NOTES FROM THE DOG, by Gary Paulsen

[read 1-12-10]
This is another short -- but this time serious -- story from Gary. It seems like a lot of his more recent books are short, almost like he just wants to crank out another story. But some of them, like this one, have substance. Notes from the Dog deals with 14-year-old Finn, who gets talked into spending his summer planting a garden in his own yard for the pretty grad student who's housesitting for Finn's neighbors. She's recovering from breast cancer (which made me wonder if there is or was someone in Gary's life who has or had breast cancer), and Finn and his friend Matt help her all they can. Finn's dog, Dylan, starts bringing him notes which are filled with prophetic sayings. Are they really from the dog? Read the book to find out!

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I mentioned the brevity of this book. My all-time favorite Gary Paulsen book is fairly short -- just 90 pages -- but it's so touching, in more ways than one! It's Tracker. It's the story of 13-year-old John Borne whose grandfather, with whom he always deer hunts, is dying of cancer. So John goes out to track a deer by himself. He hunts a doe that seems familiar to him. Somehow in his tracking, John comes to believe if he can just touch the doe, he can help cure his grandfather's cancer. It's beautiful writing. It's a tear-jerker. It's Gary Paulsen at his best.

THE GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA, OR PIRATES GALORE, by Sid Fleischman

[read 3-23-09]
What starts as a tale of pirates on the high seas of the Pacific soon becomes a tale of Spanish California, when pirate cabin boy "Shipwreck" joins Captain Gallows on land at Gallows' new ranch. This is the third in Fleischman's tales of Spanish California (following By the Great Horn Spoon and Bandit's Moon -- both written several years ago). As with most of Fleischman's stories, this is a quick, fun read.
This is not only a review, it's also a tribute to Sid Fleischman, who died March 17, 2010, a day after his 90th birthday. (Check out his webpage at http://www.sidfleischman.com/.) Sid was one of the authors for the 1989 author symposium "we" (Hutchinson Public Library and the South Central Kansas Library System) sponsored. His son, fellow author Paul Fleischman, was also a speaker that year. Both were Newbery medalists -- Sid in 1987 (for The Whipping Boy) and Paul in 1989 (for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices). The day before the symposium began, I was sitting with Sid in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for Paul to arrive. Sid told me he thought it was a real coup that I'd been able to get both Paul and him for this symposium, because it would be the first time that the Newbery winning father and son would have appeared together. I was just happy to be able to afford them some extra time together.
Sid was such a gracious man during his visit (and also before and after, whenever I had to contact him about details about his visit). And he was a popular and prolific children's author. If you've never read any of his books, try one.

UNWIND, by Neal Shusterman

[read 11-27-08]
To by "unwound" is to have your body parts given to others for transplant, a practice started after not enough people elected to donate organs when they died, and after a war ending abortion let parents decide to "unwind" their children anytime between the ages of 13 and 18.
When Conner discovers his family is having him unwound, he runs away. He meets a girl named Risa, who's also being taken to an unwind facility, and Lev, a "tithe" who's known all his life that he'd eventually be unwound.
In addition to writing an interesting story, Shusterman provides a venue for people to examine and contemplate their beliefs.
Check out some of Shusterman's other works, especially The Dark Side of Nowhere (2002), if you can find it.

Testing, 1-2-3

I knew this was coming. I've been waiting for ten weeks or more. And now it's here!
I've been wanting to add a new blog, one for book reviews, for several months. When my library began a project called 2010 (meaning twenty projects in ten weeks) and I learned creating a blog would be one of the options for the final project (unlike most of these types of projects, where a blog is the initial phase), I decided to be a "good German" and wait patiently (well, sort of) for it to arrive. And now it's here! (Oh, wait -- I already said that.)
So while this blog will be reviews of books, this initial post won't be an actual review. Hopefully all of you out there (at least the two or three I'll make read this!) can likewise be good Germans and will be able to delay your gratification!
Enjoy!