Sarah Bagby's book
reviews can be heard on alternate Mondays on KMUW 89.1. Here's a transcript
of her most recent review. To listen, go to:
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-659119.mp3
"Someday This Pain
Will Be Useful to You" by Peter Cameron (Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
9780374309893, $16.00)
"The Absolutely True
Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie (Little Brown Books for Young
Readers, 9780316013680, $16.99)
One recent trend in publishing is for established novelists to begin writing
books for young adults. The line separating books for younger readers from
those for adults has blurred.
Two new teen novels have done away with that line altogether.
Peter Cameron’s new book, "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You," is a
"Catcher in the Rye" for the 21st century. Working at his mother’s Chelsea
Gallery the summer before college, James Seuck is overwhelmed by the thought
of spending four more years with callous youths his own age. The nuanced
story of how he takes the plunge into adulthood is filled with succinct
details illustrating the adolescence of our age.
"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie has just
won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. It is the story
of a young Native American boy who leaves the reservation to attend a white
high school in Spokane, Washington. With incredible pathos and dark humor,
Arnold Spirit maneuvers between science classes, basketball games and
traditional funerals as he experiences the wrenching pull of two clashing
ways of life.
Sample what young people are reading today and you will find some of the
year’s best books.
Review by
Sarah Bagby, December 27, 2007
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