The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas by David Almond, Oliver Jeffers (Illustrations)

"Would you like my lads to see who is tooting' their hooter and put it to a halt?" asks Clarence P. Clapp regarding a car that is honking its horn at an "ossifer." Clarence is the king of malapropisms, mispronunciations, and misspellings in this goofy story by David Almond. While it nods it head at the great Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky using some literary techniques found in his works and even naming one of the characters after him, it is Almond's own creation with childlike and satirical human behavior. My brain kept trying to pull out fragments of Dostoyevsky's novel, The Brothers Karamzov, that I read decades ago. I repeat, decades. I have a fuzzy recall of Dostoyevsky using malapropisms and having an intrusive narrator that enhances the theme of truth just like Almond has an omniscient narrator that enhances the theme of choosing your own destiny to the point that the reader chooses the villain's ending, but I might be wrong. The unfinished ending that tells the reader to choose the villain's resolution might frustrate some readers and I've read a few reviews on Goodreads that express this exact disappointment, but personally, I thought it was funny and figured, of course, the daft Clapp who is full of crap would jump in with the piranhas. I'd eat him if I was a piranha. But what will students think of all the metaphorical silliness? That's the question I'm not sure how to answer. It might be just a bit too weird for them. Or they'll laugh their heads off.

Stanley Potts has quit school to help his uncle Ernie with his new business venture of canning fish. When his aunt gives Stanley money for his birthday and the day off he goes to the carnival and buys some goldfish that sets off a series of events leading to him running away from home. He works for the carnival goldfish stall run by the man, Dostoyevsky, and his daughter, Nitasha, where Stanley changes them into regarding the goldfish as something special and seeing the world as having possibilities. He gives them hope, which in turn, gives them joy. When Pancho Pirelli, the famous man who swims with the piranhas decides to take Stanley on as an apprentice, Stanley decides to forge his own identity and do what brings him happiness.

The many points of view give different messages and themes such as growing up, taking risks, dealing with nasty people, becoming independent, getting a first job, finding your identity, reinventing yourself, finding your special talent, finding something that makes you happy, creating your own history, and discovering the possibilities in life - to name a few. The silly, nonsensical Clarence P. Clapp is great satire on the theme that extreme behavior even when representing good or the law, as in Clapp's occupation, can be bad. Extremist views can justify actions that cross the line of justice to persecution and Clapp seems to show this at the end. He's destroyed Ernie's business but continues to zealously attack Stanley Potts and his family.  He's so convinced of his righteousness that he will swim with the piranhas because he thinks he understands them versus representing their ruthless feeding side more than anything else. Perhaps Stanley will save Clapp as he has saved so many people in the story.

At first I thought Gypsy Rose was going to follow the cliched, stereotypical path of the greedy gypsy, but she not only foreshadows Stanley's future, she philosophically tells him to pursue his heart's desires, forgive those who make mistakes, and to not be afraid. She uses a beam of moonlight as a means of payment and what started out as a minor character I wasn't sure about was one that became interesting as the story progressed. Come to think of it, I didn't like Dostoyevsky at first either. Many characters come across as cartoonish at first and get more interesting as the plot unfolds.

This book is very artistic and as a librarian with decades of reading literature, I appreciate what David Almond does in this tale. I don't know if young readers will delight in it. Is it too weird? Is the character too unapproachable? I admire Almond's piece of work and the risk he takes creating something quite different from the norm. There are many factors that prevent authors in general from pushing boundaries whether in children's literature or elsewhere. I had a conversation with my dad, an architect, who talked about how difficult it was for him to take risks with building designs because of potential client loss. To teach the value of making mistakes is not a part of the cultural norm. And what if the mistake costs oodles of money? Is this book a mistake, you ask? I don't think so. The nice thing about Almond is he has a strong following and can take risks. Okay. Enough musings. Oliver Jeffers illustrations and their understated simplicity complement the text quite well and add to the humor. Children's literature needs these type of books, but this one might need explaining by teachers to young readers.  Decide for yourself. Obviously, I can't.

5 Smileys

The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkinson

Deborah Hopkinson knows how to pass on interesting historical facts. While I've read her nonfiction books, this is the first fiction book of hers that I've read and I'm not surprised that I found the story lacking a bit in character development, but full of great facts. Hopkinson presents an interesting study of how an epidemic spreads throughout a community as a medical professional, with the assistant of an orphan, studies patterns and causes in an effort to determine the origin of a disease.

Eel is an orphan in 1854 London who has gotten a job at the Lion Brewey, a lucky break that pulls him away from full-time mudlarking, a type of scavenging for junk from the Thames river to sell to traders. Eel has a secret and must make more money than the average mudlarker. When his stable job is threatened and the townspeople around the Broad Street Water pump get sick with cholera, Eel finds himself helping Dr. John Snow a man who believes previous theories of the disease being air-borne as incorrect. Eel isn't sure he can help Dr. Snow prove his theory but he is willing to help him.

Eel begins the story with a heavy accent while talking to Jake. This gets lost later in the story and he sounds more educated as the story goes on, especially at the end with Dr. Snow who is trying to teach him to think like a scientist in regards to the patterns of cholera in the neighborhood. I thought that perhaps knowing the source of cholera would take too much tension out of the story, but it is more about solving where the original source of the contamination occurred and the process for mapping it out.

The subplot with Eel and his mysterious money was predictable and didn't interest me as much as the main story. It adds to the story as a whole and is necessary but I thought it was too predictable and I wasn't vested in those characters as much as the process for figuring out the disease. I have always found epidemiology fascinating and the manner in which scientists determine what causes an outbreak and its source is a bit of a mystery. This story helps give a glimpse of evidence-based decisions in medicine that lead to improved public health. Normally I am drawn to a story by the characters rather than the nonfiction elements, but that was not the case here.

3 Smileys

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Vampirism as an epidemic. An interesting premise that doesn't quite work in Holly Black's latest book. Tana wakes up after passing out at a party to find everyone violently murdered by vampires. They missed her because she was behind the shower curtain in the bathtub. When she finds her ex-boyfriend, Aiden, and a vampire, Gavriel, chained in a room, she helps them escape as the vampires return to the crime scene. If you are looking for light entertainment with not many plot twists, fair world-building, and a vampire love story then you'll enjoy this one. The gory, violent start grabbed my attention with a main character who seemed unhinged because of her guilt over causing the death of her vampire mother as a young girl; however, the story sputters later in the novel and doesn't come together in a satisfying way for me.

Tana was scratched by a vampire along with Aiden who was bitten at the party. After their escape, they traveled to Coldtown knowing their vampire symptoms would show in 48 hours. Coldtowns were cities where vampires and humans were trapped and quarantined after an outbreak of newly turned vampires infecting too many humans as a result of the side effect of crazed bloodlust. Outside the cities vampires were hunted and killed, but inside they were left alone. Coldtowns showed how vampires and humans lived side-by-side glamorizing the immortal life of vampires and broadcasting to the world lavish vampire parties and decadent lifestyles. Daily deaths were common in these towns and not broadcast with the vampire as predator and the human as prey. The Coldtowns were supposed to keep vampires and people from leaving but Lucien's gang managed to leave and return. Humans could leave with a marker but that was a rare occurrence and not always honored by authorities.

Tana knew that if infected by her scratch at the party, she and Aiden had another chance to not become vampires by spending 88 dangerous days dealing with the infection quarantined in Coldtown.  No cops or bounty hunters would come looking for them and she wouldn't put her dad and sister at risk of getting infected. Also, the success of this method was not guaranteed. Tana, Aidan, and Gavriel picked up two humans who wanted to become vampires in Coldtown. The one girl was addicted to her celebrity online status and was choosing to be a vampire for all the wrong reasons. Her twin brother questioned the intelligence of their actions but followed her anyway.  They represented those who found the thought of being immortal tantalizing and basked in the glow of an online presence that gave them an identity. Tana's younger sister was lured by the Coldtown glamor while their father thought of vampires as monsters, no longer human. When Tana got there she found that the humans were easy prey for the vampires and it was difficult to survive at the bottom of the food chain. She did find good people in Jameson and Valentina who became trapped when the quarantine happened, but they are the exceptions not the rule.

The world-building explained the Coldtowns and politics of vampires, but human prejudices toward vampires and vice versa could have been clearer. Tana valued her humanity above all else and the overarching message of "is a vampire human" and according to Tana, yes, got muddied at the end of the story.  Gavriel was attracted to Tana because she saved him and showed kindness, while her fatal attraction was tied in with the guilt of causing her mother's death and being bitten once. Tana's father was the character most prejudiced against vampires seeing them as monsters but his point of view wasn't explored in-depth. Instead he seemed to be in denial over the horror of how he protected their family. At the end when Tana started acting more like a vampire who kills, versus a human the overarching message of being prejudiced against those who are different was lost. When Tana setup a camera at the end, I thought she was really out of character reminding me of Midnight and Lucien who were into the celebrity status. Yes, she was also trying to show how to detox her vampire poisoning or whatever you want to call it, but someone had already done that on the Internet so wasn't she showing the same self-narcissism the others showed? The whole "you are now famous," for killing a vampire seemed contradictory to what she represented as a human being. Then throw in the lack of remorse when killing other vampires and she seemed like the monster or more like her father.

Holly Black has written many novels and is skilled at the craft. I thought the book was interesting until everyone went their separate ways in Coldtown. That's when the plot weakened for me and the love story didn't quite work. Gavriel was an ancient vampire and up to that point Tana kept surprising him by being unpredictable. When Tana's motivation became to save her sister it pulled the story away from Gavriel and Tana's romance creating two story lines that weren't as interesting as Tana's self-destructive behaviors found in the beginning. Or perhaps too many characters started to dilute the main and secondary ones. I wasn't particularly interested in Valentina and Jameson although I understand they were supposed to represent "good" people in a dystopian society. I would have preferred the annoying Aiden getting more page time.

I struggled with this book's use of flashbacks to give the back story of vampires. Flashbacks interrupt the narrative and I have a personal dislike for most that I come across. This is more personal taste and they have to be really well done for me to not skim. I tend to feel annoyed because something exciting was happening in the plot and blammo, I'm back hearing some ancient vampire history. Then I buzz through the chapter to get back to the action and miss some crucial detail that would fill in the gaps of the world-building because of my impatience. I say this because I might have done that with this book and that is why I wasn't sure how Lucien's minions got out and perhaps I misinterpreted the overarching theme. I should read it again but it just didn't sustain my interest enough.

2 Smileys

Zebra Forest by Adina Rishe Gewirtz

This is not an action-stuffed animal, but instead a thought-provoking drama that would make for good discussions with grades 5 and up. When an escaped convict flees to Annie, Rew, and Gran's house taking the family hostage, the threesome examine their lives, the definition of a criminal, and making ethical choices. What at first seems black and white to Annie and Rew's childlike view, becomes fuzzy as they get to know the convict and his history. Unsure what to do with their new knowledge, Annie and Rew must decide what is the right thing to do and in the process grow up and mature quickly.

Eleven-year-old Annie is a well-developed character as the story is told from her first person point of view. While her internal changes and struggles are clear, Rew and Gran suffer a bit more in the tale. Gran seems to be suffering from depression and while Dad and daughter discuss if she's broken and do not think so, I thought her grief from losing her husband and the trauma of her son's situation meant she needed some counseling and/or medication. She was a mess. Rew suffers from anger issues, and while Annie reminds the reader of it, he seemed to be slamming his bedroom door repetitively. The climax shows him being transformed by an incident in a way that clarifies the extreme stubbornness.

When the convict escapes from the jail by their house and takes them hostage, the three know he is a murderer. As Annie learns his story over a period of time, her view of him changes from one that is "bad" to one that has "made a mistake." She finds that her hate has turned to empathy and she isn't sure she likes it. While the circumstances surrounding the randomness of the convict happening to find their house stretches the imagination, not to mention that it contradicts Gran's attempt to erase their existence to the point a lawyer can't find them, it is necessary for the plot to move forward. While a bit weak in plot structure, the strong character development makes up for it.  

The chapters are short and the book is roughly 200 pages. while I wasn't convinced that the girl wouldn't tell someone in the beginning about the convict, I was convinced later on as she learned the convict's story. The author addresses this by her worrying that the family would get shot like the hostages in Iran. The parallels between Rew and Annie's situation and the pirates in "Treasure Island" was an interesting touch in showing how the two cope with anger and neglectful adults. Annie is self-reliant and forced to be more grown-up than most children her age. She talks about how her Gran as being an excellent liar and not being so bad at it herself. She lies to the social worker because she doesn't want to be separated from her family and makes the best of her situation. More importantly, she learns the importance of facing problems, acceptance, and forgiving mistakes in others.

4 Smileys

The Boy On The Porch by Sharon Creech

This beautifully written book reads like an adult short story. The child, Jacob, in the story is mute and the point-of-view comes strictly from the adults. Jacob plays, draws, and interacts with the people and animals, but he never speaks out loud. It reminds me of the book, "The Prince Who Fell from the Sky," that has a boy who has no dialogue in the story. This technique makes me identify with the adult voice and seems off-kilter for the target audience of children. I liked the adult perspective on the uncertainties of being a parent, but will young readers connect with the characters and plot? I'm not sure. The pacing might be slow for some young readers, but oh-my, I do like how Sharon Creech puts sentences together. Just as Jacob taps out songs and sounds on any object he can find, Creech has a rhythm to her sentences that makes me want to sing. My only question is the audience and what students will think of the book.

John and Marta find a six or seven-year old boy, Jacob, abandoned on their porch with a note asking them to look after him. The note says the person will come back and get him, but as time passes it seems very unlikely. Because Jacob can't speak, John and Marta cannot find out any information from him about his past and who wrote the note. Months go by and they come to love the boy like their own child making them fearful of him being taken back and marring their happiness as a family. A nice message regarding what makes a family.

This story is about the transformation of John and Marta from a childless couple to learning what it means to love and care for a young boy. John is worried Jacob isn't boyish enough while Marta worries about him not having friends. They nurture his talent for music and painting and do not bully or criticize him. In return, he loves them unconditionally. The two struggle with telling the authorities about the lost boy because they don't really want him to be found by the person who left the note. They eventually do the right thing, but almost lose the boy over their choice. Creech shows how their decision was from a good heart, even if misguided. The story also shows the lack of laws in place to protect children from parents who don't know how to parent. In this regard, it might be a good book for a book club with grade 5 students. The story is only 150 pages so it is a quick read. The plot is well organized and the tension from wondering when or if the parents will come back for the boy kept me turning the pages. Like I said, I just don't know if students will take interest.

4 Smileys

The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes

A second grade teacher was asking for book recommendations that she could read out loud with her first grade son. I can't wait to put this one in her hands. It enters an age range of books that is oh-so-hard to find in elementary libraries. Picture books. Check. Early readers. Check. Transitional readers. Ummm... half a check. And boy protagonists? A fourth a check. "The Stories Julian Tells" comes to mind, along with "The No. 1 Car Spotter," and the Roscoe Riley series, but honest-to-Pete there are not a ton of choices. I usually feel relieved when the child moves on to the next level in reading fluency because I know I'm running low on recommendations. This must be a difficult age range to write for as an adult, especially creating an authentic character. The author needs to capture the emotional development of a child who is just beginning to recognize his or her individuality and attempt to learn self-control while adapting to other adult ideas of behavior. Henkes not only encapsulates Billy's 7-8 year-old age range, but he shows Billy's three-year-old sister as dealing with parent separation anxiety, tantrums, and sibling issues. I highly recommend this well-written book.

Billy is worried about going to second grade especially when he overhears his mom express her concern over a fall he took that gave him a concussion. When school starts he has problems dealing with his classmate, Emma. As their confrontation escalates he makes an inappropriate gesture at the teacher and tries to fix it by being kind. He's learning what it means to behave toward others and how he fits in the classroom community as an individual. At home Billy realizes that his father isn't happy and knows it has to do with being an artist but doesn't really understand why until he makes a diorama for a class project. Unhappy with his project, he realizes that his dad feels the same way about his artwork. He doesn't express it this way but tells his dad what a great artist he is and asks him to make some dioramas because he liked them. One difficulty in creating a young protagonist is that they can't sound like an adult and Henkes does a terrific job showing Billy's growth that reflects his immature age.

Kids are trying to gain confidence at this age and the adults in the story nurture and help Billy in his growth of understanding himself as a person. As he thinks about growing up and being older he decides that he will no longer call his dad, "papa," and mom, "mama," because of peers teasing him and wanting to sound older. His sister annoys him much of the time and he likes to act superior to her, but when she tries to stay up all night with him, he decides she is not so bad. He even recognizes that she needs his pearl because she believes it is magic. He knows that it isn't magic and that he doesn't need it like she does, although when he has to go speak in front of a microphone he borrows it for confidence. He also likes to say "mama" and "papa" once in a while. This back-and-forth between acting older and younger makes for an authentic protagonist.

Two items stood out for me and please think of them as observations rather than criticisms. If I had a book club, I'd discuss my first question with them. Or I'd bring it up to get their experiences. They might look at me cross-eyed or agree. Who knows? I thought Billy's sister would have a tantrum when Billy asked for the pearl back and that their mom would have to interfere because of a fight but that doesn't happen. His sister just gives it back because she knows it is Billy's toy. Most three-year-olds I've dealt with have no clue how to share and express emotions physically. Billy's sister doesn't seem to represent the norm that I've dealt with, but I have not spent a lot of time around three-year-olds as of late. It doesn't take away from the story, I'm just curious if anyone else had similar thoughts. The other question I had concerned the poetry unit Billy was doing in grade 2 where the teacher was doing free verse, Limericks, and Haiku. My experience is that this unit is too advanced for that age in general. I know in first grade students only learn to read poetry, not write it. Second grade would just be learning to write it and the unit would be simpler. When Billy wrote his poem it was age appropriate and beautiful in its simplicity so in all fairness even if I'm right the unit is just a minor thing that makes no difference in the end.

The writing is beautiful and Henkes creates a mood and imaginative world that comes to life. He shows how young kids worry about things quite different than adults through the eyes of Billy. When we meet the dolls called, "The Drop Sisters," that Billy's sister has to have seats for at a restaurant, we are reminded of the imaginative play of toddlers that is so real to them. In the chapter where Billy invents a dragon called, "Coughdrop," that coughs when answering "The Drop Sisters" it is brilliant. Billy starts out the chapter annoyed with his sister who is having a tantrum and ends with a fun imaginative playdate late in the evening in his sister's bedroom.  Billy feels comforted by his sister's presence considering there is a monster under his bed. A gorgeous book.

5 Smileys

The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell

A student asked me to read this and while I can see why she liked it with the romance and adventure, I know I won't remember it a few months from now. The lack of characters changing internally and missing background knowledge for the setting made parts confusing.  My imagined characters kept changing as details slowly leaked out of the storyline. At times not enough information was given and at other times the details were rushed when the author should have zoomed in on an important point. The mish-mash of myths, fairy tales, and folklore made for an interesting combination but in the end failed to rise above the pitfalls of pacing and background set-up.

Reveka is the daughter of a gardener at the castle where there is a curse on the Prince's daughters, the twelve princesses, who have to dance each night until they have holes in their shoes. The Prince has offered a reward to anyone who can break the spell, but people who try to save them either fall into an enchanted sleep or disappear. Reveka is apprenticed to a monk and studies herbs. She's trying to break the curse because she wants the reward to establish her own herbary and further study it as a career. With the help of another herb apprentice, Didina, they uncover clues that leads Reveka into the Underworld where she must make a choice to save those she loves.

The plot. Where to start? Not enough information was given up front resulting in too much confusion. The beginning has a barrage of princesses and princes and one with a "tavern wench accent." I am going to give some spoilers but I think they will help in understanding what is going on; otherwise it isn't really clear until the very end of the book. The princesses are not sisters but half-sisters. I think the prince slept with someone in a local tavern, but how the heck they ended up in the castle and what mom thought about it is not explained. And mom is called, the Princess Consort. I know some students will be confused by that not being familiar with the term. I think the Princess Consort should have been used more to give background details as to the history of the royal family. As is, I felt like I was piecing together a quilt but missing half the pieces. Many things did not make sense.

My confusion continued with the introduction of the cowherd boy Reveka's age who is described as having "forget-me-not-eyes" and a "rosebud mouth." He sounds like a child or girl by that description. My image of him was way off and I had to go back and reread to figure out his age. At times the dialogue was awkward and I wasn't sure who was whom such as when Didina appears in the book. I thought she was a princess at first. The sleepers are poorly explained and I misread it as being two people. There were many sleepers and I needed more of an explanation of how they got there and what the tower looked like visually. The plot is moved forward with Reveka having dreams but they seemed clumsy and just an easy way out rather than a clever plot technique. Or maybe I'm just tired of that device. Or maybe it was overused in this story. Then when Pa goes from gardener to soldier I was really confused. Not to mention the whole convent, lying, no mother backdrop that was not clearly presented.

There are two separate stories, the first a fairy tale and the second a myth. I found the second story more interesting than the first which follows the fairy tale too closely. I thought the second was going to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but the author varies it enough that it is different from the classic. The characters don't really change much internally and while the villain becomes slightly more complex in the second half the tension is lost on him being scary. Nor is enough of his background explained as to how he became Lord of the Underworld. The author keeps the tension up by throwing in "darkness" as the new villain. However, this wasn't enough to give the characters depth. Their motivations are never fully explained from their past and the ending just seemed rushed. Not enough teasers are given nor was I vested in the characters enough to be interested in reading a sequel. In the end, this just didn't reach its potential.

2 Smileys