ALA 2010 Recap!

Whew!  Got back into Boston early last night from an amazing 5 days in Washington, D.C.  My bag was stuffed to the max with books.  My legs are totally bruised from my inability to control an 80 lb suitcase when wielding it onto buses and such.  But it was so, so worth it.  I'll share my highlights but first a cautionary tale, so you will never make the mistake I did.  When attending conference, always book ahead!  Do not wait to find bargain bed and breakfasts.  They do not exist.  I tried to go the bargain route, and ended up in a situation very reminiscent of the beginning of the Harry Potter books.  You know how each one starts with weird stuff happening, the appearance of a new strange character, who will become important to that book?  Well, that's truly how my check-in at the inn felt.  

The dude working the front desk was seriously creepy in the way that, well, the villains of Harry Potter are.  Complete with two wandering eyes, he proceeded to tell me that my room was flooded because, you know, the D.C. weather has been terrible, and it was moldy.  Riiight (it's been very hot in DC but I've heard nothing of this "flooding" he mentioned).  He then sent me trekking up the street to their sister inn, let's just say it rhymes with Shmembassy.  When I saw the room they had for me there, well, it was all over.  Literally, it was like 150 square feet, with two queen beds shoved in there.  I could barely get my suitcase in the door.  Besides the two beds, there was no other furniture outside of a coat rack and a bedside table.  No closet.  No place to put the suitcase.  Absolutely no place to set up an ironing board (sort of essential for, you know, living out of a hotel for 5 days).  Half an hour later, I was checking into a legitimate hotel, super thankful for last minute cheap rates, and trying to forget the whole episode.  Unlike in Harry Potter, double-wandering-eye-French-fellow did not reappear later.  THANK GOD!

Okay, so, the highlights!

1.  My favorite part had to be getting to know my fellow committee members and the BFYA meetings.  Talking about 93 books sounds completely exhausting and grueling, but it really wasn't.  I loved hearing their observations about the books.  It's so amazing how we can all have such different reactions to the same book.

2.  I met the author Jennifer Lynn Barnes!  She is the only other Jennifer Lynn Barnes I know... so far!  So that was kind of amazing.  We are going to start a club of Jennifer Lynns.  Now I know there are a lot more of these.  Off the top of my head, I can think of some.  My guesses are, if you were born female in the 80s and named Jennifer, you very likely have Lynn as a middle name.  True?

3.  Watching David Levithan sing!  David Levithan, along with John Green and debut author Andrea Cremer, were our awesome special guests for the BFYA Teen Pizza Party.  I've never seen David Levithan before, or Andrea Cremer, (I've seen John Green a couple times), but they were super entertaining.  The singing and a couple other moments were probably the highlights of that day.  Also, I'm fairly certain I that I'm going to be in an upcoming vlog video as John panned his camera across the front row of the crowd, where several of us BFYA-ers were sitting.  Will definitely post the link to the video if/when this turns out to be true.

4.  Seeing Toni Morrison as keynote speaker.  I have to commend the ALA for their selection of speakers.  This was the only speech I could attend because of my meetings, but it was again such a special experience.  I had to run out and buy one of her books the next day because I was so blown away by her insight and genius gift with words.  Let's just say I am currently reading 5 books right now -- and I'm not one to read multiple books at once -- because I am just that excited about all these books and authors!

5.  Meeting Jacqueline Kelly, author of Newbery Honor book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.  I told her how happy I was for her when it won, since it was my personal favorite of last year, and she said I wasn't as happy as she was.  I truly think that book will be for many girls what Anne of Green Gables was for me growing up.  When I read it, I could hardly believe it was a debut novel, it was that perfect.

6.  The Michael L. Printz reception.  Every ALA I attend, and every year I am not disappointed, and beyond that, always surprised by one of the authors.  I'll admit that due to BFYA reading, I still haven't read Rick Yancey's The Monstrumologist, Adam Rapp's Punkzilla, or John Barnes' Tales from the Madmen Underground, but I'm working to remedy that.  Each speech was moving in its own way, and several had me welling up in tears a little bit, but then Libba Bray busted it all open with her speech.  For the first five or so minutes, I was seriously wondering if I was going to wet myself.  She is soooo hilarious, and I've seen her before, but this was new heights of hilarity.  And then the speech took its turn.  It was so emotional and honest, and from a very different place than usual.  It was definitely my favorite moment of the night.  Also, I'm pretty convinced that if she wanted to, Libba Bray could be the next Oprah Winfrey.  She has so much charisma, oh my god.  And yeah, it's kind of cool that we were sitting right behind M.T. Anderson.

7.  Books, books, books!  I know I get books in the mail almost every day.  And I have a huge library system at my disposal.  But I cannot help myself when it comes to ARCs.  And for the past few days, I didn't.  I won't list everything I got, but here are my top acquisitions.  Matched by Ally Condie (the first in a new dystopian series); Jane -- because when an author decides to pose the question, what if Jane Eyre dated a rock star, well, it turns out I want to know the answer; Raised by Wolves; Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 water bottle! (!!!); Scumble, the companion to Ingrid Law's Savvy;  Dirt Road Home, Watt Key's follow-up to the brilliant Alabama Moon (which evidently is being made into a movie starring John Goodman!); Prisoners in the Palace, which has maybe the coolest cover ever; The Kneebone Boy, which had a pretty amazing cover itself; Sarah Ockler's latest Fixing Delilah Hannaford and the new Jennifer Donnelly.  Gaaaahhh!

And if that's not enough, I am also reading these:

Actually, I am not reading The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate or my foot, but you understand, right?

Washington, D.C., here I come!

Come Friday, I'll be heading out to Washington, D.C. for the ALA Annual Conference.  And I.  Can't.  Wait!  Last time when ALA was in DC, it was my first time, and I have great memories of the city as host to thousands and thousands of librarians.  I got to meet my idol Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, had my picture taken with Markus Zusak (hadn't read The Book Thief at that point), and snagged more ARCs than my back could handle.  I'm so ready to do it all over again.

Here's what I'm most looking forward to:

1.  BFYA meetings!  No, really, I am super excited to talk about the books I've spent the last several months reading, and meeting my fellow committee members.  I'm also pretty curious about the teen pizza party with David Levithan and John Green.

2.  Michael L. Printz reception.  I'll admit that unlike in past years, I have not been able to read the honor books that I hadn't already read (due to reading tons of 2010 fiction), but I'm still looking forward to seeing all the honor and winner authors.  I've had the pleasure of hearing Libba Bray speak before, and she is a natural.  So funny and effervescent.

3.  ARC madness!  On my wish list: Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson, Matched by Ally Condie, Delirium by Lauren Oliver, and if it's there (it may not be, I have no clue) Annexed by Sharon Dogar.  And of course, whatever else looks good.  Also, you will probably find me grabbing whatever else looks good.  At least this year, I know I'll read them!  Come to think of it, I'll probably end up getting through all my ARCs in a month or so.  Sheesh!

4.  Seeing Toni Morrison speak.  With the busy schedule of meetings, I won't have the same freedom I did in years past to stalk author signings and go to the keynote addresses, but I will be able to see Toni Morrison.

5.  Schmoozing!  What I love best about ALA is the way you happen upon things you never expected.  Like how I got to meet Sherman Alexie last year and have him sign a chapbook.  Totally not on my agenda for the day, but a completely mind-blowing experience as he's one of my favorite authors ever.  Also, last time at the Newbery-Caldecott dinner, Kirby Larson sat at my table.  Yeah, that would be the Newbery Honor-winning author of Hattie Big Sky.  Completely random, completely awesome.  So, I'm open to all kinds of schmoozy surprises, and ready to share them here when I return.

Until then, happy reading!

Thursday Three!

Yeah, yeah, I know, I haven't posted anything since last week's Thursday Three.  It's been a hectic week here... oh wait, no, not really.  I've been pulling overtime duty for sports-watching.  Not only have I been following the Red Sox every day, but I've added the Celtics to my viewing schedule.  By the end of the hour, we'll know whether or not they are this year's champions, but if my track record has anything to say about it, it does not look good.

Alas, the THURSDAY THREE!

Today's theme: what I really, really want to read.  But can't right now.

1. The new Alice book, ahem, FINAL Alice book, Alice in Charge.  I wonder if Phyllis Reynolds Naylor gets the Charles in Charge theme song every time she thought about the book's title, or if that's just a malady afflicting me.  It is quite possible that the Alice books are sort of the reason I'm a librarian.  They're certainly a contributing factor.  Growing up, I devoured the books, but as I grew out of elementary school, I also temporarily grew out of reading.  If it wasn't Seventeen or Rolling Stone, I probably wasn't reading it.  And then I got a summer job at the library.  And discovered that in the time that I'd given up reading, PRN had published many more Alice books.  Which I surreptitiously devoured when I was supposed to be putting the picture books in order.  I went to college and found myself, again, too busy to keep up with Alice.  But then one summer I found myself in Wyoming with plenty of free time for reading.

Since then, I've kept up with Alice and all of her adventures.  I've met Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and I have the signed book to prove it.  I even have a friend who emails regularly with her, and has for many years.  It's hard to imagine coming to the end of the Alice series.  I'll always remember Alice (okay, now I am sounding like she's a real person, and well, to me she almost is!) getting caught trying on boy's jeans because her brother and dad didn't know better.  And I'll always fondly think of Lester as inculcating my future crushes on graduate students.  Maybe it's okay that I have to wait at least a week to read this one, because I have a feeling it's an experience I'll want to savor

2. Is it just me, or is The Atlantic Monthly the best magazine ever?  I meant to read just a little bit of one of three issues gracing our pseudo coffee table, and got totally sucked in for over an hour.  I generally think of the Atlantic Monthly as not particularly interested in all things YA and middle grade, so I squealed with delight upon seeing James Parker's piece on Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I found myself nodding in agreement with pretty much everything he said, and then remembered how much I want my boyfriend to watch the movie with me once it's out on DVD.  Oh, Fregley!  Anyway, let it be known, Atlantic Monthly, I may not have time to read you cover-to-cover anymore, but I still love you!

3. It's a tie between Donna Freitas's The Gorgeous Game -- because I love love looooved The Possibilities of Sainthood -- and Ally Carter's Heist Society.  I guess it'll come down to whether I want to read a serious book, or something very indulgent and fun.

Okay, time to catch the last minute or so of action, to find out if I've cursed the Celtics.  It looks like I have...  Sorry, Boston!

Thursday Three

1.  I now have only 13 BFYA nominations to read before we meet at the ALA Annual Conference.  This  means that as long as I knock off one a day, I might be able to read something else.  I have to say, reading only nominations for weeks in a row has been kind of odd.  It doesn't feel like required reading in college or high school - since they're all fiction and, well, reading fiction never feels like work for me - but I am really looking forward to being able to mix it up again.  Also, my to-read pile is HUGE, thanks to a bunch of ARCs from Scholastic.  And my bedside reading is Rick Riordan's new one, so... yeah, you could say I'm not lacking in reading material.

2.  Finally have an idea for my next YA project.  At least, I think so.  Let's just say it was inspired by a redsox.com article that ran in the last couple days about Victor Martinez.  Now, if I could just find some time to start writing it....

3.  This is completely unrelated to all things YA... but I just found out that someone with whom I attended junior high has married Alanis Morissette.  That's pretty crazy!

I think I've found my new guilty pleasure

The TV series based off the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard debuts tonight on ABC Family!  Now, I'll admit that I never read the books, but I replaced them so much at my last library that it almost feels like I did.  Just when I said I was looking for some trashy summer TV (but not literally trashy, Hoarders!), I find out about this show.  I've been backing off of non-vital TV-watching (i.e. Friday Night Lights, Big Bang Theory) but now that all of my shows are over for the summer, I feel like it's the perfect time to indulge in an ABC Family series.

Lest we not forget the summers spent watching (and loving!) Kyle XY.

Anyway, I'll be tuning in tonight!

48 Hour Book Challenge: Finale!

Alright, we're about ten minutes or so from the end of my 48 hour span.  Here's the breakdown:

5 books:
1.  The Half-Life of Planets by Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin (218 pages: 3 hours, 5 minutes).
2.  The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (214 pages: 2 hours, 50 minutes)
3.  The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, & June by Robin Benway (282 pages: 3 hours, 25 minutes)
4.  A Small Free Kiss In The Dark by Glenda Millard (180 pages: 2 hours, 13 minutes)
5.  Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian (322 pages: 2 hours and 29 minutes).

Page count: 1,216
Hour total: 14 hours, 2 minutes

Blogging reviews + Social Networking
1 hour on Friday, June 4
1 hour on Sunday, June 6
+ 1 hour of social networking:
3 hours

GRAND TOTAL: 17 hours, 2 minutes

Whew!  I easily surpassed my goal of 12 hours, though fell short of my goal for 6 books.  I really thought I read faster, but perhaps I read faster when I take more mini breaks?  Due to the timing part of this, I worked really hard to read in larger chunks of time.  And gained much compassion for my summer readers of summers past, who dutifully logged their time spent reading.

I'll definitely want to do this again next year!  Perhaps taking a break in the middle for the horrible but fun Sex and the City 2 and dinner with friends was not the best way to get the most out of my 48 hours.  But it did wonders for my sanity!

48 Hour Book Challenge, Book 5: Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian

It seems like every school has one.  That girl that seems to rise above everything, the one who's so in control of her present and future, the one who has it all together.  Or so it seems.  Natalie Sterling is that girl, at Ross Academy.  After watching her best friend Autumn lose her social standing after being humiliated by her  jock, senior boyfriend, when she was a freshman, Natalie has basically avoided all contact with the male species.  She's focused on school, her grades, saving Autumn, and becoming the ninth girl in her school's history to become Student Council President.

A last minute challenge by asshole jock Mike Domski isn't enough to derail Natalie, who narrowly defeats him.  She's in charge as much as she's ever been.  But success never comes easy, and Natalie's soon distracted by her old babysitting charge, now a spunk freshman, who has her own ideas about feminism, most of them along the line of using sexuality to get boys to like her.  As much as they don't see eye to eye, Natalie still wants to rescue Spencer, convinced she's got everything all figured out.  But she didn't count on Connor, the football QB, making a pass at her, and she certainly didn't count on her... liking him back.

Siobhan Vivian's latest looks at the double standards for guys and girls, but also puts a human spin on it. I found myself constantly reevaluating my own opinions and judgments, as much as Natalie has to, throughout the book.  It turns out it's not so easy, to be just one kind of girl, and maybe...maybe that's okay.

This book is pretty hard to put down, especially when you're in a crunch to beat the clock.  Vivian does an excellent job at getting at the nuances in the book's many relationships, whether its Natalie and Connor, Natalie and her best friend Autumn, or Natalie and her teacher-mentor, Ms. Bee.

In my opinion, a must-read for high school girls.

* This review is based off an Uncorrected Proof.  The finished book will hit bookstores in September 2010. *

48 Hour Book Challenge, Book 4: A Small Free Kiss In The Dark by Glenda Millard

Imagine if Cormac McCarthy wrote The Road and made it hopeful.  Okay, I know, that's not what Cormac McCarthy would do, but it's sort of what Glenda Millard does in A Small Free Kiss In The Dark.  Skip's a teenager who never quite found what he was looking for via the foster care system.  He's homeless, but he gets by, spending time in the library and creating chalk art.  Until something very not beautiful happens.  His dingy city world, a world he still saw the beauty in, becomes war-torn.  Buildings are blowing up, people are dead in the street, or cowered in what's left of the library, trying to figure out what to do next.  His world is a war-zone.  And nobody knows what to do.

With an older homeless man, Billy, and a kid named Max, whose mother never made it to pick him up from the library, Skip leaves the city, venturing through the underground tunnels where the trains used to run, and finds a new home, in an abandoned amusement park.  Thinking the tanks and bombs won't come for them there, Skip, Billy, Max, and a beautiful ballerina/teenage mother Tia and her baby make their home there, carving out an existence in a place that's supposed to inspire hope and doing the best they can to survive.

Millard crafts a gripping story in an unreal setting, at least for this country.  As much as this is not a story about the apocalypse, the setting nevertheless feels like it, with no one aware of what is happening, except the fact that everything has changed.  Gorgeous, evocative writing, and a hopeful, thoughtful protagonist make this story both memorable and powerful. 

48 Hour Book Challenge - Book 3 - The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, & June by Robin Benway

There's something powerful about sisterhood.  I know this mostly because I only have a brother, and have always felt something missing when talking to friends who have sisters.  There's something special about sisterhood: the antagonism, the rivalry, and the closeness that can only come from spending so much time in the same house, year after year, with someone related to you and also, so much like you.

April, May, and June are sisters whose parents got a little lazy when it came to picking names for their kids.  They were all born a year apart; April is the oldest (a junior), then May (a sophomore), then June (a freshman).  After their parents' surprising divorce, the girls were uprooted from the only home they knew and plunked down in Southern California, forced to start high school all over again in a place where they have no friends.  April, the brainiac of the family, has her mind set on college, while May's seriously missing her dad, and the only thing June cares about is finagling her way into the popular crowd.  But all of these plans are thrown for a serious loop when, on the way into school, their car almost hits another student.... and they realize they all have extraordinary powers.  April can see into the future, May can become invisible, and June can read minds.

If you're expecting for the girls to bond together with their secret powers to save the world, you are reading the wrong book!  These sisters use their secret powers, for good and for bad, dealing with the crises of high school that everyone -- yes, even those of us without super powers -- can relate to.  Their powers pull them apart and divide them (can you imagine being able to read your sibling's mind?!), but they also bring them together, in a powerful finale that will remind readers of the fragile bonds that tie siblings together, for better or for worse, as family.

This is a perfect beach read for the end of summer (sorry, it doesn't come out until August) or for the start of the school year.  Robin Benway is a witty writer with a deep understanding of all that goes down in high school: the good, the bad, the ugly.  Each chapter is written by a different sister, and I have to say, my favorite sections were the ones narrated by Meg.  She's the perfect moody antidote to June (who's basing her life off a little too much reality TV) and had some hilarious moments getting all snarky with her peer tutor, Henry.

  Readers of Audrey, Wait! have been waiting a little while for this one, and it won't disappoint.


*This review is based off the Advance Reader's Copy.  The book will be published in August 2010.*

48 Hour Book Challenge - Book 2: The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

From the moment I picked up Carlos Ruiz Zafon's debut YA novel The Prince of Mist (finally out in the United States) from the library this afternoon, I've been dying to read it.  The moody, mysterious cover totally sucked me in, and the blurbs from just about every reputable book review source on the back increased my enthusiasm.

And then I started the book.  And I understood the power of masterful storytelling.  That's exactly what's going on here.  The skeleton of the story sounds familiar to anyone who appreciates a good mystery or horror story.  A family packs up all their belongings, relocating to a huge house by the ocean.  Huge houses by the ocean don't come easily, or cheaply, and so it's not completely surprising to learn that the young boy who lived here died, and soon after, so did both his parents.

Max, along with his two sisters, and mother, is sort of creeped out by the place when they arrive.  It seems like it hasn't been touched in ten years, but every now and then, he gets a glimpse of what a grand place it must have been.  And then he's getting glimpses of something else.  In the expansive yard, he finds an overrun garden with statues, of circus performers, all pointed toward a clown in the center.  His dad finds some old reels of film and plays them for his family on the wall (it's the 1940s, and that's how it was done back then).  One of the reels has footage of the statues, except they aren't posed the same way.  And the weird thing is, Max's sister just had a dream about the statue the night before.

This is a tale where nothing's quite as it seems, and Max has to do a fair bit of research and unraveling to get at the bottom of everything, in a race against time before the Prince of Mist returns for what he believes belongs to him.  This one has all the atmosphere, creepiness, and cinematic flair to draw in readers of all ages who like a good, spooky, creepy tale.  This is precisely the kind of book younger me would have loved (of course, current me loved it too) because I did go through a phase in which I was fascinated by this sort of paranormal stuff.  Werewolves, vampires--not so much, but give me a good "ghost" story or something with an oracle doll or possessed doll house, and I was there.

This one will definitely appeal to Stephen King fans, but that's not to say it's straight-up horror.  Mystery and supernatural fans will find much to admire as well.

48 Hour Book Challenge, Book One: The Half-Life of Planets by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

Disclosure: I haven't read anything by Brendan Halpin OR Emily Franklin before, but now that I've read this one, and found out that they live, basically, right in my neighborhood (okay, close: Newton and J.P.), I probably should read more!  Also, those are not the real reasons to read more, the real reason is because this book was GREAT!

Most of the time, love does not come easy.  And this is certainly the case for Liana, who has a hard time believing that she's not a "slut," as the note in her locker claims.  She's done her fair share of kissing and running.  And then there's Hank, who's never gotten close enough to a member of his opposite sex that wasn't Mother to even be thinking of love.  A chance meeting in a hospital bathroom brings these two characters from disparate places (in social standings, life, though they are from the same town) together for an unforgettable friendship that blooms into something more, a challenge for the both of them.

Franklin and Halpin clearly are a pair to watch (dare we say, the second coming of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn?!?!).  In fact, this book, for me, personally, surpassed Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.  I found this love story so much more believable, because, let's face it, how rare is it to find love in a moment, in an evening?  The best relationship stories take place over a longer period of time, say, a summer, giving both characters plenty of time to completely embarrass themselves in front of each other, because cringe-worthy moments and complete mistakes give way to the most redeeming of apologies and forgiveness.

Music buffs will appreciate the way these two have bonded over a shared love of rock classics.

It seems that I must mention that Hank has Asperger's syndrome, since it is relevant to the story, but I must also then admit that this one of the first stories I've read about someone with Asperger's where that's not their defining feature, nor is it what the story is about.  Perhaps that is where the story really succeeds in defying stereotypes.  When Liana starts hanging out with Hank, she has no idea he has Asperger's, he's just a little bit strange sometimes (umm... what teenage boy isn't?) and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of rock music (you can say that about pretty much every guy that's worked at a record store). He has to tell her that he has Asperger's, just so she'll understand how some things don't come natural to him (like reading gestures, etc.).

This is the perfect quirky summer romance for anyone that likes to read about real, flawed, kind of hilarious people, finding each other and finding love.

48 hour book challenge, starting NOW!

Alright, here we are at 2:40 PM on Friday (who knows if I ever switched my time stamps from CST to EST) and for the next 48 hours, I'll be participating in the 5th Annual 48-Hour Book Challenge!  I've got a stack of books ready and my schedule pretty much cleared (save an afternoon out for Sex and the City 2 tomorrow).  My goal is to read at least 12 hours, and hopefully much, much more.  Lord knows I need to, with all the BFYA nominations in my to-read pile, and even more fabulous books from publishers to read once those are done.

Will the reading ever end??

Stay tuned for updates and reviews between now and 2:40 PM on Sunday!

Book Review - Butterfly by Sonya Hartnett

Plum is on the precipice of something, she just doesn't know what.  About to turn fourteen, the one thing she wants for her birthday is her very own television, but getting that seems unlikely.  She'll settle for a party with all her friends, who she clings to tightly, with fear that they will leave her if she isn't cool enough.  While this plot doesn't sound entirely original or especially interesting, in the hands of a very capable writer, Sonya Hartnett, the story soars.  Harnett turns the smaller events of life, like a 14th birthday, into moments the reader will contemplate for days.

Immediately, I felt connected to Plum, remembered myself being much like Plum.  A girl on the edge of teenagehood, with all the connections to my “childhood” still apparent.  For Plum, this line to her childhood, to the behaviors one might accept as a chid which are completely laughable as a teenager, is elucidated in her “treasure box” of sorts, the suitcase she keeps under her bed with ordinary objects that for her, have a magical element to them.  They are talismans for her.

The idea that you can change yourself, that you can morph yourself into an entirely new person with the right amount of effort, pervades this book.  This is not just Plum’s goal, but also one that her grownup neighbor (Maureen) is contemplating in her affair with Plum’s brother Justin.  And it’s something to which all readers can relate.  Likewise, the book plumbs the inner lives of people of all ages: kids about to become teens, older teens/young adults, and grownups, and finds all of them complex and often completely delightful.

Plum’s observations are what make her so endearing, so real to readers.  As I read this one, I couldn't help underlining my favorite lines.  Hartnett is so fantastic at getting into Plum's head, as these random thoughts flit through, some of which are so hilarious that they are so quickly dismissed, not acted on.  For example, “Plum pauses—she’s seen people-beasts in movies with horns on their heads, and thinks the look charismatic.  Horns would change her life” (p. 10).  And also: “Perhaps she should intensify her time with the talismans—wear the badge, carry the coin, fling the yo-yo around.  Sleep with them cuddled against her stomach.  Maybe she should… eat them.… No” (p. 87).

From start to finish, I loved, loved, loved this book, and can't wait to hand it off to my best friend, my mother.  There's something timeless and ageless about this one, and I can't wait to reread it years from now.

Turns out, I'm not the only one who loved it, as it has received a starred review in the July/August issue of Horn Book.  Butterfly doesn't hit shelves until August 24, 2010.  This review is based off the Advance Reading Copy.