I am a confirmed young adult book reader. These books, produced for the most demanding audience in the world, generate a marvelous literature. Young adults will stop instantaneously if the plot doesn't move, if the characters aren't interesting, and if the ideas compelling. The saddest thing about this amazing genre of books is that there are thousands published every year and young adults rarely read them. Last year I had a great time recommending books to my eighth grade son and now that he's entering high school, I notice that not one young adult novel appears on his reading list. If you're fortunate enough to have a young adult reader who has reading choices, here are some authors and their new books that I highly recommend.
Phillip Pullman has begun a new fantasy trilogy with The Golden Compass (Knopf, $16.00; ages 12 and up), a book that's been selling well to both child and adult readers. The story takes place on an alternate earth in a time that seems similar to the late 19th century. In this world, science and magic vie for power and each human possesses a daemon, a being in animal form who is powerfully linked with its owner. The main character is Lyra, an innocent, who is determined to rescue children who have been snatched for mysterious scientific purposes. She also wants to free her father from a race of warrior polar bears, and discover her place in the world. The story's cast is varied, but always fascinating; witches, poor folk with rich hearts, and protective academics. Pullman unites adventure, philosophy, scientific inquiry, and magic in ways that are fresh and thought-provoking.
Ruth White writes of life in the "hollers" of the Appalachians and her novels deliver powerful characters, intriguing plots, and great writing. Her newest, Belle Prater's Boy (FSG, $16.00; ages 12 and up) begins "Around 5:00 a.m. on a warm Sunday morning in October 1953, my Aunt Belle left her bed and vanished from the face of the earth." The mystery pervades the pages of the book that tell of the relationship of Belle's son, Woodrow and his cousin, the main character, Gypsy. Woodrow has grown up poor and unappealing in physical appearance. His cousin, Gypsy, is noted for her beauty, but wishes she'd be seen for who she really is, not what she looks like. The two are united largely because of their intelligence, wit, and good humor, but, on a deeper level because both keep unspoken secrets. Gypsy has hidden from herself the horrors of her father's suicide and Woodrow keeps to himself his thoughts about his mother's disappearance. The book creates an air of mystery as Gypsy and Woodrow untangle of the difference between appearance and the genuine. They struggle to find those genuine places within themselves in the context of seeing how their parents have been controlled by facade, rather than truths.
John Morressy's The Juggler (Henry Holt, $16.95; ages 11 and up) is a book for a thoughtful reader. The startling beginning tells of an astounding juggler from the Middle Ages who loses a hand by the command of a cruel and unjust count . This juggler goes on his way and seems curiously unaffected. Then Morressy dives into the story, going back to fill in the strange picture he's drawn. We begin to know Beran, who has loved juggling since boyhood. In his pursuit of juggling excellence, he trades his soul with the Devil and is happy for many years traveling through his medieval world, pleasing those by being the best juggler in the world. When he's caught in the web of the consequences arising from his action, he is plunged in Faustian struggles that led him to understand love, belief, guilt, and salvation.
Nathan Burns, the hero of Steven Schnur's Beyond Providence (HBJ, $6.00; ages 12 and up), loves his farm life despite the fact his father is surly to the point of cruelty, his brother is openly rebelling, and his mother has drowned while fleeing the unhappiness of her life. Then Nathan's thirty-one year old cousin Kitty comes to care for the house and family. She is like an oasis in an emotionally barren desert and nurtures Nathan until he heals. Without Kitty there would be no story, for she is a woman who is comfortable with herself, compassionate towards those around her, and wise about the ways of people. Nathan learns much about love from Kitty. The theme of love predominates. People hurt those they love, search for love; sacrifice for things they love; and spurn and then rediscover love. The theme, however, never gets in the way of story, for events build and characters grow in a way that will engross young readers.
In her first novella, Ariadne Awake!, Doris Orgel breathed new life into the myth of Theseus. Now, in The Princess and the God (Orchard Books, $15.95; ages 12 and up), she fleshes out the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Both stories, true to their origins have some strongly suggestive sexual scenes, so are recommended for older readers. In The Princess, Orgel fills in the blanks of the sketchy myth by allowing us to see through Psyche's eyes. She is beautiful and through no fault of her own is worshipped by her people as a goddess, and infuriates Venus. Inside Psyche is miserable, for she detests being loved for her looks alone and hungers for a fulfilling relationship. While Orgel follows the narrative of the myth truly, she places the story in its context which stresses her themes of the fulfillment of physical love, betrayal, curiosity, and secrecy. Orgel's Psyche and Cupid discover the endurance of true love and the happiness that comes after Herculean tasks have been performed. Orgel's voice revives the worlds of long ago while her portrayals of humanity create a story for today's readers.
Many of the young adult novels that I have found most memorable this year were historical fiction. The range represents all locales, eras, and perspectives. Young adult novels offer a deeper, personal view of history to helps young adult readers develop a real sense of what it must have been like to live in the times presented. Many of the books I read and loved this year show American times and changes. This summer, do yourself a favor and discover the reading pleasure of young adult novels. They are fast reads with characters you care about, good writing, stirring emotions.
J. Alison James' Sing for A Gentle Rain is written from two perspectives. One, James, a teen living in present-time with his grandfather, feels deserted by his father's death and his mother's traveling. Drawn to time travel through a fascination with 13th century Anasazi culture, a mysterious museum pot and odd dreams, he falls in love with Spring Rain. Spring Rain is the last female member of her family and she longs for rain to relieve the long drought and a mate to bring a future for her tribe. James and Spring Rain unite despite differing cultures and times, fear and hate and create hope for the future and for James understanding of his past. Ages 12 and up. (Atheneum, 1990)
One of the things I love about young adult novels is giving a different view of history through eyes that are new to a reader. Wolf by the Ears, by Ann Rinaldi tells the story of Thomas Jefferson's daughter born to his black servant. Though this fact is still debated, Rinaldi, a fine researcher imagines the scenarios so perfectly, I had little trouble believing its truth. Written in a journal format, the story tells of a young adult girl who is almost sure Mr. Jefferson is her father, has lived all her life with this man and yet has never had confirmation of this fact. And then there's Thomas Jefferson, from whose quote the title comes, whose name means equality and yet raises children in inferior positions. And then there's the thought of "passing white" and leaving not only your home, but your race, as well. Issues and situations were so fascinating that this book haunted me for months after I read it. Ages 12 and up. (Scholastic, 1991)
Penina Keen Spinka's White Hare's Horses tells the story of a visionary California Chumash Indian girl living in 1522 and of her courageous act that saves her peace-loving people from a war-loving group of Aztecs. Themes of responsibility, sense of self and acceptance of growing up figure strongly in the novel. Ages 12 and up. (Atheneum, 1991)
Lonely, friendless Benjamin Stark travels to meet his estranged grandmother in Virginia one summer in a novel by Elaine Alphin. Little does he know he will also meet The Ghost Cadet, a North Carolinian soldier of the Virginia Military Institute slain in the Civil War battle of New Market. Hugh, the ghost, searches for a missing watch to redeem his sense of family honor teaches Benjy much including the import of family, the meaning of friendship and how to risk. Ages 11 and up. (Holt, 1991)
Katherine Paterson's Lyddie takes place in the mill town of Lowell Mass. in the mid-nineteenth century. The viewpoint character, Lyddie, is a debt-ridden farm girl who sees mill work as the way to save her divided family. Once there Lyddie views illness, ignorance, narrowness, over-work, and oppression that characterized the times. The strength of her body and mind insure not only her survival, but her growth and readers see Lyddie change expectations and goals and also her own self-visioning. Ages 11 and up. (Dial, 1991)
Though not strictly fiction, Pam Conrad's Prairie Visions, an autobiography of pioneer photographer Solomon Butcher, takes the reader on such a path of wondering, that it could be. The book is poignantly illustrated with black and white photographs of Nebraska settlers who squint in the sun and let a reader know why Mr. Butcher began his quest. The quirkiness of his style and the oddness of his life add a whole different dimension. For those who haven't read Ms. Conrad's Prairie Songs, the book which led her to discover Solomon Butcher, it's a young adult must for those who love a sensitive read. Ages 11 and up. (HarperCollins, 1991)
The Star Fisher is a favorite Chinese tale remembered the main character, Joan, in the book of the same name. In the story, a golden King Fisher takes female form and is captured by a farmer and made to live a human life until, freed by her daughter, she flies into the night sky. She is followed by her daughter who appears as a comet, sweeping between her Earthly father and heaven-dwelling mother. Once again, Laurence Yep has created the perfect story metaphor, for a young Chinese girl flitting uncomfortably between two cultures as her parents open a laundry in small Virginia town in 1927. Joan flutters also between old and new, a variety of prejudices, and her own feelings until at last her family finds a place in the new community and Joan finds a sense of self. Ages 1 and up. (Morrow, 1991)
Last year I discovered Mildred Taylor's Logan family and gobbled every novel she'd written about them. So, I was delighted to find a new chapter of this saga appear with The Road to Memphis. The Logan family series begins with Let the Circle Be Unbroken in the depression era. The Logans are a Black family living in the rural south, much hated by poor whites because they own land. Intensity and racial hatred fuels the novels, but there is a strong balance of love in the intimacy of the Logan family. The Road to Memphis takes place in 1941 and Cassie, the viewpoint female protagonist of the series, is finishing high school, dreaming of college and law school amidst a background of fear of war and continuing racial violence. In a tense drama, the background becomes foreground and Cassie is torn from her dreams and thrust into a harsh reality and her adulthood. Ages 12 and up. (Dial, 1990)
The Depression era depicted in Jackie Koller French's Nothing To Fear is strikingly familiar today. The viewpoint character, Danny Garvey, comes from a closely-knit Irish immigrant family. Unemployment causes Pa to leave to find income and when Danny's mother experiences a difficult pregnancy, Danny becomes sole support. The importance of integrity, intimacy and caring of community balance the horrors that sometimes seem insurmountable for a child so young. Ages 12 and up. (HBJ, 1991)
Gary Paulsen seems to tackle writer's mission in each of his novels and triumphs to my continual satisfaction. He writes The Cook Camp from the viewpoint of a troubled four-year-old boy who is sent to live in with his grandmother when his presence is too strongly felt by his mother is who is pursuing an affair while his father fights in the second World War. He is sent to the wilds of Minnesota and taken into the hearts of gigantic men who cut timber to make way for the railroads and his grandmother cooks sumptuous feasts and given grand adventures of vehicle driving and forest play and time to become himself and be loved. Ages 12 and up.
Two historical figures from locations other than America come to life too. Young Joan by Barbara Dana tells of the coming of age of Jean D'Arc. Joan's spirituality is transformed into action amid a whirl of grief and confusion at leaving the innocence and closeness of a loving rural community to live a larger purpose. The sub-themes of this book are also meaningful and written from the author's heart. The difficulty of woman turned warrior in times where this was unheard of and the horrors and confusion of simple country folk surrounded by war that is larger than their understanding. Ages 12 and up. (Charlotte Zolotow book, HarperCollins, 1991)
Sheila Cole's The Dragon in the Cliff is a novel based on the life of Mary Anning. Mary Anning grew up in poverty in the early 1800's in a England. Motivated both by her own desire and the need to support her family after her father's death, Mary hunts fossils in the cliffs of her coastal town. Fighting social mores and the limits of sexual and class stereotyping, Mary persists becoming on of the leading field researchers of her day, discovering at age 13 the first complete icthyosaur skeleton. Sheila Cole writes in a journalist style that really allows young readers to feel the frustrations, constraints and triumphs of Mary Anning's life. Ages 11 and up. (Lothrop, 1991)
It's difficult to keep up with all the young adult novels released. Last summer I focused on novels with historical settings, here are some new and worth novels with more contemporary settings. Last year Avi won a Newberry honor for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle which is the first historical novel with a female protagonist that will grip male as well as female readership. I have take special delight in authors that challenge themselves with new and different ideas and Avi definitely fits in this category. His new book, Nothing But the Truth: a documentary novel tells a story through a series of memos, journal entries, phone conversations and newspaper articles. It is the story of ninth grader Philip Malloy who is suspended from school for humming "The Star-Spangled Banner". But is this the whole truth? Irony, parallels, contradictory viewpoints, and character-deeping revelations come in bits and pieces that create an astounding whole that spotlights everything from a father who wants his son to conquer a world he couldn't, to a devoted teacher who sorrows over no longer being able to reach her students, to a boy who can not grow because he is imprisoned by his spite. Without being heavy-handed, Avi also casts light on social issues of the failing of our school systems and the strange origins of political issue. Ages 11 and up. (Orchard, $14.95)
I've always admired Chris Crutcher because he doesn't mince words and yet composes harsh realities with images that sometimes take your breath away, sometimes make you belly-laugh in astonishment and delight. This year he publishes a short story book called Athletic Shorts. The cast includes some of his former protagonists in new stories and he creates fascinating new characters like Angus Bethune. Angus is a boy whose parents have separated and are both re-involved with people of the same sex. They are also grossly overweight, a trait Angus has inherited along with intelligence and humor. He describes his step-father: "He is like an arrow, sleek and angular, the antithesis of my father. It is as if minor gods were given exactly enough clay to make two human forms but divided it up in a remedial math class." Sports idioms still abound in Crutcher's work and as in his novels, the characters go far above the settings he creates always with surprises both for the reader and many times for themselves. Ages mature 12 to adult. ((Greenwillow, $13.95)
For mature readers is Gary Paulsen's The Monument which features a memorable female protagonist named Rocky Turner. Rocky, a mixed-race child with a lame leg, is adopted at age nine by an elderly couple that live in a small town. Her life is forever changed by the arrival in town of artist Mick Strum, hired to build a monument for war dead. It is Mick that encourages Rocky's artistic sensibilities, shows her how to see as an artist and finally, in the last moments of the book teaches her the connection of life, art, war, and human nature before he is off to another place "about to be overrun by paintings of Jesus and Elvis on black velvet..." Ages 12 and up (Delacorte, $13.00)
I spent my summer vacation attacking the piles of young adult novels I've been too busy to read for months. Their charcters were engrossing, plots compelling and their brevity helped me finish one a day. I want to share some new favorites with kids in middle or high school, and with adults who are wise enough to know that young adult books are some of the finest reading in the publishing world!
Kristen Randle, Breaking Rank (Morrow, $16.00; ages 11 and up)
Randle's beginning made me nervous in its close resemblances to the Columbine shootings, but it's a superb novel with amazing depth. Baby, the hero, is a member of the mysterious Clan. Clan Members wear black all the time, are silent around anyone not in Clan and so are placed in the Special Ed classes. All of them are hated by the Cribs, who wear letter jackets. Baby takes tests and does well enough to be assigned to honors classes and the pretty, popular, caring Casey is appointed to help him make the transition. She soon discovers things are not what they appear. Clan members are highly intelligent young men who mentor each other, and open doors to specific knowledge. This is a highly complex book in psychology and in well-handled themes of social inequality, the power of belonging to a group and breaking away to find out who you are. There's even a hint of a Romeo and Juliet story. The well-rounded characters change dramatically. Silent Baby begins to stand up for himself and Casey sees that her view of the world is limited, superficial, and too safe to understand Baby's life.
Sally M. Keehn, The First Horse I See (Philomel, $17.99; ages 11 and up)
I'm not a horse book lover, but The First Horse I See is ever so much more! Willojean, living with her grandfather on a Chesapeake Bay farm, falls in love with a skittish, abused horse named Tess and has to prove she can control the steed to keep her. Willo's compassion is triggered partly through her own difficulties. Her beloved mother has died of cancer and her father has retreated into alcohol, control, and overwork. Willo thrives under the care of her seafaring, poker-playing, wise grandfather and the comforting Diana, a riding teacher who's been like a substitute mother to her. As Willo learns to partner with her horse, she sees the threat of even more loss. Threaded through her present are painful and comforting memories of her mother, descriptions of riding even a non-horse lover can appreciate, and a building strength that comes from being surrounded by incredible adversity.
Walter Dean and Christopher Myers, Monster (HarperCollins, $15.95; 12 and up)
Steve Harmon's in prison facing a twenty-five year sentence for a crime he didn't commit. Surrounded by the tears, taunts, and fears of fellow inmates, he can survives by turning his experience into a movie, using techniques he's leaned in three years of film class. Walter D. Myer's dramatic recounting of Steve's trial and prison thoughts are well-matched with the impressive illustrative skills of his son, Christopher. Grainy black and white photos, interspersed with script and handwritten notes unite with the words to bring about the sense of a boy who's confused and proving his sense of integrity to his family, defenders, and, most of all, himself. The prosecutor calls "monster" and he's haunted by the title. Readers will be even more tortured by it as they view the inhumanities of the legal system.
Norma Howe, The Adventure of Blue Avenger: A Novel (Holt, $15.95; ages 11 and up)
David Bruce Schumacher is the result of the lucky 14, 889,004 th spermatozoa of Police Officer Walter J. Schumacher lickety-splitting its way to the waiting egg of Sally Schumacher. Thirteen years later, Walter is the 1,673 rd person to die in an auto accident that year and David is devastated. He comforts himself for three years by creating and writing down adventures of a fight-for-right comic book hero. At sixteen, his mind has been somewhat preoccupied with thoughts of the book's heroine, Omaha Nebraska Brown who misses her deserting father and prison-bound half brother. David, AKA, Blue Avenger is finally able to break through the sarcastic wall Omaha's built and the two have develop a sensitive partnership. The novel is full of adventure, emerging love and is written in a comic book style whose fascinating format combines hyperbole with satirical humor for surprising results. This is the perfect books for sophisticated young adults who search for funny novels.
Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy (Delacorte, $15.95; ages 10 and up)
Bud Caldwell doesn't want to be called Buddy. His mother named him Bud beacause she saw him as "a flower ...waiting for just the right warmth and care to open up..." Lovely words, a mysterious sack of stones marked with words and numbers, and a stack of posters about band leader Herman E. Calloway are the only gifts left to Bud by his hard-working, beautiful, story-reading mama.
In the four years since her death, Bud's been drifting in and out of orphanages and foster homes and added to his "Rules and Things to Have a Funner Life and Make a Better Liar Out of You" that help him function in the cruel adult world. Finally, he flees to find Calloway, whom he decides must be his father. On the way, he meets a fascinating cast of characters as he explores life in the African American depression era. As in his first book, The Watson's Go To Birmingham - 1963 ( ages 9 to adult), Curtis takes on a difficult time and seemingly sad plot, but uses humor and fresh character- driven imagery to lighten the setting. He also introduces another memorable character in Bud, a young boy who fights all odds to find a home.
Vicki Grove, The Star Place (Putnam, $17.99; ages 10 and up)
Eighth grader Frannie Driscoll is a dreamy young girl who lives in Quiver, Oklahoma in 1961. When thirteen year old Celeste Chisholm moves to the area, and is the first black to integrate their school, Frannie has little time to dream with all the realities and changes surrounding her. She confronts her fear of peer judgment and befriends the warm, gifted Celeste, but never stops wondering about the curious mysteries in Celeste's life. What is her professor father investigating and how can Celeste stand the racism of Quiver? The two themes come together as Celeste reveals 1920's horrors of the KKK against the background of 60's prejudice. Frannie's mounting questions and frustrations at her gentle father's complacency grow to a fury as the drama builds. Frannie loses innocence, her dream world, and her first real friend, but she gains a better sense of purpose and self.
Neal Shusterman, Downsiders (Simon and Schuster, $16.95; ages 11 and up)
Fourteen-year-old Talon has grown up in a world beneath New York City and he knows little of the Topside. The only ones he's met are the "fallen" who have been kindly taken in to become part of his underground world. Downside's rules and mythology are tightly controlled, but have always made sense to Talon until he needs medicine to save his sister's life. It's then he ventures Topside and his safe view of life flip-flops as he discovers the pleasures of sky and of a young girl named Lindsay. Lindsay is drawn to Talon's antiquated speech and the charms of his world. She is a truth seeker and when she uncovers the mysterious beginnings of the Downside, she endangers Talon's life and his world. Temporarily, Talon's world crumbles physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but he employs knowledge, creativity, and leadership to save his world. A driving plot, surprising invention, and believable dialogue work well with descriptions that help readers visualize the beauty of this strange civilization.
Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon (Viking, $15.99; ages 12 and up)
Colie, fifteen, is the daughter of a once obese woman who transformed herself into the aerobics celebrity, Kiki Sparks. Thanks to her mother, Colie is free of forty-five extra pounds, but memories of insults, taunts, laughter, and false rumors about her promiscuity, still haunt her. When Kiki is invited to do a European tour, she leaves Colie with her eccentric Aunt Mira, an overweight woman sneered at by the well-bred of the small town of Colby, NC. Mira cares little about what the world thinks, for she's satisfied with her artistic existence. Colie doesn't understand her aunt's self-acceptance. More confusion comes when Colie takes a job at the Last Chance Cafe and meets two best friends who waitress together. One has happily resolved her sense of self and the other pines away and pins all hopes on a dubious fiance. Add to this picture an artistic young man who's cut himself loose from a domineering family and Colie has all the influences she needs to learn to become her true self. The depth of characters and their variant lifestyles give powerful examples of those who work to find their authenticity and belief in themselves. All this occurs against a dramatic background image of an eclipsed moon which accents themes of hidden gifts, faith, trust, and the joy that comes from discovering one's true self .
I took two driving vacations this summer and was rescued from the tedium by two excellent tapes which turned miserable long drives into entertaining treks.
The Golden Compass (unabridged, 8 cassettes, $59.98; Listening Library; 1-800-243-4504; 10-adult)
The tape is narrated by its author, Philip Pullman, who leads an exquisite cast in reading the story of Lyra, a young girl of questionable parentage, who has grown up in a happy world of benign neglect. Suddenly she's caught in a drama that involves stolen children, warrior bears, and mysterious devices which blend science and fantasy. The fascinating alternate world Pullman creates is peopled by involving characters made more complex by their daemons, animal familiars who are part of them. This dramatically read tape is great listening for families with children ten and up.
Linda Crew, Children of the River (Recorded Audiobooks, purchase $46, rental $13.50 , unabridged 5 cassettes, 1-800-638-1304 )
This award-winning book comes to tape with an incredible reading by Christina Moore. The story begins with a short peek at young Sundara as she flees Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge army. Not only is she despairing about having left her family, but she's responsible for her sick aunt's new infant and there is no food, milk, or medicine available on the ship. The rest of the book shows Sundara at seventeen-as she struggles to adjust to American life and to escape the displeasure of her aunt for going against Cambodian beliefs The tape reveals ever so much more...the effects of grief, missing family, suppressed guilt, the feeling of being trapped between cultures, and the desire for freedom. Moore is a superb Sundara. She reads Sundara's halting English as splendidly as she brings forth her eloquence as she marvels at discoveries and differences in her native tongue.
During the last year, I've heard a similar complaint from young adults and young adult librarians. "Why are YA novels so depressing?" they ask. "We need more humor books!" they plead. The Newbery awards, bestowed in February, will please them. Both the Newbery winner, Louis Sachar's Holes (FSG, $16.00; ages 10 and up) and the honor book, Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories (Dial, $15.99; ages 11 and up) are funny books. But I discovered other pleasing the traits the two shared; both had eccentric characters, bizarre plot twists, ingenious structures, detailing that demands a second look, and a worthy statement for youth.
Holes, also this year's National Book Award winner, has a plot that doesn't sound funny. The hero, Stanley Yelnats, is from a family with generational bad luck. He assumes he's only following a hereditary pattern when he's caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and is sent to a desert detention camp for boys, Camp Green Lake, where he must dig a daily hole five feet wide and deep. Sachar, who's previously written books with high hilarity like The Sideway Stories of Wayside School, restrains himself in Holes and proves that he can harness his humor and still tell a funny story.
Stanley is renamed Caveman by his inmate peers who have constructed a reality system that makes sense, and found names and terms to fit it. Stanley's respected by peers like Barf Bag, Armpit, and Zero, because he moves through life with equal parts of appealing nativity, trust, and an acceptance. All these traits land him on his feet, through all the struggles he faces.
He needs these skills for Sachar sends him through three different realities at the same time, all of them plagued with troubles. Stanley suffers under the gypsy curse inherited from "his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather". He must negotiate with present day jailers like the cruel Warden who dresses in studded cowboy clothes, paints her long nails dark red, and is overly curious about the boy's digging. Stanley's influenced, too, by the camp's past; a subplot featuring a female bandit from the Old West flits in and out of the storyline. Amazingly all threads tie together by the novel's conclusion.
Sachar has enough on his hands juggling these eccentric characters, three or four plot lines, but he also provides a wealth of humorous details. These are delivered at unexpected times, in a seemingly off-handed manner, and immediately summarize Stanely's world with minimum words and maximum punch. Stanley must avoid the camp's yellow-spotted desert lizard for "if you've ever been close enough to see the yellow spots, you are probably dead". Stanley meets with friends in the Wreck Room where "nearly everything in the room was broken; the TV, the pinball machine, the furniture. Even the people looked broken."
Stanley is a hero young adults need. In their world blame presides, and Stanley, a guiltless figure, certainly has much he could complain about. But he doesn't. He accepts what fate serves up and turns it into a banquet of learning and growing.
Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago, has many of the same elements; wild characters, funny details, surprising twists, and almost slapstick situations. Like Sachar, he's found an exquisite organization for his telling. His novel is the sum of seven short stories, each capturing a yearly visit that two Chicago children make to their grandmother and her small town. In each story, the children serve as straight men for the outrageous events and outlandish commentary of their startling, unconventional grandmother. They begin as innocents who are continually bewildered, and in later stories, grow to be admirers of her unusual actions. Whether she's outwitting the press by turning the corpse of a ne'er-do-well into a hero, or paying back, ruffians who have dismantled a privy, Grandma always has the last word.
Like Sachar, Peck uses words well. Understatement and paradoxes thread through story. Suffering over picking gooseberries, Joey describes them as " tricky things- sour to the taste and spikey with stickers. Not unlike Grandma." She's even a enigma in appearance. A huge woman, she moves gracefully "sailing into a room like a galleon".
Peck succeeds in part, like Sachar, because of his fascinating viewpoint character. Grandma's our entry into a wild cast of small town characters. We see her disdain for the upper class banker and his wife, the love-hate relationship with Effie Wilcox whose "tongue's attached in the middle and flaps at both ends", and other inhabitants of what appears to be a quiet, conventional town. There is no quiet when Grandma is around. She shames a sheriff and his band of drinking buddies, cheats at a county fair, and enlivens and enriches the lives of her grandchildren with each new adventure. Her methods are seldom ethical on the surface, but she's a renegade underdog-backer with a value system you have to respect. She feeds the homeless, assists oppressed lovers, and champions victims of the upper crust. She's also wonderfully human. You've got to love a woman who kicks off showy shoes and tells you, "If I could pop all the corns on my toes, I could feed a famine."
The historical 1930's setting adds color of slogans ("Double-Yolk Breakfast Served All Day with sausage, bacon or ham, your choice $.20"), stars (Shirley Temple and Terraplane 8 from the Hudson Motor Car Co) and sayings. Just as the references add to the story and become part of its fabric. Each story is a gem in itself, and together they build to a total picture. We see these children grow from confusion, to complicity. We learn to expect the unexpected from Grandma, and love her for her wily ways. In these days when integrity and moral values are so touted, it's fascinating to have see a character who sneers at "the right thing" and does the righter thing.
The Coretta Scott King Awards for novels showed a more serious bent, but again imagery and characters gave the story strength. The winner, Heaven (Simon and Schuster, $16.00; ages 11 and up) by Angela Johnson, is a short novel that's long on emotions. At the opening we meet Marley who, at fourteen, is secure in the love of her family and small town existence in Heaven, Ohio. She has an easy relationship with her loving parents and brother, caring friends, and an ungoing relationship by mail with her Uncle Jack.
Under the yellow sky of funnel cloud, she's told that her mother is dead, her Uncle Jack is really her father, and the people who have raised her have been deceiving her for years. Suddenly, "nothing looked or felt the same. I didn't have a place anymore...I stared at my hands and kept thinking. I thought I had my Momma's hands, and I probably did. It was just a different momma, one buried way down south in the cool red dirt of Alabama." Marley's not alone in her suffering, her entire family gives her a wide berth and by the story's end she's come to accept and adapt to a life made richer by its secret stories. And readers will feel richer too because of Johnson's poetic voice.