Book Review - My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

Yeah, you have to realize that if there's a book with the words "Fenway Park" in the title, I'm definitely going to read it. So that's how I found myself first drawn to Kluger's first young adult novel. My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park follows Augie, T.C., and Alejandra, three Brookline, Massachusetts teens, as they write essays about their most excellent year- their freshman year of high school. Augie and T.C. call each other brothers even though they aren't. They're just two really good guy friends who've basically adopted each other's family as their own. Augie, a huge musical fan and actor/singer himself, is just realizing he's gay, while T.C. finds that he's absolutely falling for Alejandra, the worldly daughter of diplomats who recently moved to town. As a reader, you're constantly switching between the three characters, reading notes, letters, instant messenger conversations, diaries, etc., and along the way, finding out what happens to make their freshmen year so...well... excellent.

I won't give it away, but it involves a deaf kid named Hucky, Julie Andrews, and something pretty magical that happened in October of 2004.

While this book may not always be realistic - things work out perfectly for everyone involved - you'll fall in love with the characters and if you are like me, maybe you'll find your eyes misting over a few times. Only in a good way!

* * * *
Four Stars

Recommended to: theater fanatics, people who like happy endings, fans of Kluger's adult fiction, Red Sox fans

Bored already? Then enter this contest to win an 8GB iPod Touch!

Well, here's something to keep you busy this summer. Laurie Halse Anderson, author of and Speak, Twisted, and many other excellent books, is running a contest for YOU to create a trailer for either Speak or Twisted.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Create a book trailer for SPEAK or TWISTED. You may not use clips from the SPEAK movie (it is copyrighted, that's why). Your trailer must qualify for a PG rating. Try to keep it under two minutes long.

2. Post the trailer on YouTube. Include the phrase "TWISTED trailer contest" or "SPEAK trailer contest" in the title. Submissions must be posted by 12:00pm, EST, August 31, 2008.

3. Once the trailer is posted, notify Ms. Anderson by emailing the Office Mouse: officemouse AT writerlady DOT com . When you notify them, please provide a link to your trailer and a valid email address so they can contact you if you win. If you are in a Summer Reading group, include the name of your librarian (Miss Barnes!) and her email address (yalibrarian.homewood@gmail.com).

4. Watch and wait. Winner will be chosen by Laurie Halse Anderson (aka me).

5. NOTE! Contest is only open to people who will be 21 years old or younger on August 31, 2008.

5A. Edited to add: Contest is open to anyone on the Planet Earth. Teens working aboard the space station are welcome too. Entries from other planets and galaxies will be considered, as long as they can be watched on Earth-created technologies.

6. If your trailer is chosen as the winning entry and you are not 18 yet, your parents will have to sign a release form granting me all rights to use your trailer. If you are over 18, you get to sign for yourself. You will be credited as the producer of the trailer, but the only payment you will receive is the prize described below. If you win, be sure to include this on your college or film school application.

7. If you are in a library summer reading group, your library will receive 5 signed copies of my books. The librarian in charge of the group gets to decide which books to receive.

8. There will be two prizes awarded; one for the best SPEAK trailer, one for the best TWISTED trailer.

9. The creator of the winning trailer will be awarded an 8GB iPod Touch. Winner agrees to be responsible for setting up and paying for Internet connection and any warranty protection plan for the device.

9a. Edited to add: If the winners live outside the United States and do not live in a region where the iPod Touch is supported, a substitute prize of equal value will be awarded.

10. Winners will be announced on this blog, Sunday, September 7th, and will be notified by email.

Sound cool? Well, get to it!

Book Review - The Best Book I've Read This Year, or "Little Brother," by Cory Doctorow

Sometimes, a book can change your life. This is a book that, I'm certain, will change a lot of lives.

Seventeen year old Marcus lives in San Francisco in the somewhat near future. Life is very similar to the way it is today, it's mostly the technology, and the government surveillance, that has changed. People are tracked; the government follows them via the cards they use on public transportation. Also, people's gaits (how they walk) are recorded for identification; this works around disguises. Marcus knows all of this and he doesn't like it. He and a bunch of his friends are big gamers, and not so keen on the government having the capability to glance at all their personal private information (why should they be able to, anyway?), so he uses computer programs and cryptology to keep his private stuff private. That's all well and good, until there's a terrorist attack on San Francisco's bridges and subway system. Marcus is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the next thing he knows, the Department of Homeland Security has him chained to a cell, and they're asking him questions he doesn't know the answers to.

"Little Brother" follows Marcus and his friends in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, as they decide what to do as they watch their freedoms and civil liberties be taken away. Cory Doctorow has written a smart, witty, action-filled book that will keep you up well into the night. "Little Brother" will leave you thinking about whether or not its scenarios are so far fetched, and whether anyone should be asked to give up their freedoms in the name of security.

* * * * *
(Five stars)

Recommended for sci-fi fans, gamers, thinkers, and dreamers.

FYI, author Cory Doctorow is probably most well-known for his website, BoingBoing.