deaths, and marriages;
and more. It's a basically a visual treasury of objects and important papers
from Shakespeare's world. An exciting and engrossing book for any
Shakespeare lover.
Young Avengers: Family Matters by Allan Heinberg & Jim Cheung.
Young Avengers: Sidekicks by Allan Heinberg & Jim Cheung.
The Gentle Axe by
R. N. Morris.
This excellent historical crime novel traipses
through brothels and slums, pawnbrokers and St. Petersburg squares with
splendidly jovial Russian moroseness. Morris's tone is clever and darkly
joking, his plot is tight, and his period details of 1860s Russia are deeply
enjoyable. This is a book for everyone who enjoys a well-made literary
mystery:
Read review
Dog Years: A Memoir
by Mark Doty.
A lyric poet, Doty
focuses this memoir on his two dogs and how their companionable animal
presences helped shepherd him through the death of his partner, the
September 11 attacks on New York City, and his own resulting depressions.
He's always cautious of straying into sentiment, and his searching poet's
eye often locks onto sharp images and fine, resplendent moments:
Read review
Clementine's Letter by Sara Pennypacker, pictures by
Marla Frazee: Read
review
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems:
Read review
March 2008
The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians by Carla Morris, illus. by Brad
Sneed: Read review
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry.
Infidel by Aayan Hirsi Ali:
Read review
Thinking Straight by Robin Reardon.
Due out in May,
Reardon's second teen-focused novel follows a young man into an intensive,
sometimes abusive, reparative therapy camp. What starts as a brainwashing
expose soon becomes a suspenseful near-thriller as the protagonist, Taylor,
joins an underground circle seeking to shepherd alienated kids through
damaging attempts to remake them. It's breathless, engrossing, and
surprisingly devout in plotting a path toward both God and love.
Good Enough by Paula Yoo.
This is a fun and
funny YA novel focused on violin recitals, first crushes, SAT-prep anxiety,
church youth group rivalries, and seeking to please your highly-motivated
Korean parents. It's a great laugh:
Read review
A Secret Edge by Robin Reardon.
I like how this
teen-focused novel approaches a cross-cultural romance between high-school
athletes from India and the U.S., showing them trading thoughts on Gandhi,
nonviolence, and school bullying. Reardon creates engaging characters and
tells a good story in this debut.
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr.
This is a beautifully nuanced teen novel that
many adults will also want to read. It addresses childhood abuse in an
non-exploitative way and is clear-eyed in its honesty and in its refusal to
promise tidy conclusions. With this book, Zarr has delivered a completely
satisfying follow-up to her excellent debut
Story of a Girl:
Read review
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall:
Read review
Surprises According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney:
Read review
Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express by
Megan McDonald, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds:
Read review
Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones by Gene
Barretta: Read
review
Maybe a Bear Ate It! by Robie H. Harris,
illus. by Michael Emberley:
Read review
Blue Beetle: Reach for the Stars by John Rogers.
The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street by Charles Nicholl.
This new title is
the most exciting Shakespeare book of 2008 so far, and it seems destined to
stand as the year’s finest and most original Shakespeare-related work. (I
would especially recommend it to readers who enjoyed James Shapiro's 1599.)
Nicholl uses spare facts as a stepping-off point to paint a rich picture of
street-level life in Jacobean London. This is a fantastic work of biography:
Read review
William Shakespeare: The World as Stage by
Bill Bryson.
I would recommend this slender biography to anyone new
to Shakespeare who wants an entertaining and readable overview of his life.
Readers interested in more detail should pick up Stanley Wells's
Shakespeare: For All Time or Katherine Duncan-Jones's provocative
Ungentle Shakespeare.
Read
review
The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare.
I have to admit that
this is probably my least favorite of all Shakespeare's plays. I miss the
poetry, the funny foreign accents aren't all that funny, and Falstaff seems
to be flying at half mast.
Clay by David Almond:
Read review
Mom & Dad are Palindromes:
Read review
February 2008
Grace for President by Kelly Dipucchio and Leuyen Pham:
Read review
Daredevil: Decalogue by Brian Michael Bendis.
Lady Gregory's Toothbrush by Colm Toibin.
Torchwood: Border Princes by Dan Abnett.
This second
"Torchwood" tie-in novel introduces a curious new character, and the plot
spins on the reader trying to figure out where he came from and why. In all,
it's a fun romp with moments of really beautiful writing from Abnett on the
poignancy of war and old soldiers. Good stuff.
Twelve Long Months by Brian Malloy.
The Loners: The Secret Lives of Super Heroes by
Cebulski & Moline.
This comic series
spun-off from the awesome Runaways (but by different creators) is
enjoyable but kind of angsty and unfocused, much like the '80s movies it
imitates.
52, Volume 4 by Geoff Johns, Mark
Waid, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, and Keith Giffen.
The Groundbreaking, Chance-Taking Life of
George Washington Carver and Science & Invention in America by Cheryl
Harness.
Carver lived a fascinating life, both as a scientist
and as an atypically religious individual with a self-made family. This new
young-reader biography hits all the important points and makes connections
with the larger world ongoing developments in science:
Read review
Women Daredevils: Thrills,
Chills, and Frills by Julie Cummins, illus. by Cheryl Harness.
This book is full of nerves and derring-do, and it more than lives
up to its promise to deliver “thrills, chills, and frills.” My favorite is
the story of the girl who became the world's first human cannonball:
Read review
Madam President: The Extraordinary, True (and
Evolving) Story of Women in Politics by Catherine Thimmesh & Douglas Jones.
This illustrated history lesson is smart,
timely, and inspiring. Thimmesh and Jones take a look at many of the
trailblazing American women who have advanced women’s rights and national
leadership: Read
review
Woolbur by Leslie Helakowski & Lee Harper.
Woolbur marches to his own
drum, to his own tuba, and to his own glockenspiel: This is an affirming
story about being a creative thinker who leads the herd instead of simply
following it:
Read review
Moral Disorder and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood.
I love Atwood's use
of shifting perspectives and selective remembering in this sequence of
linked short stories encompassing a woman's life from the 1930s to the
present. Anyone anticipating her next full novel should relish this
novel-in-stories:
Read review
The Door: Poems by Margaret Atwood.
I half-seriously
believe that Atwood writes poems only for me: her grim smiles, cheeky
blood-thirstiness, and small flashes of hope and laughter. I love them all:
Read review
New Mutants Classics, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 by Chris Claremont, Bob McLeod,
and Sal Buscema.
These teen superhero
comics are classic 1980s coming-of-age stories. The New Mutants are junior
X-Men from diverse backgrounds, and their triumphs and tribulations
fascinated a generation of young readers with their mix of heroic tragedy
and complex characterization. I'm so glad to see these issues collected in a
bookshelf format! Fans of The Runaways and Young Avengers
should read these books; they're great stuff.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation by M. T.
Anderson.
M. T. Anderson's
range is astounding. Compare his previous novel, Feed, about
plugged-in teenagers road-tripping to the moon to this history piece, which
follows an educated but enslaved boy in Revolutionary Boston. Both are
fantastic and powerful, but Octavian looks to be Anderson's magnum
opus. Even readers who don't read teen literature should read this novel:
Read
review
The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Basil
by Wiley Miller:
Read review
Ordinary Basil: Attack of the Volcano Monkeys by John Wiley:
Read review
Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln by Judith St.
George, illus. by Matt Faulkner.
I enjoyed this picture-book look at Lincoln's youth. It
offers an inspiring example of the powerful role of a mentor in a young
person's life:
Read review
The Cow That Laid an Egg by Andy Cutbill,
illus. by Russell Ayto:
Read review
Torchwood: Another Life by Peter Anghelides.
I love the BBC
sci-fi series "Torchwood," and this first novel spin-off is good fun: wild
weather, spine-biting aliens loose in Cardiff, and a bit of character
development. It's perfect munchy reading for a winter weekend.
January 2008
The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy by Robert Leleux.
Long on charm and
fizzy with delight, Leleux has a wicked gift for storytelling; he turns his
minor childhood tragedies into glorious comedic melodrama:
Read review
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak.
The story of a
colorful Istanbul family, this lovely novel explores the persistence of
group memory and the resilience of family bonds:
Read review
Marvel Adventures Avengers vol. 3 by Jeff Parker.
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four vol. 7 by Fred Van Lente.
Ex Machina 6: Power Down by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.
Dramacon 3 by Svetlana Chmakova.
Third Man Out: A Donald Strachey Mystery by Richard Stevenson.
First Person Plural by Andrew W. M. Beierle.
This novel, told in
the voice of a conjoined twin, is remarkably controlled in the way it
depicts an individual who has spent his entire life never moving (physically
or emotionally) without weighing how it would affect others. It's a
fascinating exploration of brothers with a shared body and two very
different hearts.
The Year of Ice by Brian Malloy.
The teenage narrator
in this debut novel has an amazing, appealing voice, a confounding
predicament, and perfectly handled setting in the icy Twin Cities. I loved
it, and I can't wait to read more Malloy. I'm especially looking forward to
his forthcoming YA novel Twelve Long Months.
When Harriet Met Sojourner by Catherine Clinton & Shane W. Evans.
This picture book from historian Catherine
Clinton takes us on a tour of the lives of two heroic women--with the help
of striking illustrations by Kansas City artist Shane W. Evans:
Read
review
Bone 7: Ghost Circles by Jeff Smith.
Tough Love: High School Confidential by Abby
Denson.
This graphic novel
has its heart in the right place, but the simple art and somewhat stilted
story both seem to sacrifice depth in favor of stylization.
Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman.
Berman's teen story wraps a Goth aesthetic around a
delightful story of first love. It has a few rough edges, but the story and
characters are compulsively readable.
Split Screen by Brent Hartinger.
This is a re-read,
which is rare. I admire Hartinger's ability to write smart, ethical
characters, and spending time with them is always a treat:
Read review
The Order of the Poison Oak by Brent Hartinger.
Another Hartinger re-read:
Read review
The Shakespeare Wars by Ron Rosenbaum.
I revisited this collection of
Shakespeare-centered essays for weeks and months, and I profited from every
moment: Rosenbaum is an ecstatic and digressive commentator on the big
questions occupying today's great Shakespeare scholars, and his interviews
and reflections serve as a sturdy, inviting bridge that brings readers into
the debate. He also introduced me to a host of books I should read and
helped to fill up my Netflix queue:
Read review
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson.
This new book from acclaimed illustrator Kadir
Nelson is an intimate, gorgeously painted account of the
early-twentieth-century Golden Age of Negro League baseball. Nelson is a
two-time recipient of the Caldecott Honor for children's illustration, and
while "We Are the Ship" is perfect for young readers, it will also enthrall
history and baseball enthusiasts of all ages:
Read review
Duck for President by Doreen Cronin:
Read review
Trucktown: Smash! Crash! by John Scieszka:
Read review
Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum by
Robert Andrew Parker.
This picture books
works as a simple childhood story and also as an introduction to the world
of Jazz music and to the life of an African-American musician who stands
among such greats as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, and
Duke Ellington: Read review
The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.
This novel is rich
in empathy and opens windows into the lives of humble people living in
extraordinary days. Through the fog of time,
the Sarajevo Haggadah and the people who save it emerge as flawed, beautiful
specimens of a humanity still yearning, learning, and moving, fitfully, in
the direction of hope:
Read review
December 2007
Shock to the System: A Donald Strachey Mystery by Richard Stevenson.
Ain't Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John
Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson & Marc Aronson:
Read review
Henry VI, Part 1 by William Shakespeare & (likely) Thomas Nashe.
Death Trick: A Donald Strachey Mystery by Richard Stevenson.
How They Met & Other Stories by David Levithan:
Read review
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett:
Read review
Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan.
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow
by James Sturm & Rich Tommaso:
Read review
An Orange in January by Dianna Hutts Aston:
Read review
As You Like It by William Shakespeare.
The Age of Bronze: Betrayal, vol. 1 by Eric Shanower.
Mouse Guard 1152 by David Peterson.
How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor.
Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.
November 2007
X-Men First Class: Tomorrow's Brightest by Jeff Parker & Roger Cruz.
Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones by Judy Schachner:
Read review
SHAZAM and the Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith.
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.
If A Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer
Choldenko: Read
review
Heroes the graphic novel.
Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins:
Read review
Shug by Jenny Han:
Read review
The Longest Christmas List Ever by Gregg &
Evan Spiridellis:
Read review
Russell's Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton:
Read review
Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian
Falconer: Read
review
Violet Bing and the Grand House by Jennifer
Soros: Read review
October 2007
William Shakespeare: The World as Stage by
Bill Bryson: Read
review
A Yorkshire Tragedy by Thomas Middleton.
This short, topical Jacobean play was long
attributed to Shakespeare and now rests in the first rank of the
Shakespearea Apocrypha. It dramatizes infamous murders and
might be thought of as the In Cold Blood of its day. A few scholars
argue that it is, in part, written or edited by Shakespeare.
The Looking-Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.
This first installment of a new youth fantasy
series re-imagines Lewis Carroll's Wonderland stories as an epic clash
between Princess Alyss and her diabolical Aunt Redd; Beddor writes like
Charles Dickens by way of Lemony Snicket as he weaves together moments of
bright wonder and darkly funny pity. It's an awesome roller coaster ride.
Jabberwocky by Christopher Myers:
Review
Judy Moody & Stink: The Holly Joliday
by Megan McDonald, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds:
Read review
The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies:
Read review
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #4: Still Friends
by Sean McKeever.
Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story From the
Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine, illus. by Kadir Nelson:
Read review
Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on
Earth by Nicola Davies, illus. by Neal Layton:
Read review
Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable
by Nicola Davies, illus. by Neal Layton:
Read review
What’s Eating You? Parasites—The Inside Story
by Nicola Davies, illus. by Neal Layton:
Read review
JSA: The Dark Age by James Robinson.
JSA: The Return of Hawkman by Geoff Johns.
Slam by Nick Hornby.
Hornby's first young-adult novel follows a
fifteen-year-old London guy about to become a father. Teens will identify
with Sam's funny storytelling and overwhelmed state of mind, and adults will
enjoy how differently Sam and his gobsmacked mother see the world:
Read review
Pericles Prince of Tyre by William
Shakespeare & George Wilkins.
It's like a fairy tale with shipwrecks, nuns,
and brothels.
52 (volumes 1, 2, and 3) by Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, and Keith Giffen.
This graphic novel series records an
ambitious, mammoth undertaking: a real-time comic book series published
weekly for one year. The short vignette structure doesn't give the myriad
characters enough time to breathe, but the plotting, pacing, and surprises
of the interlaced stories are pretty amazing. Definitely worth it and more
than just a (very cool) gimmick.
Knut: How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the
World by Craig, Juliana, & Isabella Hatkoff:
Read review
Taken by Edward Bloor:
Read review
Please, Louise! by Frieda Wishinsky & Marie-Louise Gay:
Read review
Oscar and the Moth and Oscar and the Frog
"start with science" books by Geoff Waring:
Read reviews
The God Box by Alex Sanchez:
Read review
Kingdom Come by Mark Waid & Alex Ross.
Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Eoin
Colfer: Read review
Drama! Everyone's a Critic by Paul Ruditis.
In this sequel to the very funny high-school
theatre story
Drama! The Four
Dorothys, it's summer vacation, and Bryan and his merry band
of cutthroat thespians will do whatever it takes to give a perfect audition:
Read review
London Calling by Edward Bloor:
Read review
One City, Two Brothers by Chris Smith &
Aurelia Fronty: Read
review
September 2007
Tangerine by Edward Bloor.
This middle-school novel is wonderfully clever
and filled with offbeat humor: its seventh-grade narrator moves to a strange
Florida town plagued by lightning strikes and sink-holes. Everything seems a
little warped there, and his fierce, scrappy soccer team is no exception:
Read review
Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay.
This third installment moves more slowly than
the earlier books, but Dexter Morgan remains a deeply enjoyable guilty
pleasure: Read review (coming soon)
DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.
The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by
E. L. Konigsburg.
This new
middle-grades novel by two-time Newbery Medal-winner E. L. Konigsburg is
pure gold: strong, smart characters; fascinating situations; and intriguing
uses of art and history. It’s the perfect choice for curious, precocious
young readers who need books that can introduce them to big ideas:
Read review
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by
Peter Cameron.
In James Sveck, Peter Cameron has created a
Holden Caulfield for the new century: he's an articulate but uncommunicative
teenager, passionate yet almost painfully reserved, and in him are bundled
the many ill-fitting humours of adolescence. This is a remarkable book:
Read review
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by
Lauren Tarshis.
This
slyly funny story follows a seventh-grade problem-solver who trips over own
her selfless acts. The book’s humor and unusual protagonist owe much to Jane
Austen’s comic novel “Emma,” but Tarshis scales the story perfectly for a
middle-school setting, and she makes Emma-Jean a unique heroine with a great vocabulary:
Read review
The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett:
Read review
Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson:
Read review
Knuffle Bunny Too by Mo Willems:
Read review
From Emporia: The Story of William Allen White
by Beverly Olson Buller:
Read review
Cowboy & Octopus by John Scieszka & Lane
Smith: Read review
Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One
by Judy Blume.
This new chapter book is a funny and engaging
plunge into the world of a little brother and a big sister. (I bet you can
guess which one is called "The Pain" and which one is "The Great One," can't
you?): Read
review
Guyaholic by Caroline Mackler.
Beneath its chick-lit cover, this teen novel
harbors hidden depths: it's the story of a young woman working to move past
feeling abandoned by her free-spirited, absent mother:
Read review
Main Street #2: Needle & Thread by Ann M.
Martin: Read review
August 2007
Piper Reed, Navy Brat by Kimberly Willis
Holt.
Piper Reed is a fun new chapter-book
protagonist, and her story is an especially good choice for kids moving
house or growing up in a military family:
Read review
The Only Boy in Ballet Class by Denise
Gruska: Read review
Pssst! by Adam Rex:
Read review
Earthlight 2 by Stuart Moore & Christopher
Schons: Read review
Sardine in Outer Space 4 by Emmanuel
Guibert & Joann Sfar:
Read review
Redwall: The Graphic Novel by Brian
Jacques, Stuart Moore, & Bret Blevins:
Read review
Drama! The Four Dorothies by Paul Ruditis.
This teen novel is great fun; set in a posh
Malibu high school during a way over-the-top production of The Wizard of
Oz, the story is equal parts High School Musical and Veronica
Mars. The school's small size requires quadruple-casting for the lead
parts, and that doesn't sit well with some back-biting students: very soon,
Dorothies start dropping like flies:
Read review
Antony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
(Pelican edition).
There's something really winning about
Shakespeare's most mature love story. Cleopatra and Antony are vain;
deceitful; power-hungry; selfish; and wonderfully, hyperbolically eloquent.
Yet their many flaws somehow make their capacity for love seem all the more
intense and sincere.
Fairy Dust & the Quest for the Egg by
Gail Carson Levine, illus. by David Christiana:
Read review
Fairy Haven & the Quest for the Wand
by Gail Carson Levine, illus. by David Christiana.
I was surprised by the charm and the clever
characters in these middle-reader
novels about Never Land fairies. Levine provides crystal moments of real
storytelling power:
Read review
I Am Invited to a Party! by Mo Willems:
Read review
Fritz
Lieber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, adapted by Howard Chaykin & illus.
by Mike Mignola.
Magician Apprentice, vol. 1 by Raymond E. Feist.
The Yorkshire Tragedy by Thomas Middleton
(and maybe William Shakespeare).
King Lear, the 1608 Quarto by William
Shakespeare (Pelican edition).
3 Henry VI by William Shakespeare
(Pelican edition).
This early history play serves as a prologue
to Shakespeare's more famous work Richard III: it shows us the hard
turns that make Queen Margaret into such a bitter woman and bring wicked
Richard into the orbit of the crown.
Ungentle Shakespeare by Katherine
Duncan-Jones.
Duncan-Jones is an Oxford professor, and her
biography of Shakespeare is fascinating for the way that she writes-in the
context of the poet's life: she harnesses every available fact to make
logical but surprising surmises about the ways Shakespeare took advantage of
the opportunities around him--his noble patrons, his player and printer
friends, and his ability to divine the zeitgeist. Fantastic stuff.
Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm, illus. by Elicia
Castaldi: Read
review
Houndsley and Catina and Houndsley and Catina
and the Birthday Surprise by James Howe, illus. by Marie-Louise Gay:
Read review
There is a Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems:
Read review
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
(revised edition) by
Thomas E. Ricks:
Read review
Bone 6: Old Man's Cave by Jeff Smith:
Read review
The Baby-Sitters Club: Mary Anne Saves the Day
by Ann M. Martin & Raina Telgemeier:
Read review
Goosebumps 3: Scary Summer by R. L. Stine:
Read review
Y: The Last Man: Motherland by Brian K.
Vaughan & Pia Guerra.
Civil War by Mark Millar & Steve McNiven.
July 2007
Shakespeare in Love: The Screenplay by Marc
Norman & Tom Stoppard.
The density of allusions and clever bits of
wordplay in this screenplay is simply awesome. I've always loved the film,
but I found even more to enjoy while reading. My favorite aspect may be the
script's thorough homage to Shakespeare's poetic contemporary, the great but
nearly eclipsed Christopher Marlowe.
Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend by
Carrie Jones.
This new teen novel is heartfelt and very well
done. Its young narrator offers endearing (and honest) descriptions of
high-school life in a small Maine town where everybody knows everybody's
business: the giddy, the hurtful, and the life-changing.
Tested: One
American School Struggles to Make the Grade by
Linda Perlstein: Read review
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr.
This recent teen novel is a real gut-punch:
it's the story of the summer when a young woman comes to grips with the
experience of having had sex too young, too unhappily, and much too
publicly. For her it has colored everything since, and she struggles to
escape its looming shadow. It's an excellent first novel:
Read review
Ice Blues by Richard Stevenson.
Doctor Strange: The Oath by Brian K.
Vaughan & Marco Martin.
Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup:
Read review
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret
McNamara & G. Brian Karas:
Read review
Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Beastie by
Joel Stewart: Read
review
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.
In this sequel to the beloved young-adult
novel Stargirl, Spinelli fleshes out his elusive, home-schooled
nonconformist into a young leading lady surrounded by a cast of odd and
intriguing characters. Teenager Stargirl marches to her own drum while
taking care of her friends—and of her own bruised heart. It's a winner:
Read review
The Shakespeare Wars by Ron Rosenbaum.
I revisited this collection of
Shakespeare-centered essays for weeks and months, and I profited from every
moment: Rosenbaum is an ecstatic and digressive commentator on the big
questions occupying today's great Shakespeare scholars, and his interviews
and reflections serve as a sturdy, inviting bridge that brings readers into
the debate. He also introduced me to a host of books I should read and
helped to fill up my Netflix queue. Good fun.
The Cave of the Dark Wind: a Neverland
Adventure by Dave Barry &
Ridley Pearson: Read
review
Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli:
Read review
The Girl's Like Spaghetti by Lynne
Truss:
Read review
Woe is I Jr.: The Younger Grammarphobe’s
Guide by Patricia O’Conner, illus. by Tom Stiglich:
Read review
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by
Robin Brande.
This upcoming teen novel takes on the
embattled subject of teaching evolution in a high school biology class. The
narrator, Mena, tries to find a way to embrace both her Christian faith and
her newfound love of science—inspired by an exceptional and creative
teacher—all at once. Brande’s writing is funny, authentic, and sweet, and
Mena’s quest to think her own thoughts is quietly—and kindly—challenging:
Read review
June 2007
The Comedy of Errors by William
Shakespeare.
This quick comedy has a reputation for being
slight, but its farcical plot contains sweet, sad moments to stop
the heart: Antipholus #1's wooing of Luciana is a jeweled, brilliant
conversation shot through with dark hopes and bright pain.
The Saints of Augustine by P. E. Ryan.
This teen novel hits on a rarely-seen subject:
friendships between young guys. Charlie and Sam used to be best friends, but
their bond broke just as each was headed for a crisis. The mutual loss has
left them un-brothered and flailing. P.E. Ryan treats their experiences with
humor and heart that makes their story completely involving. (It's happily
reminiscent of Brian Sloan's very funny recent novel
A Tale of Two
Summers):
Read a review
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker, pictures by
Marla Frazee.
Eight-year-old Clementine’s debut adventure
contains many hilarious mishaps with scissors, permanent markers, pigeons,
bologna, and hair. It’s a gut-buster chapter book with an outstanding
3rd-grade hero: Read a review
(The sequel
is just as awesome, and a third book is due in January!)
Dogku by Andrew Clements:
Read review
Bad Dog, Marley by John Grogan:
Read review
Red Prophet: Tales of Alvin Maker by Orson
Scott Card.
This graphic novel for adults and older teens
tells a rich, dense alternate history story of a frontier America where
magic works and the future of the world rests in the powerful hands of a
young settler-boy and an enigmatic Native holy man. Fans of
The Hedge Knight
should check it out.
Dreamquest by Brent Hartinger.
This middle-grades fantasy novel includes
several funny nods to classics by Roald Dahl, L. Frank Baum, and C. S.
Lewis; it features a young heroine who delves into the land of her dreams to
halt the Hollywood-style nightmares being filmed there:
Read review
Runaways, vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan,
Adrian Alphona, and Mike Norton.
Vaughan and Alphona bring their
Runaways
run to a close in this third big hardcover graphic novel, which collects
three twist-filled super-teen adventure stories: old friends (and enemies)
return, good friends are lost, and nothing will ever quite be the same again
for the world’s coolest pack of delinquent super heroes:
Read review
Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina
Planck.
Planck is all about butter, which means that I
am all about Planck. Her surprising argument: that red meat, dairy, eggs,
and saturated animal fats really, really good for us—not just delicious.
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little
by Peggy Gifford, pictures by Valorie Fisher.
This photo-illustrated book for young readers
is a riotous look at one fourth-grader's struggle with her summer reading
assignment: all 144 pages of E. B. White's classic Stuart Little.
Moxy is a stellar character full of cleverness and distractions, and her
story is a gem: Read review
The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker.
Clementine is the 3rd-grade hero of a new
series of chapter books, and she's awesome! She's full of smart,
oddball
observations and good-hearted worries, and her talent-show woes are
laugh-out-loud funny. Clementine is the answer to the boring-chapter-book
blues! Read
review
Stink & the World's Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers by Megan McDonald.
In a world of Junie B. Jones and Judy Moody, boys need a funny, goofy
chapter-book character to call their own, and Stink steps in with his comic books, candy binges, and very smelly sneakers:
Read review
Main Street: Welcome to Camden Falls by Ann M. Martin.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this first book in a new series by
the author of the Baby-Sitters Club books. Martin really understands young
people's attentiveness to the small details of family and neighborhood life,
and her story handles big subjects like loss, illness, and social divides
with a light touch. This series should be a favorite of crafty young girls
and their mentoring grandmothers:
Read review
Henry VIII, or All is Well by William
Shakespeare & John Fletcher.
Centuries before The Tudors, Shax
captured all the intrigue, power games, and flirtatiousness of English court
life. This history play is unusual for not having a military war at its
center but rather a sort of matrimonial war between Henry and his
first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks
and Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order, both by Gene Luen Yang.
Beige by Cecil Castellucci.
Castellucci writes excellent, non-cliche teen
characters: in this young-adult summer-vacation story, straight-laced Katy
learns to appreciate her punked-out father's rock-music-scene lifestyle
without ever giving up her own views or tastes. It's an affecting story of a
girl finding her voice and learning about her parents' past--warts,
addictions, and all.
Hero by Perry Moore.
This first novel follows the teenage son
of a great but disgraced super hero as the young man comes to terms with his
own newfound powers and sexual identity. Moore uses his compelling
cape-and-mask characters as clever metaphors for family secrets and
coming-of-age heartaches while delivering big-league action and an epically
heroic climax that’s set to kick off an engaging young-adult series.
Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee
Carrell.
This smart, well-written thriller novel takes
a shadowy run through the world of Shakespeare conspiracy theories and
delivers a breathless, twisty story about a present-day hunt for one of the
poet's lost plays. I'm a bit of a Shakespeare snob, and yet I loved it. It
reminded of Sarah Smith's
Chasing
Shakespeares.
Read review
May 2007
Naomi & Ely's No-Kiss List by Rachel Cohn &
David Levithan.
Levithan & Cohn follow their rock-out
urban fairy tale
Nick &
Norah's Infinite Playlist with this story of two joined-at-the-hip best friends who need to learn to
stand apart as they go through their freshmen year of college. It's a funny,
irreverent story of fierce friendship and boyfriend-stealing teen romance
that’s told in multiple voices with equal parts wistful hurt and hopeful
eagerness: Read
review
Houdini: The Handcuff King by Jason
Lutes & Nick Bertozzi.
I find most overtly "educational" graphic
novels to be bland, ugly, and shoddily made.
But not this one. The gray-toned artwork is sharp and perfectly paced, and
the story is one exciting, informative day in the life of a fascinating and
uniquely famous American:
Read review
(I eagerly anticipate Hyperion's next graphic
biography: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow; it's due in
December.)
Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire by Rafe
Esquith: Read review
Evoking (and Forgetting) Shakespeare by
Peter Brook.
This tiny volume records a speech the great
director gave in Berlin on the subject of the mind and characters of
Shakespeare. It's a quick read well worth revisiting.
All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison & Frank
Quitely.
John Donne: Poems by John Donne.
Richard III by William Shakespeare.
Rich is such a malignant little hedgehog!
No wonder he was one of Shakespeare's most popular characters. Who doesn't
love a good villain?
I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin
Sherry: Read review
The Incredible Book-Eating Boy by Oliver
Jeffers: Read review
Runaways: Live Fast by Brian K. Vaughan &
Adrian Alphona.
Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways by Zeb
Wells & Stephano Caselli.
Karma and Other Stories by Rishi Reddi:
Read review
Batman: The Arrow, the
Ring, the Bat
by Denny O'Neil & Greg Land.
Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez.
Mars Needs Moms! by Berkeley Breathed:
Read review
An Egg is Quiet and A Seed is Sleepy
by Dianna Aston & Sylvia Long:
Read review
Birds of Prey by Chuck Dixon.
April 2007
Bossy Bear by David Horvath:
Read review
The Two Gentlemen of Verona by
William Shakespeare.
I may be this early play's biggest fan. It's a
little rough and threadbare in spots, but it still has power to move the
spirit: "If ever danger do environ thee, / Commend thy grievance to my holy
prayers, / For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine."
Atherton: The House of Power by Patrick
Carman.
This well-written, well-thought-out new youth
fantasy novel tells of a stratified society situated on a floating island;
one plucky young boy sets out to uncover the mysteries of this world, and
his discoveries unfold as both a gripping adventure story and as a clever
parallel to our very real world of unequal wealth and opportunity. This book
has the all-ages appeal of Chris Paolini’s “Eragon” and “Eldest” books or T.
A. Barron’s “Great Tree of Avalon” series--and with even better writing and
more original ideas.
In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta
Ellsworth.
The Portrait of Mr. W. H. by Oscar Wilde.
Wilde's slim volume is a fictive piece of
literary criticism centered on the identity of the man to whom Shakespeare
dedicated his sonnets. Despite its imaginative flights (or maybe because of
them), it's an oddly enrapturing work.
Batman: Haunted Knight by Jeph Loeb & Tim
Sale.
A.L.I.E.E.N by Lewis Trondheim.
Tiny Tyrant by Lewis Trondheim & Fabrice
Parme: Read review
Pantheon High by
Paul Benjamin, Steven Cummings, Megumi Cummings.
Green Arrow: The Sounds of Violence by
Kevin Smith & Phil Hester.
Green Arrow: Quiver by Kevin Smith & Phil
Hester.
Today I Will Fly and My Friend is Sad
by Mo Willems: Read
reviews
Water and Energy: Look for Youself from D.K. Publishing.
These kids' science titles are seriously cool
and filled with clever facts: like, one reason babies cry so much is that
their bodies are composed of a higher percentage of water, and so they
dehydrate much faster. Fascinating.
Read review
District and Circle: Poems by Seamus
Heaney: Read review
Ex Machina 5: Smoke Smoke
by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.
Boy Girl Boy by Ron Koertge.
This teen novel tells the story of three best
friends perched at the edge of high school graduation. For years, they’ve
planned and plotted to abandon their small hometown together, but as the
fateful date approaches, each one begins to wonder if there isn’t more to
life than
rejection and rebellion. Together, in rotating narration,
they tell a quick story about how sometimes growing up means staying put:
Read review
The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam
Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasr:
Read review
Beowulf a graphic novel adaptation by
Gareth Hinds: Read
review
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Volume 1 by
Sean McKeever & Takeshi Miyazawa.
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 1: Super Crush
by Sean McKeever & Takeshi Miyazawa.
Mary Jane 2: Homecoming Sean McKeever &
Takeshi Miyazawa.
Mary Jane 1: Circle of Friends by Sean
McKeever & Takeshi Miyazawa.
Sentinel 1: Salvage by Sean
McKeever & Udon.
March 2007
JLA: Year One by Mark Waid & Barry Kitson.
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Anderson's newest is written in a teen guy's
voice, and it follows the thread of adolescent guy-ness from her acclaimed
book Speak and Chris Lynch's excellent Inexcusable:
Read review
Pronouncing Shakespeare by David Crystal:
Read review
The 51% Minority: How Women Still Are Not Equal
and What You Can Do About It by Lis Wiehl.
Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom by Mike
Mignola.
Astronauts of the Future by Lewis Trondheim
& Manu Larcenet:
Read review
The Queen of Cool by Cecil Castellucci.
Acme Novelty Library #17 by Chris Ware.
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction by Mike
Mignola & John Byrne.
Feed by M. T. Anderson.
This is an outstanding dystopian novel for
teens and adults alike.
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo.
My Dead Girlfriend by Eric Wight.
Hidden Talents by David Lubar:
Read review
Charlotte in Giverny and Charlotte in
Paris by Jean McPhail Knight, illus. by Melissa Sweet:
Read review
Wolf
