Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Jules: Here we are again with a co-review, this time of Red Spikes, a collection of ten short stories by Australian author Margo Lanagan. These stories were originally published last year in Australia by Allen & Unwin, one of Australia’s leading independent publishers (their cover is shown on the left here), and Random House/Knopf will be releasing them this October with the cover you see on the right (jacket illustration by Jeremy Caniglia). Eisha and I were thrilled to have an opportunity to read advance proofs of this collection of short stories.

And I have Eisha to thank for turning me on to Lanagan’s writing in the first place. She reviewed White Time here in February of this year, and we have an interview with Lanagan lined up for tomorrow’s “One Shot World Tour: Best Read with Vegemite!” — a focus on Australian writers, which will be happening at a handful of kidlit blogs, all organized by Colleen Mondor (go here to see the full schedule). I really enjoyed this collection of stories and Lanagan’s writing and am grateful to have finally read some of her stuff. I want to recommend this book to everyone I know — as in, shout-it-from-the-rooftops recommend — and I don’t normally read short stories. Get me.

Instead of trying to summarize the collection as a whole or summarizing each story, I’ll send you to this link. And I echo that woman’s sentiments about the story “Winkie” in this anthology. Holy crap. I don’t know which was scarier, though: “Winkie,” a horror fantasy story borne from the nursery rhyme “Wee Willie Winkie,” or “Under Hell, Over Heaven,” which brings the Catholic construct of Limbo to life for the reader. Yes, Lanagan takes you to the very edge of Hell. Did I already say holy crap? Lanagan really takes you to the settings of each of her fantasy/speculative fiction stories, and her writing is — at turns — eloquent and evocative and provocative . . . . and she really knows how to SCARE THE PANTS OFF OF YOU, as my middle-school self would put it. Read the rest of this entry �

{Note: I’m having fun with covers here and showing you all three that I have seen for the novel. The first one is the cover for the upcoming Candlewick release — unless they change covers at publication. And the next two are from Walker Books in the UK — I believe it was published in June of this year in the UK — the last one being the paperback cover. But don’t quote me on that} . . .

I tried really hard to like British author/journalist Tim Lott’s first book for young readers, a dystopian novel called Fearless (to be released this Fall by Candlewick), even hanging on ’til the very end. Lott was given the Whitbread First Novel Award for his adult novel White City Blue in 1999; his novel Rumours of a Hurricane was short-listed for the Whitbread Novel Award; and he “has carved out a niche for himself as one {of} British literature’s foremost social realists” (says the British Council Arts group). Fearless is about a young girl who, we learn in the novel’s chilling prologue (“The Night They Came”), is snatched one night by a man in uniform from a woman she believes to be her mother — but not until after she gives the young girl three objects: a picture of the girl’s grandmother and grandfather; an old silver watch that she said once belonged to the girl’s father; and a golden locket that encases a photograph of her mother on the day of her wedding. She is whisked away into the darkness with only these three things in her possession.

Read the rest of this entry �

What: Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy; published by HarperCollins, April 2007 (review copies)

About (without revealing too many spoilers): When twelve-year-old Dubliner Stephanie Edgley’s strange Uncle Gordon dies, she is thrust into a world of magic with Skulduggery Pleasant — a walking, talking, wisecracking skeleton who can throw fire with the snap of his bony fingers — at her side. The death of her uncle spawns an underground, frantic search — by inhabitants of a world Stephanie can hardly believe exists — for the Scepter of the Ancients, a weapon that mythology dictates will allow one to rule the world. And, as it turns out, Skulduggery’s nemesis, Nefarian Serpine, is the one after the weapon he believes can call forth the world’s original, rather baneful gods from their obscurity. Writes Kirkus Reviews: “A high-intensity tale shot through with spectacular magic battles, savage mayhem, cool outfits, monsters, hidden doors, over-the-top names, narrow escapes, evil schemes and behavior heroic, ambiguous and really, really bad.” Stephanie and Skulduggery, along with a few other noble and magical folks, struggle throughout the novel to keep one step ahead of Serpine and his evil lackeys — all within a world of magic; super, special-secret powers; lots and lots of witty, droll dialogue, and some kickin’ good action scenes. This is Landy’s debut novel, though he has written screenplays for horror films (and, hey, check out the Skulduggery movie news) . . .

eisha: Oh, this has a lot of potential as a movie. I mean, the book felt like a screenplay, didn’t it? The really standout feature for me was the dialogue. Stephanie and Skulduggery had that sarcastic banter thing goin’ on – it was like Moonlighting without the sexual tension: Read the rest of this entry �

Author and historian J.L. Powers has penned her first YA novel, The Confessional (Knopf; July 2007; review copy), and it’s a compelling read, told from the perspectives of multiple students at an El Paso high school. They are reeling from the recent destruction of a local bridge by a Mexican national, a suicide bomber protesting — to “the President and People of the United States” — the treatment of immigrant workers: “First, I am a Mexican, not a terrorist. Yet when I am caught crossing the river to go to work, your Border Patrol makes me bend over, looking for explosives up my butt. They used to look for drugs. Now it’s all about Al-Qaeda.” One student — MacKenzie Malone, from whose perspective the novel is told for the first three chapters — responds in a letter to the Editor by asking for a pause in the Cinco de Mayo celebrations this year in the name of “suitable mourning and remembrance,” angering a lot of the Mexican students with whom he attends school. On the same day that MacKenzie fights violently at the school’s basketball courts with another student, Bernie Martinez, he (MacKenzie, that is) is found dead in his neighborhood, having been stabbed repeatedly.

Thus begins the novel’s alternating points-of-view, as a closeted gay student, the “peacemaker,” the “infiltrator,” “Mr. Invisible,” and others (six voices in all) tell their story, examine their own prejudices (and others’ — “Do any of us realize the million stupid truths about the people we love?” wonders one student), and try to come to terms with MacKenzie’s death and who may have been responsible for it. The word “gritty” gets overused in describing novels like this — which examine in a no-holds-barred way the minds and attitudes and mores of so-called inner city male teens — but, well, it’s gritty as hell. As it should be, too. Powers doesn’t hold back on the drug use, violence, tough talk, sexism, and rampant homophobia. Read the rest of this entry �

Can I take a moment to tell you about an outstanding novel by a first-time YA author (I have no idea if this is the cover that will be chosen for the book’s late September publication here in the U.S., but I found it here at Amazon UK)? I received an advance reader’s copy of a novel entitled Before I Die by Jenny Downham. I’m sure that a whole slew of blogs were notified about this book and its marketing campaign. My curiosity was instantly piqued, as there is a “Dear Reader” note in the front of the proof, written by editor David Fickling. He calls this novel “literary gold dust”; says that David Fickling Books is publishing it zippy speedy quick by modern publishing standards (Fickling doesn’t think the public should be kept waiting any longer); urges us to read it; and writes that it’s “searing, unsentimental, and honest and at the same time almost shockingly affirming of life.” Oh, and rights to the book were very quickly sold in “no fewer than TEN languages, in less than two weeks.”

Allrighty then. Fickling’s excited about this book. And he does have a track record that is nothing to sneeze at. Honestly, though, I was thinking, nah, I don’t want to be reading the same book as every other kidlit blogger in America. I’m a fiercely independent reader. I don’t need this swaying. Well, then I read the first page and was immediately hooked. And then I found it damn near unputdownable. Really, I read this in record time myself, and — with two wee children in my life — I only have little windows of time for reading. I must have read it while driving or sleeping or, I dunno, maybe I actually never slept. I don’t remember. I just know that I devoured it (really, I devoured it in no time after first receiving it; I just held off on the review for a bit for a myriad of reasons). Read the rest of this entry �

Hi to all . . . It’s the first Monday of the month, and that means it’s time for a new Wicked Cool Overlooked Books entry (we’ll get back to a blogger interview next Monday; we promise). In case you still haven’t heard of it, this is the brain child of Colleen Mondor, in which any bloggers who want to participate can talk about books they consider outstanding yet did not get the attention they deserved. Last month was our first entry — sort of. We had this nice, long, lovely post, and Jules inadvertently deleted it, so you got the Cliffs Notes version instead. But this time her fingers are not as slippery.

I’m going to highlight one more Australian author for this month’s Wicked Cool Overlooked Book entry (there were quite a few Australian authors featured in the recent Summer Blog Blast Tour), and that would be Steven Herrick, an Australian poet who writes books of poetry for children, young adults, and adults. If you visit his site, you will see a complete listing of all his titles, but the book I want to tell you about is 2004’s By the River (the original cover is featured on the left, and the Front Street Books’ cover on the right). I reviewed it here at 7-Imp last September. I suppose it’s arguable that it’s overlooked, since it garnered many honors in Herrick’s home, including a Children’s Book of the Year Honor Book for Older Readers by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Read the rest of this entry �

Before I share a YA review today, can I just share something so asinine that it’s almost funny?

There is this “what’s my blog rated?” thingy (to be precise) going around. You can see it here. For kicks and grins, I entered our blog’s name earlier this week. We got a “PG” rating, because the word “gay” showed up five times (that would be in the Summer Blog Blast Tour interview with Brent Hartinger, who is openly gay). Then, for even more kicks and grins and ’cause I was rather appalled (seeing as how just inches from the Brent interview was the Holly Black interview, in which she gives the most potent, most delightfully trash-talkin’, she-could-teach-some-sailors-a-thing-or-two answer thus far to the Pivot curse-word question, yet that somehow wasn’t any naughtier than being gay clearly is), I entered the URL of just Brent’s interview and got this:

Yes, it’s an “NC-17” rating, because the word “gay” shows up twenty times (and, incidentally, the word “pooped” shows up once).

For yet even more kicks and grins, I entered the URL for Holly Black’s interview. Seriously, did you even see her response to the Pivot curse-word question? But, apparently, being gay is even more profane, because her interview just warrants this rating:

Yes, include the word “gay” — no matter if you’re talking about, I dunno, sweet, bubbly, patriotic, philanthropic, humanitarian angel bunnies who are little saint bunnies or nun bunnies and who happen to be gay — and you get slapped with the rating that is, for all intents and purposes, the new “X” rating.

I’m trying to think of some really clever way to point out how oafish that is or trying to think of some really profound, witty, and famous quote on stupidity, but I’ll let it speak for itself. Moving right along:

I simply had to read Waves by British author Sharon Dogar (Scholastic’s Chicken House imprint; April 2007; library copy — I’m featuring both covers there, just for fun) when I saw the Philip Pullman quote on the cover in the way of advertising the novel: “A remarkable novel . . . suffused by an atmosphere both sensuous and sinister.” Pullman could tell me that the phone book is infused with an atmosphere both sensuous and sinister, and I’d reconsider spending some time reading it (you know, those yellow pages are pretty hot). Read the rest of this entry �

Synopsis (straight from Horvath’s site, as we don’t want to slip and reveal plot spoilers for those wanting to read it): “When an accident leaves teenage cousins Meline and Jocelyn parentless, they come to live with their unknown and eccentric Uncle Marten on his private island. They soon discover that the island has a history as tragic as their own: it was once an air force training camp, led by a mad commander whose crazed plan to train pilots to fly airplanes without instruments sent eleven pilots to their deaths. Jocelyn, Meline, and Uncle Marten are soon joined on this island of wrecked planes and wrecked men by an elderly Austrian housekeeper {Mrs. Mendelbaum}, a very mysterious butler {Humdinger}, a cat, and a dog. But to Jocelyn and Meline, being in a strange new place around strange new people only underscores the fact that the world they once knew has ended.”

Jules: So, yeah, we just read an advanced proof of Polly Horvath’s newest novel, The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane. We thought it was a great premise and had some strong moments, yet we both found it to be somewhat unsatisfying. We weren’t sure if we were even going to review it here at 7-Imp, but 1). we both adore Horvath’s writing (Everything on a Waffle, The Canning Season, The Trolls, The Pepins and Their Problems — oh, the list of great books goes on and on); 2). the novel had its moments; and 3). as Eisha said, “Horvath can take it.” I mean, come on. She’s the Polly Horvath, well-known, well-loved, well-respected. Not to mention her National Book Award. She could squish us with her little ‘ol (and very talented) literary pinky.

Read the rest of this entry �

Don’t miss the final Summer Blog Blast Tour interview today: Justina Chen Headley over at Finding Wonderland. Go here to read this great interview.

Whew. We can’t believe it’s the last day. What a blast (pun intended) it’s been!

And, in case you missed all the action, go here to this great list of authors interviewed in the SBBT (organized by author) at HipWriterMama’s site. Thanks, Vivian! Oh, and Little Willow has a wrap-up here, too — a full SBBT schedule with all the links. Excellent.

We were honored to be a part of this. Thanks to the SBBT mama, Colleen Mondor, for coordinating this entire thing (here’s her “moment for reflection” about the entire venture).

We at 7-Imp are taking an SBBT interview break today. However, we’ll bring to you an interview with Mitali Perkins tomorrow and an interview with Holly Black on Friday. We encourage you to check out the SBBT interviews at other blogs today; Wednesday’s schedule is below.

Wow, everyone, are you keeping up with all the great interviews this week at all these amazing blogs? Good stuff.

Schedule for Wednesday, June 20

• Mitali Perkins at Hip Writer Mama
• Svetlana Chmakova at Finding Wonderland
• Dana Reinhardt at Interactive Reader
• Laura Ruby at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
• Holly Black at Shaken & Stirred
• Hilary McKay at Bookshelves of Doom
• Kirsten Miller at Miss Erin
• Julie Ann Peters at A Fuse #8 Production
• Carolyn Mackler at The YA YA YAs
• Jordan Sonnenblick at Writing and Ruminating