The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
published March 2010 by Penguin
275 pages (hardcover), YA

Two peas in a pod, but now there's just one - Lennie's lost her older sister Bailey and is slowly spinning out of control. Bailey was the outgoing one, the vibrant spark, the actress, and the racehorse, and Lennie was happy to be at her side, inseparable, sharing stories and secrets. Who is Lennie supposed to be without Bailey? To say that this is a story about grief isn't enough. It's also about quirky families, falling in love at the most inconvenient time, and figuring out how to go on living when Bailey will not.

You have no idea how much restraint I'm displaying right now. I want to jump and shout "Best book ever!" all over the blogosphere and make everyone love this book as much as I did. But I am subdued because it was such an emotional book to read. Ecstatic and exquisite highs of first love and gut-wrenching, heartbreaking lows of loss and abandonment all at once. The writing was beautiful - I can turn to any page and find a quote-worthy passage. Here, I'll show you:

I start to think about all the things I haven't said since Bailey died, all the words stowed deep in my heart, in our orange bedroom, all the words in the whole world that aren't said after someone dies because they are too sad, too enraged, too devastated, too guilty, to come out--all of them begin to course inside me like a lunatic river. I suck in all the air I can, until there's probably no air left in Clover for anyone else, and then I blast it all out my clarinet in one mad bleating typhoon of a note. (p. 84)

Beautiful. But what really pulled me in was the first paragraph. This was when I decided that this book and I would have a long-lasting relationship...

Gram is worried about me. It's not just because my sister Bailey died four weeks ago, or because my mother hasn't contacted me in sixteen years, or even because suddenly all I think about is sex. She is worried about me because one of her houseplants has spots. (p. 1)

Did you giggle? If not, you may not love this book as much as I did. I'm just saying. Because it's not that the story is all that original. People die in books all the time. But the characters are unique, and their interactions are something special.

Joe Fontaine, who we meet in the second chapter, may be my second favorite character to Lennie. He has just moved back to Clover and is a "musical genius" (among other yummy things) who just so happens to be a little smitten with Lennie. Lennie! The same Lennie who eats her lunch up in a tree so she won't have to face the sea of sympathetic faces in the lunchroom, the Lennie who plays her clarinet half-heartedly even though it's obvious she can be a musical genius too, and the Lennie who walks around in a daze, every so often suddenly realizing the gravity of her life without Bailey. Who could like her? Their interactions keep this story from becoming a depressing sobfest. This over-the-top, let's-fall-madly-in-love-in-a-matter-of-days plot line might feel contrived, trying too hard to achieve a false balance, but when I think about times in my life when I've felt that deep, unending grief, I find that love was also magnified. We do try to reach some balance in our lives, as inappropriate as it might seem, and I'm happy for that authenticity in Nelson's writing.

I could go on and on about this book, but I'll save it for a second reading. Yep, you heard right, I'm buying this one, folks.Which makes this a five purple crayon book, one that will find a home on my sparse shelves along with other all-time favorites of mine. Goodness, how I loved it.

Reviewed elsewhere:
Holes in My Brain ; The Page Flipper ; Presenting Lenore ; Fantastic Book Review ; Tattooed Books ; etc.

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
published January 2010 by Simon & Schuster
454 pages (hardcover), YA

Hanna has issues. She's manic-depressive. She talks to her dead father. She's run away from home because she nearly killed her aunt. And now she's on her mother's doorstep, a mother who wants nothing to do with this teenage daughter of hers. Here we are in Portero, Texas, where the world is not quite the way it should be. Evil spirits more than just lurk; they are deadly. Portero is a portal to many other places and worlds, with hidden doors littering the entire town. Nothing is impossible in Portero. Odd as it may be, Hanna actually feels at home in this town that defies reality - mostly because it's weirder than she is. But Portero folk are not that accepting of outsiders, and Hanna must prove that she can fit in if she wants to stay with her aloof mother.

I love this book. I needed this book. I read it at exactly the right time - the weather finally turned chilly, I was curled up in bed ready for the kind of creepy, spooky book we all want to read this time of year.

Let me just say again that this is definitely a creepy, spooky book. Blood. Gore. Violence. Nudity. Sex. Drugs. Monsters. Just the kind of book I should be reading during Banned Books Week - but shhh, don't say I said so. It has that weird Going Bovine feel to it, where you're not quite sure if what you're reading is actually happening in the story or if it's just a hallucination trip, and it's creepy in that Girl, Interrupted way because people who are not quite mentally stable are apt to do unpredictable and very dangerous things. Add the likes of the City of Bones, with portals to other worlds and otherworldly creatures, and you've got most of the elements of this book.

But what I loved most was not the strange story or fantasy setting or troubled characters but instead the way they were seamlessly intertwined. There was no moment of suspending disbelief for me here; I just went with each twist and turn as if it was all normal. That's how much Ms. Reeves pulled me in from the start. Wow. Just wow.

There's not much else I can really say about this book. You'll love it or hate it. The story will grab you or repel you. I will say this, don't be fooled by its length. If you love it, you'll fly through it. I did not want to put it down! One late night and early morning later, and I was finished. Sad but sated.

Four purple crayons for the wow factor and fresh perspective.

Others said it better:
Book Gazing; Reading in Color; Bookworming in the 21st Century; read what you know; Presenting Lenore; Bloody Bookaholic; The Neverending Shelf; Pure Imagination

First grade wonders

I've been teaching first grade students the difference between fiction and nonfiction for the past couple weeks, and this week's lesson involved a reading of each type of story. It's no secret that I prefer fiction - I love made-up stories, especially fantasy, so I share that love often. But I may be doing things a little differently from now on.

Beware of the Frog by William Bee
published June 2008 by Candlewick
48 pages (hardcover), picture book

Sweet little old lady, Mrs. Collywobbles, is afraid of the "big, dark, scary wood" near her house - but luckily, she has her pet frog to keep her safe. Monsters leave the forest en route to Mrs. Collywobbles house (goblin, troll, ogre) but are gobbled up by her pet frog before they can make any trouble. In a surprising twist of events, Mrs. Collywobbles gives her pet frog a little kiss of gratitude and is transformed into a frog herself! Whatever will she do?

The kids loved this book - all three classes of first grade students ended this story with a chorus of "Read it again!" Of course it helped that I love this book and used all kinds of creepy, scary voices for the monsters. It was good choice for the fiction side of things because although little old ladies may have pet frogs, 1. their frogs don't eat monsters and 2. humans can't change into frogs. This was an easy concept for some students to grasp - others alluded to The Princess and the Frog, and I had to remind them that that was a made-up story too. But all in all, they were pretty good about telling each other why this book was fiction.

Frog by Moira Butterfield
published October 1991 by Simon & Schuster
24 pages (hardcover), children's nonfiction

Frog is the story of the life of a frog, from egg to tadpole to full-grown frog. Each page has a single sentence with clear illustrations. It's a small book. It's simple. It's easy to understand.

And the students were mesmerized. I read each word slowly and fanned the book to show the illustrations. Not a peep from the children. They were leaning forward, completely captivated by what I was showing them, which totally shocked and confused me. It was so quiet in the library that when I finished the book, I used my whisper voice and asked if this was fiction or nonfiction and why. Students raised their hands and gave articulate responses. Well, knock me over with a feather! I'm only surprised because the previous story brought out the silliness in students and this one sobered them up so quickly. Bad librarian for being so biased! Nonfiction is interesting to the little ones, so I've witnessed. I'll have to bring more of it to my library lessons.