What a frigid winter week it has been! Schools have been closed the past couple days and everyone has been staying safely tucked inside their homes. Hopefully you have been taking advantage of this confining weather and read some great books! I know that I have been spending more time than usual curled up on the couch with a blanket and book. This week, we are highlighting some great teen titles to read in this icy cold weather.
Snowed In by Rachel Hawthorne (HarperTeen, 2007). A light-hearted romance set in the car-less land of Mackinac Island near Michigan with wonderfully realistic characters. A great vacation read if you are still in that easy going mindset!
Whispering to Witches by Anna Dale (Bloomsbury USA Children's, 2005). A boy encounters witches while spending his Christmas holiday with his mother and stepfather in snowy Canterbury, England. A great fantasy choice for tweens as well as older teens, especially those who are Harry Potter fans.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin's Griffin, 2013).
Two misfits fall in love, bonding over comics, alternative music and mutual awkwardness. This realistic and touching story set in 1986 also tackles mature themes such as bullying and abuse, with an ending sure to warm your heart.
Blankets by Craig Thompson ( Top-Shelf Productions, 2003).
At 592 pages this graphic novel may seem intimidating, but fear not! This wonderfully personal coming of age story, featuring Craig himself as a boy in blustery Wisconsin, is sure to fly by quickly even for reluctant high school readers.
The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Phillip Pullman (Alfred A. Knopf, 1996).
A thrilling fantasy that follows orphaned pre-teen Lyra as she ventures to find her kidnapped friend and uncle, complete with danger, witch encounters (both good and bad) and a helpful armored polar bear. Another great read for tweens and teens, it will be hard for them to not race through the next two books in this trilogy.
Can a container of milk save the entire universe? Sounds unlikely, but you never know what is possible when the wonderful Neil Gaiman is in control. If you read his newest children's novel, Fortunately, the Milk, you may be surprised to discover the sort of heroic feats one can accomplish with a container of milk.
The whimsical story begins with a fairly typical uninspiring conundrum, there is no milk for the children to eat their breakfast cereal or for Dad to have with his tea. Mom is out of town for the week on a work trip leaving Dad in charge of the house and family and he has forgotten to pick up more milk. Dad leaves his two children staring at their bowls of dry cereal to quickly pick up some milk. Time goes by, "ages" according to the children, until Dad finally returns home with the milk in hand. The children ask what took him so long, curious whether he was held up chatting with a friend at the market. Indeed, he said hello to a friend, but that was not what held him up. He was held up due to his run-in with various crazed snot aliens obsessed with redecorating the Earth. To escape, he had to use the emergency exit through the space-time continuum door, which only led to more dangerous encounters. Reader, are you enticed yet?!
Upon entering the emergency exit, he is dropped into the ocean only to be scooped up by the Queen of Pirates and her crew. He is saved by a genius stegosaurus in a hot air balloon time machine, or a "Floaty-Ball-Person-Carrier" as Professor Steg calls it. Dad travels through space and time with the amazing dinosaur, clutching his container of milk the entire time. The two of them meet many other raucous, unfriendly characters along the way and eventually must face off with the disgustingly drippy aliens once again. Aliens who are bent on replacing the Earth's trees with plastic pink flamingos I must add.
The story is a great, short read filled to the brim with hilarious scenes and unlikely creatures (ahem, enter dinosaur police force). I laughed and giggled out loud at many passages and the book is filled with Gaiman's signature humor. The illustrations by Young are equally impressive and lend a further lightheartedness to this slightly absurd story. This is a good middle grade pick for readers who may not be drawn to Gaiman's other wonderful, but significantly darker, tales. Fortunately, the Milk would be a splendid reading option for adventure, fantasy and science fiction fans alike. What better way to spend a rainy October afternoon then traveling through time with a genius stegosaurus in a hot air balloon?
Gaiman, Neil. Fortunately, the Milk. Illustrated by Skottie Young. 114 p. Harper. 2013.
