nonfiction

“Diary entries, letters and first-person accounts from
secondary characters add depth and sophistication to the tale,
letting readers figure out for themselves what really happened.”
from mister death’s blue-eyed girls
learn to control his anger and balance his desires for peace and
war. And stick figures aren’t good with themes. Their little dotted
eyes can convey only so much emotion. The nuances might
come through if Ford slowed down the action from time to
time. There’s a late scene where two characters, sailing a warship
across the ocean, just stop and talk about their love lives.
It’s a touching moment, one of the few in the book. Thrilling as
the story is, when Zozimos says, “There’s always another adventure!”
it begins to sound like a bit of a threat.
The jokes are funnier than in volume one, but readers
may wish there were more space between them. (Graphic
adventure. 11-14)
THE HUNT
Fukuda, Andrew
St. Martin’s Griffin (304 pp.)
$17.99 | May 1, 2012
978-1-250-00514-4
If the world is full of vampires, how
do the humans survive
Gene’s a heper: one of the disgusting
endangered species that sweats, can’t
see in the dark and don’t have fangs. He’s
lived this long by disguising himself as a
real person, never smiling or laughing or napping where he can
be seen; gobbling bloody raw meat with his classmates; showing
a stoic, expressionless face at all times. Appearing emotionless
is trickier than usual when the nation announces a Heper Hunt.
Every citizen of the nation will be entered into a lottery, and a
lucky few will be selected to hunt the last remaining hepers to
the death. When Gene is selected (of course Gene is selected),
he’s terrified: Training with the other lottery winners at the
Heper Institute, he’ll have no opportunity to scrub off the
sweat, body hair, plaque and other evidence of his vile human
nature. If the vampires realize there is a human among them,
he’ll be torn to pieces before he can blink. Luckily, Gene seems
to have an unlikely ally at the Institute: Ashley June, a classmate
of his who has secrets of her own. While the worldbuilding is
thin and frequently nonsensical, this grotesque and bloody construction
of a vampire world will appeal to readers who’ve been
craving gore over romance with their vampires. Perhaps the
sequel will bring the illogical parts together.
An attempted twist on The Hunger Games. (Paranormal adventure.
13-15)
NOW
Gleitzman, Morris
Henry Holt (192 pp.)
$16.99 | Jun. 5, 2012
978-0-8050-9378-0
Once and Then (2010, 2011) blend into
Now in today’s Australia as Dr. Felix
Salinger, 80, relates his childhood and
shows his present to his 11-year-old
granddaughter, narrator Zelda.
What occurs in their todays smoothly
links the old story of Felix’s horrific childhood
in Nazi-controlled Poland with sometimes-happy, sometimes-unpleasant
events in a small bush town. The girl is staying
with Felix because her physician parents are in Darfur to help its
people through a modern genocidal catastrophe. Local girls bully
Zelda in the opening scene, and readers should be shocked and
frightened by this experience. When Felix meets the bullies, in
his anger he says, “Don’t you know anything”—a sharp echo of
the very young Zelda of decades ago. Today’s Zelda is named for
her, but it is a weight, since the girl of the present feels she cannot
live up to that other, long-dead girl, hanged by the Germans
for an act of defiance that allowed Felix to escape the noose. A
bush fire of horrendous size, fury and speed tests the mettle of
the two, and Gleitzman’s description of it is brilliant in its realism.
Readers of the first two books will recognize a great deal, and
those who have not should read them to gain a fuller picture of
the years before and those in which we live.
A fine, taut novel full of understanding. (author’s note)
(Historical fiction. 9-12)
DOG IN CHARGE
Going, K.L.
Illus. by Santat, Dan
Dial (40 pp.)
$16.99 | May 10, 2012
978-0-8037-3479-1
Printz Honor–winner Going turns
from teens and preteens to preschoolers
in her picture-book debut.
When his family goes shopping, a much-loved bulldog is told,
“‘Watch the cats, and make sure they don’t get in any mischief.’”
Uh-oh: Five cats rapidly wreak havoc, spilling milk, breaking
flowerpots and toppling books. Dog, exhausted from chasing
the elusive, wily felines, gets into some mischief himself: The bag
of cat treats he’d intended to use to induce good kitty behavior
proves just too tempting. After he devours it and falls asleep on
the messy kitchen floor, the cats team up to tidy the joint, room
by room, and the family arrives home none the wiser. Going’s
text is deadpan: Her Dog means well in attempting to apply to
the willful cats the same sort of reward-oriented discipline that
guides his life. Santat’s kid-pleasing pictures, with frequent inset
panels, thought bubbles and plenty of visual play-by-play, evoke
children’s animated cartoons. (He created Disney’s TV cartoon
The Replacements.) Some 50 depictions of Dog (excluding funny
endpapers that showcase a dozen of his most evocative facial
expressions), convey the temporary chaos broadly yet thoroughly.
Dog’s bewilderment at his returning owner’s praise morphs into
a look of rapt delight as five treats come his way: doggily spot-on.
A rollicking romp. (Picture book. 3-6)
CATTY JANE WHO
HATED THE RAIN
Gorbachev, Valeri
Illus. by Gorbachev, Valeri
Boyds Mills (32 pp.)
$16.95 | Jun. 1, 2012
978-1-59078-700-7
Is there anything good about a rainy day
Catty Jane hates the rain. She thinks
nothing will cheer her up once it starts raining. Mama offers
to read her a book, to play a game with her... Mama even offers
fresh-baked cookies! Nothing makes Catty Jane smile. Her
friends Piggy, Froggy and Goose all tell her what they love
about the rain. Piggy loves her bright umbrella. Froggy loves
the raindrops splashing in the river. Goose is not even afraid
of thunderstorms! Catty Jane remains adamant in her dislike
of downpours... especially when there is thunder and lightning.
Only a party with cookies, music and dancing takes her
mind off the storm until the sun comes out. She still hates getting
wet, but she loves a party! Gorbachev’s signature scratchy
watercolor-and-ink style is ideal for depicting a gray, rainy day.
Jane and all her animal buddies are wide-eyed and expressive,
making this tale of dislikes and fear appealingly friendly. Even
the most dedicated hater of drippy days will be cheered by the
concerted efforts of Catty Jane’s coterie of friends.
A good remedy for those rainy-day blues. (Picture book. 3-8)
REUNITED
Graham, Hilary Weisman
Simon & Schuster (336 pp.)
$16.99 | Jun. 12, 2012
978-1-4424-3984-9
Estranged best friends take a road
trip to see a band concert at the end of
senior year in a tired plot that fulfills all
the promises of improbable events with
the heart-warming ending readers have
come to expect.
The car, a 1976 pea-green VW camper van that used to be a
clubhouse in Alice’s backyard provides the means, with nerdy,
organized Alice the glue to hold together bad-girl Tiernan and
little-miss-popular Summer. The former friends, who used to call
themselves A-Plus, Sunny-D and T-Bird, are making one last go
of it. Their trip from Walford, Mass., to Austin, Texas, is characterized,
predictably, by madcap adventures and valuable discoveries—about
Tiernan’s mother and Summer’s boyfriend—as well
as romance for Alice. This is light fare with plenty of bickering
and possibilities for romantic entanglements. Between chapters,
readers find the fictional band’s song lyrics, which are hysterically
pretentious. The book won one of two 2011 Book Launch Awards
from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Road-trip fans won’t find this remarkably original, but
it does satisfy all the typical requirements of the genre. (Fiction.
12 & up)
MISTER DEATH’S
BLUE-EYED GIRLS
Hahn, Mary Downing
Clarion (336 pp.)
$16.99 | Apr. 17, 2012
978-0-547-76062-9
The high-school year is almost over,
there’s a party in the park and Mister
Death will soon be there, rifle in hand.
It’s June 1956, and the kids in the
park are dancing to Fats Domino, Chuck
Berry, Little Richard and the Platters. Mister Death is there
too, a boy in a tree, rifle in hand. Two girls, Cheryl and Bobbi Jo,
never make it to school the next day, their bloody bodies found
in the park where they were shot. Hahn’s well-constructed story
traces the effects of a crime on everyone involved, including
Buddy Novak, accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Multiple
perspectives offer readers a chance to view the crime from various
angles. A third-person narration follows the machinations
of Mister Death, while a first-person voice is perfect for developing
narrator Nora Cunningham’s character, a 16-year-old girl
full of questions and doubts, and who ultimately doesn’t believe
the gossip mill that pins the blame on Buddy. Diary entries, letters
and first-person accounts from secondary characters add
depth and sophistication to the tale, letting readers figure out
for themselves what really happened.
An engrossing exploration of how a murder affects a
community. (Historical thriller. 12 & up)
SO, YOU WANT TO
BE A WRITER
How to Write, Get
Published, and
Maybe Even Make It Big!
Hambleton, Vicki & Greenwood, Cathleen
Beyond Words/Simon Pulse/Simon &
Schuster (192 pp.)
$16.99 | paper $9.99 | May 1, 2012
978-1-58270-359-6
978-1-58270-353-4 paperback
Soup-to-nuts overview on all aspects of developing a writing
career, from picking a genre to publicizing a finished work.
The thing that sets Hambleton and Greenwood’s upbeat howto
for aspiring young scribblers apart is its myriad interviews, not
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