Favourite adult books of 2013

Ah, the tradition continues. This year, I read 64 adult books, 23 children's books (all the dregs from my last year of judging) and three teen books. Alas, only three were nonfiction, and only three were graphica... Am I getting set in my ways? Wait, don't answer that. Picking up on Pasha Malla's recent article, 40 of my 64 were female authors, while 23 were male, and 26 were Canadian. As he says, to a certain extent these distinctions are meaningless, but I do like to see how balanced, or unbalanced I am (don't comment on that, either!)... and I like to see how much I "stretch."

Here's the best of the best, in sound bites (more complete reviews of many of these have appeared on this blog throughout the year):

1. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein: A teenage British spy captured by the Gestapo tells her story as she writes her confession; a tale of unshakable spirits and amazing female friendship that will break your heart.
2. The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin: the mother of Jesus reflects back on her life in her twilight years in semi-captivity. A troubled, nuanced portrait with surprising revelations about charisma, misogyny and "spin."
3. Above All Things by Tanis Rideout: OK, this one may not be a book for the ages as are some others on this list. It is a solid read, however, and I read it at just the right time for the story to truly move me. Read this even if you care nothing for sports (like me).
4. A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee: Speaking of spin, I have found myself quoting from this book quite a few times recently during the age of Ford. This is a book that excels at making the universal personal: a public figure who slips, and his wife, who in the wake of her husband's scandal becomes a crisis management expert herself, are ultimately redeemed, in the imperfect manner of the modern world.
5. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer: These friends, with their faults and their loves and their passionate re-inventions, made me feel good about the world, and the people I share it with.
6. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson: Ursula and her lives are infinitely fascinating, in a kind of literary "Choose your own adventure" way. A novel about choices, opportunities, and fate.
7. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: A strange little novel about the lengths you might go for the ones you love.
8.  Night Film by Marisha Pessl: Speaking of strange, this is quite the departure in some ways from (and in others, quite similar to) Special Topics in Calamity Physics. A brick of a book about mystery, superstition, celebrity, and, ultimately, the lengths we go to protect the ones we love.
9. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: No small praise here: this is the best book I have read since White Teeth about race in the modern Western world.
10. The Orenda by Joseph Boyden: a detailed, heartbreaking and dazzlingly human portrait of a pivotal moment in our young country's history.

Favourite children's and teen books of 2012

“Once there was a girl / an all-alone girl / in her own little bed / in her own little room / in her own little castle / who didn’t have a dragon for a friend.” 

This is going to be the saddest list ever. Nonetheless, here are the books for kids and teens that floated like jetsam past my desk this year....

Disclaimer: other more recent chapter books are embargoed because they are being considered for the CLA Book of the Year for Children and, as such, I cannot comment about them at this time.

1. Lovabye Dragon by Barbara Joosse: a lonely dragon with an overbite? What's not to love? See above.
2. Plant a Kiss by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (she of Duck! Rabbit! fame)
3. Sam et Julia dans la maison des souris by Karina Schaapman: This gem of a book is too beautiful to miss, even if you can't read the text. If you, like me, spent a childhood enraptured by dollhouses (my two favourites were the real-life one in Windsor Castle and the one in Beatrix Potter's The tale of two bad mice), this book is for you.
   
4. Oh No, Little Dragon! by Jim Averbeck: do I have a dragon thing? Perhaps! Little Dragon loses his fire-breathing ability when playing in the bathtub. Will he get it back? The suspense is killing me!
5. The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce: I did make a vague effort to stay current with international book awards news, and as a result read this winner of the Guardian children's fiction prize. An intriguing mix of Polaroids of unknown origin and a story about a mysterious immigrant family who are being pursued by a demon.
6. Howl by Karen Hood-Caddy: This book, and the next one on the list, are my under-appreciated underdogs from the 2012 CLA BOYCA reads. Howl actually appeared on our shortlist last year: this is a nuanced portrait of a young girl learning to cope with grief after the death of her mother, and a whole family's story of coming together to make something meaningful out of loss. Here's a review from Q&Q.                  
7. Saving Armpit by Natalie Hyde: In a world in which quality middle grade books are often few and far between, this is an overlooked solid Canadian title about a letter-writing campaign undertaken by a group of small-town children in order to save their local post office (and thus the postmaster, coach of their local baseball team).   
8. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: again, the hype penetrated my consciousness, and I had to pick this one up. Friends and colleagues disagree over this one: someone pointed out that teens don't talk like they do in this book (fair enough!) and someone else, like me, found this book both hilarious and tragic. For those who grew up with Lurlene McDaniel (oh yes, I went there!), this is how a book about a kid with a terminal illness was meant to be written. Green knocks it out of the park.
9. Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book 1 by Robin LaFevers: Meet your new Katniss.
10. Monoceros by Suzette Mayr: Technically published as an adult novel, but I am including it here because I feel it has a real audience with teens, especially as a year filled with truly tragic stories of teen suicides due to bullying draws to a close. This book has a passage, narrated by the victim's mother, of such utter beauty that I think it might well be one of my favourite scenes ever. As a truly Canadian story of a teen suicide, told from different perspectives, this is another under-appreciated title. Read a review here. 

Previous favourite children's book lists: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.
Previous favourite teen book lists: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.

Favourite adult books of 2012

Happy New Year!

I read 93 adult books in 2012, up from 52 in 2011. My changing professional role was reflected in the fact that I only read 28 children's and teens books (compared to 77 in 2011).

In 2013, I hope to keep increasing those adult numbers, and since this is my last year as a judge for the CLA Book of the Year for Children, make the children's books I read great ones that I choose myself for a change! It has been a great joy to be on the BOYCA committee, but I will not miss the speed-reading of 60-odd children's novels by Canadian authors with varying degrees of talent.

Without further ado, here it is, my pretties: the top 10 of 2012!

1. Gold by Chris Cleave: Chris’s writing has a way of grabbing you firmly by the heart and pulling, hard. The protagonists in this story are three Olympic bike racers, getting a bit long in the tooth in their early 30s and facing their last Olympics (London 2012). Despite not being at all interested in competitive sport, I could not put this down. There is much about the competitive spirit of world-class athletes in here, but there is also a love triangle, a child struggling with cancer, and a sensitive exploration of the choices we make in life, and the paths we choose and can also change. There are some absolute gems of phrasing and emotion in here. Read it. Some readers have compared the relationship in this novel between two strong women as reminiscent of Atwood’s The Robber Bride (my favourite of hers), and that is somewhat apt. For other heart-wrenching tales, however (for you masochists who like to cry while reading), I would recommend Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones or The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart.
2. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie: You may or may not know that I heart Rushdie, but we have  a fraught relationship. On the one hand, Imaginary Homelands changed my life, Midnight's Children acted as a closing bookend of sorts to my thesis about E. M. Forster, and I will watch any interview / attend any reading Rushdie gives, because I find him a fascinating and erudite speaker whose perspective I often find completely refreshing. On the other hand, I didn't finish The Satanic Verses, and have a low threshold for some of Rushdie's bombast. So, I embarked on Joseph Anton unsure how we were going to get along. Turns out I couldn't put it down, even if sometimes it drove me crazy (which probably encapsulates how I feel about Rushdie overall, frankly). I didn't mind the 2nd person narrative, found his unravelling of the Gordian Knot of his time under the fatwa deeply moving, vehemently agreed with many of his conclusions and observations about Western society's complex relationship with Islam, and found his stories about the supportive friendships that sustained him during his time in hiding (including a lovely one about a trip to Canada, involving being hugged by Bob Rae and serenaded by Adrienne Clarkson) compelling (I kept following the Husband around saying, "Listen to this!"). As a thank you of sorts to those who stood by him, and a statement about East/West relations during a tumultuous time in modern history, this is a tremendous book. As an indictment of those who abandoned, or outright criticised him, this book is less effective: Rushdie doesn't mince words, and in many cases rightly so, but sometimes a more unflattering spite seeps out of the pages, which is a pity. This is still an absolute must-read, however. Frankly, it's hard to begrudge him a little spite sometimes.
3. 
   Astray by Emma Donoghue: These stories are all about people on the move: between identities, places, or lives. I read this on the train, which was unintentionally perfectly appropriate. All of the stories are based on real-life people, and Donoghue follows each tale with a description of the actual events, whether it be a newpaper clipping about a female con artist or a series of letters between a husband and wife separated by an ocean (that story made me cry). The Guardian used the word frustrating when talking about the brevity of these tales; that is something that often bothers me in short stories, but here I felt that each story was so perfectly crafted that I didn't mind. Plus, frankly, I am happy to see that the pre-Room Donoghue is still around.
4. South Riding by Winifred Holtby: see review here. Readers who enjoyed Emma Brown (completed from Charlotte Brontë’s draft by Clare Boylan), Muriel Spark or our own massively-underappreciated Gwethalyn Graham will enjoy this novel.
5. Shine shine shine by Lydia Netzer: see review here. 

6. Sleeping funny by Miranda Hill: Well, I already loved Miranda for Project Bookmark, and now I just love her extra. These short stories all have an element of the magical, or just plain odd, about them, from a suspicious neighbour who may just have dropped out of a fairy tale, to a group of children who are afflicted with visions of their own conception (some surprises there!). These stories made me laugh out loud, and also cry. Warning: the one that won the Journey Prize was actually my least-favourite in the collection.... 
7. This is how you lose her by Junot Diaz: no, your eyes do not deceive you. I, an avowedly lukewarm reader of short stories, have chosen three collections in my top 10 this year. In October, I admitted that I was, indeed, oddly sympathetic with the rat narrator of this collection, especially for someone who spent four years with her very own serial philanderer. These stories, about the Yunior you may be familiar with from Drown, will break your heart as they draw you into the flawed but somehow tender heart of a troubled young man.
8. The grief of others by Leah Hager Cohen: Ricky Ryrie blames her husband John for a lot, but she blames herself for more, in this story of family secrets and new beginnings. The Ryries, parents to two living children and one recently-deceased baby boy, are struggling to move forward through their grief when John’s older daughter from a previous relationship shows up on their doorstep unexpectedly. Cohen’s writing gave me goose bumps; speaking about the Ryries’ dead child, she writes, “He wore, during his short life, a white cotton shirt with a single covered side snap, a white flannel receiving blanket, and a white cotton cap. … He was given two diaper changes, the second proving unnecessary.” It’s easy to see how this gem of a book made it on the Orange Prize longlist. . It has been a long time since I have rooted so strongly for a young girl, as I did for the Elizabeth “Biscuit” Ryrie, who we first meet when she has stolen a library book about funeral rites and falls into the Hudson River after a ritual for her dead baby brother goes wrong. Everyone in this book is barely coping with their grief (over the baby but also over their own personal tragedies and changing relationships with one another), but the story is somehow still gentle, hopeful and beautiful. If the past is a foreign country, so too is the grief of others, even those closest to us. This one is for readers who enjoy Joyce Carol Oates, Julia Glass, Kim Edwards’s The Memory Keeper’s Daughter or Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.
9. Everybody has everything by Katrina Onstad: Onstad captures perfectly the human spirit that lurks below a veneer of suits, heels, polished front doors, and shiny car windows in downtown Toronto. Ana and James are one such couple: half suit, half wrinkled artsy type, muddling towards early middle age childless and drifting apart (maybe). Into this mix falls small Finn, the young child of their good friends, left in their care after a car accident that claims Finn’s father and leaves his mother in a coma. Thrust into temporary parenthood (they wonder if Robert Crumb is appropriate bedtime reading as it’s the only illustrated book they have), Ana and James re-think their roles in their marriage, and the choices they have made without always realizing something was chosen. This is a character novel, and, to be frank without giving too much away, it’s about James wanting Finn desperately and Ana discovering that she doesn’t. Sure to divide readers, Ana’s struggles will hopefully spark meaningful book club discussions about what modern women can, or should, want for themselves.
10. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris: Also on the Orange Prize longlist, this jewel of a book perfectly captures the voice of its Scottish, Victorian-era (unreliable) narrator, 35-year-old nosy spinster Harriet Baxter. Harriet, living on her own and with a small income that allows her to be a patron of the arts (as she would put it), endeavors to set the story straight for us about her relationship with the members of the Gillespie family, to whom a great tragedy has befallen (although it takes Harriet awhile to spit out the details). By the time she is out with it, however, her story begins to look more like something by Wilkie Collins than the gentle memoirs of a thoughtful family friend. Interspersing the story of her friendship with dashing young artist Ned Gillespie with her present life as an elderly woman in a mysterious stand-off with a possibly deranged maid, Harriet keeps readers under her thumb, revealing only what she wants us to see – but with an occasional slip. This is chilling, masterful, psychological drama at its best. For fans of Iain Pears’s The Portrait or Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture.

Previous lists:

• Favourite adult books of 2011
• Favourite adult books of 2010

Favourite teen books of 2011

The twin's daughter by Lauren Baratz-Logsted - Seen via. The scene: Victorian London, the home of the prosperous Sexton family, with father Frederick, mother Aliese, and daughter Lucy. The action: Aliese's twin, the strange and somewhat mysterious Helen, who Lucy had never heard of, appears on the scene, and is taken in by the Sextons. The drama: Several years later, Lucy opens a door and finds one woman dead, the other collapsed. The surviving twin, supposedly Aliese, is acting strangely, prompting the question of whether her behaviour is due to shock and trauma, or guilt, or the fact that she might not be who she says she is. Chilling right through the whole book.

Strings attached by Judy Blundell - Not quite as good as 2009's What I saw and how I lied, but still great, in a spooky, suspenseful kind of way. Kit Corrigan leaves her boisterous Irish family, and her first love, in Providence, RI, to move to New York City, where she hopes to make it big as a star. New York in the 1940s has a hard shell that Kit soon finds difficult to crack; that is, until her boyfriend's father, Nate, turns up and offers to help her out. Nate's shady business dealings soon implicate Kit, who feels beholden to Nate for his help finding work. Meanwhile, her boyfriend has enlisted to go to Korea, and a violent crime is committed. Kit begins to uncover links between her family and Nate's that she might not really want to know about...

Beauty queens by Libba Bray - A plane full of aspiring beauty queens crashes on a desert island. The surviving girls rally to build shelter, find food, and if they are lucky, retrieve their make-up bags. They soon find, however, that the accidental crash may not be so accidental ... and someone may want to ensure that the crash doesn't have any survivors after all. A wonderful romp of a novel, full of humour and a spot-on analysis of feminine ideals and the beauty and modelling industries.

Folly by Marthe Jocelyn - Ooooh, more delicious Victorian London! This novel by Canadian author Jocelyn (of picture book fame) features 15-year-old Mary, sent into service as a scullery maid by her wicked stepmother. Naive Mary soon falls for a young man, and it doesn't end well. Meanwhile, a young orphan struggles to find out where he comes from. Jocelyn is great setting the tone and atmosphere of dirty, desperate Londoners (um, if you're into that sort of thing).

Half brother by Kenneth Oppel - Thirteen-year-old Ben is at first reluctant when his scientist parents explain that they are bringing home a baby chimpanzee for an experiment. They intend to raise Xan as a human, hoping to teach him to speak via sign language. At first, the experiment is a great successs, and Ben and Xan develop a strong rapport. Soon, though, discord runs through the family, with Ben and his mother both disagreeing with the stringent confines of the scientific methods employed by Ben's father. When Xan misbehaves one too many times, and the scientific community becomes uncomfortable, the project loses its funding and Xan’s place in the family is threatened. Oppel convincingly explores questions about scientific ethics, animal welfare, and what it means to be human in this incredibly complicated, and deeply moving, book.

Crossover appeal titles:
Book Of lies by Mary Horlock - Girl pushes her caustic best friend off a cliff - or does she? On the tiny island of Guernsey, everyone has a secret, and not everything is as it seems.

Previous lists: 2010, 2009, 2008.

Favourite adult books of 2011

The Meagre Tarmac: Stories by Clark Blaise - This was my year to read short stories, apparently; see Selecky, below.... Blaise has been on my must-read list for years, now, thanks to Professor Dorsinville at McGill. I was intrigued especially by this recent book when I read that some characters in it made appearances in a novel by Blaise's wife (novelist Bharati Mukherjee). A review in the Globe, including the following excerpt from a previous work, clinched it:

"E.M. Forster, you ruined everything,” laments the narrator of a story from Clark Blaise’s first collection of short fiction, published almost 40 years ago. “Why must every visitor to India, every well-read tourist, expect a sudden transformation?”

..... a Forster reference?... how could I ignore Blaise any longer?

This collection of stories focuses on immigrants arriving in North America from the Indian subcontinent. There are family secrets, schisms, skeletons in the closet, and a fair bit of humour mixed in here as well. To quote the Globe again, Blaise's greatest strength here is his "ingenious use of this hybrid form (in which the reader knows characters through other stories in a way the characters themselves do not) to mirror the experience of the people he writes about: the Indian immigrants who are often entangled in several stories – several histories – simultaneously."

Half-blood Blues by Esi Edugyan - Reading this made me miss reading James Baldwin; it made me want to dig out Go Tell It On The Mountain or "Sonny's blues." I'm not saying it's that good, but it has definite promise. The novel itself interweaves two storylines, as well as the drama of World War II in Europe, the jazz age, and even includes a passing reference to Montreal. In the core storyline, jazz bassist Sidney “Sid” Griffiths reflects back on life as a good, not great, musician, and discovers some surprising news about a wartime colleague, the young mixed-race trumpeter Hieronymus “Hiero” Falk. The second strand of the narrative is set in Berlin and Paris in 1940, and finds Hiero, Sid and their friends making (what later becomes) musical history to the backdrop of increasing racism and the rise of the Third Reich in Paris and Berlin. Compelling reading.

Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt - Scroll down to the last entry in this blog post for a full review.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan - This is my 2011 un-put-down-able title!!! Seriously, thanks a lot Sharron (said sarcastically) - I couldn't concentrate at work all day one day because I was halfway through this and couldn't stop thinking about it! This is a re-writing of The Scarlet Letter, set in a dystopian future. The southern United States have devolved into a radically conservative society, in which criminals are punished not by jail time, but by having their skin dyed a certain colour (based on the seriousness of their crime). Our narrator, Hannah Payne, is a murderer (of her unborn child, the product of a relationship she refuses to tell the authorities about), and is therefore a Red when she wakes up from "surgery." Forced to live on society's fringes, desperate to re-connect with her family and her lover, Hannah has to make some tough choices about her past, her religious beliefs, and her future. Extra credit to the author for planting a sympathetic, progressive woman minister near the end of the book.

Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz - You might know Lisa Lutz from the funny and dark Spellman mysteries; Heads you lose is also a mystery, this time co-authored by her ex-boyfriend, David Hayward. Lutz and Hayward have a history of, shall we say, disagreeing .... They begin to co-author with the intent to alternate chapters, offering feedback on the previous chapter at the same time. The book is ostensibly about siblings Paul and Lacey Hansen, a pot-growing pair of 20somethings. When they find a headless corpse on their property, they decide to move the body to avoid having the police discover their grow-up. One thing, and one body, leads to another.... Meanwhile, authors David and Lisa are busy dragging their old baggage out of the closet. Before long, they are arguing in the footnotes and killing off one another’s favourite characters. It's hard to decide which plot was more interesting – or absurd! This one is NOT for readers who want their stories tied up with tidy bows.

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai - A 20something children's librarian, unsure what to do with her adult life, embarks on an impromptu roadtrip (or is it a kidnapping?) with one of her young patrons, a boy with an unhappy home life. Who is leading who in this adventure....? And why are they being followed? A funny, strange, and oddly warm and fuzzy read. Bonus points for chapter headings based on classic children's novels.

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain - I totally didn't want to read this, because I read A Moveable Feast in my mid-teens and was highly influenced by it. I was afraid that this novel would ruin the picture I had in my head of the time that Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, spent in Paris in the 1920s. I shouldn't have been worried - the novel captures Hadley's voice wonderfully, and presents a nuanced, complicated, and ultimately somehow uplifting portraits of the early days of a highly influential woman ... and her husband.

Where Children Sleep by James Mollison - A photo essay book consisting of portraits of children and their "bedrooms;" at left, Ahkohxet from Brazil, and his sleeping quarters. Mollison intended the book to be an exploration of children's rights from a different perspective. Deeply, deeply moving, and surprising in both wonderful and appalling ways.

This Cake Is for the Party: Stories by Sarah Selecky - I'm very proud of myself for reading two short story collections this year. Read my full review of Selecky's book here.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - The titular Major lives in a cozy English town and has lef a fairly traditional, straight life, in keeping with his military training and his organised nature. His well-ordered life goes a bit off the rails, however, when he befriends Ms. Ali, a local shopkeeper. Before long, he is mixed up in all kinds of domestic drama, and the other townspeople are flummoxed by the new Major, with new friends and new opinions (or, frankly, any opinions). Adorable romance for the literate type who enjoyed Old Filth, with less of an edge.

(Favourite adult books of 2010 list here).

Favourite children's books of 2011

Picture books:

Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj - Many reviews have compared this interactive story to the Pigeon tales of Mo Willems, and with reason: the suspicious feline narrator of this book addresses the reader, refusing to divulge cat secrets until readers prove they are, in fact, cats themselves.

The Can Man by Laura E. Williams - A poignant story about a young boy who struggles to save enough money for a skateboard, something his family cannot afford to buy for him. He strikes upon the idea of collecting cans to make some quick cash, but soon finds that he is infringing on the livelihood of the Can Man, a local homeless man who used to live in his building. The Can Man generally keeps to himself, but pitches in to help the boy; the boy, meanwhile, struggles with why the Can Man does what he does, and whether the Can Man's desire for a winter coat is more important than his need for a new skateboard.

Won-Ton A Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw - A shelter cat tells his story in his own words. A great introduction to poetry in a classroom setting, and a touching story about a tough cat with a vulnerable core. Hate That Cat for the younger set, with fewer tears and more laughs, but just as much heart.

Honourable mentions to two titles technically not published or first read in 2011:

Taming Horrible Harry by Lili Chartrand - This was my go-to book for outreach visits to the K-3 set this year, of which I made significantly fewer, alas. This is the story of a monster who becomes captivated by books and learns to read. A joy to read aloud (with opportunities for roaring (kids) and licking (adults... don't ask....)). Translated from the French.

Not All Princesses Dress in Pink by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple - Yolen and her daughter co-authored this charming rhyming picture book depicting a variety of princesses (some with power tools, some in sports gear ... all in crowns and NONE in pink). The illustrations are not my favourite, ever, and the crown refrain is a bit tiresome, but this is a good pick for adventurous girls everywhere. Kirkus called it "A joyful and much-needed antidote to the precious pink pestilence that has infested picture books aimed at girls." Ha.

Best book trailer for a picture book: My Rhinoceros by Jon Agee

Middle grades:

The Odious Ogre by Norton Juster - The titular ogre terrorises entire communities until he is utterly confounded by an unfailingly pleasant young girl: “Are you new to the neighborhood?” the girl asks sweetly. “Please don’t leave until you’ve had a muffin.” Ponders the ogre, "I can't be liked. It's bad for business." Verbose, exaggerated fun for the whole family, this book is full of life and wickedly funny.

This Child, Every Child: A Book About the World's Children by David J. Smith
Each page illustrates aspects of children’s lives (at home, at work, schooling, gender inequality, being “on the move” due to adoption, kidnapping, immigration, etc.) and has the text of a related Article from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in a box at the bottom (the simplified text was a bit jarring to me, but appropriate for children). Sometimes, one child’s situation is used as an example of a certain aspect of children’s lives; sometimes, two or more are juxtaposed. There is a section for “learning more” and a great list of sources for all the statistical information in the book. The Children and the future section is a bit of a platform for UNICEF programs, but it is still very good.

The Adventures of Jack Lime by James Leck - Short detective stories written in the style of a 1950s potboiler. And I quote:

"What you are about to read are some of the more interesting cases that have crossed my desk. You see, I'm a detective, a private investigator, a gumshoe. What I do is fix problems for people who need their problems fixed. My name is Jack Lime, and these are my stories."

This book fell into my lap several months before Leck made a series of successful and entertaining class visits to several OPL branches (including Rockcliffe Park, which I was temporarily supervising at the time). Leck was fun to work with, and was great with kids. I hope to see more of Jack Lime, since it's always a struggle to find funny, interesting middle grade books with appeal to both boys and girls.

A Second Is A Hiccup by Hazel Hutchins - A book about time (and thus, math) for the middle grades set. In other words, a pink polka-dotted unicorn. Thank your lucky stars for this charming, engaging book that illustrates different units of time with real-life examples. For instance, "A second is a hiccup--the time it takes to kiss your mom, or jump a rope, or turn around," and "If you build a sandy tower / Run right through a sprinkly shower / Climb a tree and smell a flower / Pretend you have a secret power / That should nicely fill / An hour."

Novels:

Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis - A Regency England tale for young girls, about a widower parson, his three unruly daughters, and a family secret. As previously blogged, this tale features "three quarrelling sisters, two highwayman (real/not), secret family magical powers, romance, the clergy, and a flying teacup." Flavia de Luce for the 8-12 year old set.

Plain Kate by Erin Bow - An utterly captivating read. Few of you will know that I am tremendously sentimental about animals (in film and books - I was influenced early and deeply by The Velveteen Rabbit, wept at The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, avoided The Underneath and am currently studiously avoiding War Horse). As such, I am compelled to point out that the cat, Taggle, made the book for me, here. I read this shortly after my cat died and every time Taggle found himself in a sticky situation, I was falling to pieces. I wept. Seriously. ANYWAY, feline attachment aside, this is a rollicking good tale about an orphan who is the victim of a small town's superstitions. Alone and abused, Kate falls under the spell of the mysterious sorcerer, Linay, who, in exchange for her shadow, promises to grant her heart's wish. As Kate agonises over her (limited) choices, she befriends a young girl and learns that her fate, as well as that of her new friend and her deceased mother, might be connected to Linay's world in more ways than one. A truly dark and dangerous fairy tale.

Lily Renee, Escape Artist by Trina Robbins - Seen via the fabulous Elizabeth, this is a graphic novel biography of a real-life comic book artist and Holocaust survivor, Lily Renée Wilheim Peters Phillips. Lily escapes Vienna in 1939 via Kindertransport, arriving in Leeds at the home of her pen pal. She soon realises that some people in wartime England aren't quite as welcoming as she had hoped, and the book follows her as she works various odd jobs (mother's helper, servant, caretaker, candy-striper), eventually securing her (aging, ill) parents' passage to England after years spent unsure if they were still alive. Lily went on to work as a penciller for early comic books, creating and illustrating stories about Jane Martin, a female pilot, and Senorita Rio (at left). The facts of the book are compelling, and I agree with Elizabeth, who writes at Fuse #8 that "one thing about the book I liked without hesitation was the backmatter. In addition to the Glossary of German to English terms there are wonderful sections explaining everything from the British Internment Camps (something I’ve never encountered in a book for kids before) to automats." (Seriously, automats. Read all about them).

The Summer of Permanent Wants by Jamieson Findlay
This was such an odd little book, but I really loved it! Eleven-year-old Emmeline, who suffers from aphasia since an illness abroad, sets off with her grandmother in a boat rigged up as a traveling bookstore one summer. Aboard "Permanent wants," the two voyage down the Rideau Canal Waterway, in towns real and imaginary, encountering characters both possible and impossible. This book works as a novel but is best understood as a series of linked short stories about Permanent wants's various ports of call, and the mysteries Emmeline and her grandmother encounter there. From a lonely woman whose vocation is to be a mailwoman between doppelgangers, to a fraudulent sea captain, to a reptile zoo and its extravagant owners, this is a book rich with diverse characters and suffused with tenderness.

Previous children's lists: 2010, 2009, 2008.

Favourite children's books of 2010

Picture books:

Over at the castle by Boni Ashburn - I'm quite fond of the song "Over in the meadow" and so when I saw this title released, I had to check it out. Not only is it an inventive, original variation on the tune, but it is genuinely very funny and has an excellent cast of characters to diversify a child's vocabulary. For instance (sing along with me now!) "Sauté," says the chef; "Flambé," said the six...or "Plan," says the prisoner, "We plan," said the five... (rats, that is, of course!). There is the requisite dragon in the tale, too, playing a very important role (and he is, if I am correct, the dragon from Ashburn's previous Hush, little dragon). Great for early grades still willing to listen to a story but old enough to begin to understand the setting. Wonderful illustrations.

Art & Max by David Wiesner - I love me some good art books for kids. This one is brilliant, and postmodern, and just plain strange. Serious artist Arthur is plagued with "beginner student" Max: a creative idea by the latter takes both lizards, um, artists, on a topsy-turvy journey through artistic influences such as surrealism and Pointillism. Dude won three Caldecotts. Not to be messed with.

The heart and the bottle by Oliver Jeffers - 52% of all children's books published in a given year involve a dead parent. Or at least it seems that way. This book is about the love between a little girl and her father: her father shares his wonder at the secrets of the world with her.
He always answers her questions. When we observe his chair empty one day, we know that he has died; we watch the girl be so bewildered by her grief that she takes out her heart and puts it in a bottle to keep it safe from further damage. Carrying it around, she is insulated from hurt, but also from seeing any real colour in the world; besides, it's really heavy (see right)! And so she decides to take it back out, .... but can't figure out how. *Warning: just reading the reviews of this book makes me cry.

Brontorina by James Howe - .. because how could you resist a brontosaurus who wants to be a ballerina? Gravity just isn't on her side. I love how the book manages to convey Brontorina's sheer size: on only several pages is she fully shown. Most pages just have half of her, or her neck or feet, displayed, with tiny ballerinas surrounding her, perplexed. Of course, the problem, you see, is not that Brontorina is too big; it's that the dance studio is simply too small.

My Dog is As Smelly As Dirty Socks: And Other Funny Family Portraits by Hanoch Piven - Shout-out to Rideau patrons: this was "seen via patron hold." In other words, I was keepin' it real, as my uncle says, helping out shelving the holds, when I came across this title and reserved it for myself. It was a total hit with a local Grade 1 class. Using a children's drawing of his family as a starting point, the book explores what is *not* shown by the drawing: the child's mum, for instance, is "as soft as the softest FLUFF and as bright as the brightest LIGHT." The close-up of the mother is then transformed to include some fluff and a light bulb. Piven uses real household items to embellish the art in the book, and half the fun is in figuring out what he's used, and figuring out what *you* would use and what it would "say" about the person you atre illustrating. Talk about an underhanded way to introduce the concept of a simile to students! This book would also make a great starting point for a craft project... and of course an enterprising team of librarians has already beat me to it!

Middle grades:

Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo - I blogged at length about this title back in October. It's a great early reader, because the text is simple and many nuances are conveyed in the rich illustrations. When I first used it for a booktalk, [kids, don't do this at home!] I was doing my prep last-minute and needed extra copies STAT, so I called a few branches to ask them to pop their copies in the inter-office mail to me. One of my favourite children's programmers answered the phone at one of the branches answered, and she had just finished using Bink and Gollie for one of her classes... Sure sign that we have a winner! A great story about friendship, differences, and compromise.

Layla, Queen of Hearts by Glenda Millard - File under: Books that make you cry at work. Third-grader Layla wants to take someone to "Senior Citizens Day" at school (seriously, where are these schools?) but her grandmother died awhile ago. Her best friend Elliot's wise grandmother suggests her friend Miss Amelie, an elderly woman in dire need of a friend. Elliot's grandmother explains that Miss Amelie has some trouble remembering things, but that isn't something to be afraid of. Layla and Elliot befriend Miss Amelie, and Layla especially becomes quite sensitive to both Miss Amelie's sorrows and her moments of real joy. A very light treatment of the perils of Alzheimer disease, in which Layla seems to intuitively understand how certain sticky situations can be sorted out, with the wisdom that children sometimes have.

The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz - Fairies are vicious, and conniving, and pointy. This book delivers (finally, world!) a realistic fairy. Wait, did I just say, "a realistic fairy?" Oh well.... This book hearkens back to the classics of children's literature, those fairy tales and folk stories with devious little people battling real dangers. I was always a sucker for The Tale of Two Bad Mice and Thumbelina - tiny things fascinated me immensely. Our fairy heroine here is Flory, a young night fairy "no taller than an acorn" who is a little bit, let's face it, cocky; out flying one night, her wings are torn and she finds herself no longer able to fly. Awake, and stranded, during the day, Flory is forced to learn about the daytime world and its dangers (new to her): People! Different animals! Flory's resourcefulness and ferocity is admirable, but she is also pushy: she befriends a (truthfully, rather dull) squirrel named Skuggle, and essentially bosses him around to get her way. A delightful adventure story.

Novels:

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger - Thanks for the recommendation, Jess! 6th grader Dwight is essentially a loser, and frankly rather odd, until he crafts a Yoda figure out of origami and perches it on his finger. Origami Yoda spouts words of real wisdom, and soon students who once mocked or ignored Dwight are seeking Yoda's wisdom. How can Yoda be Yoda when Dwight is so ... strange? How is it that Yoda can even offer sound advice about Dwight's problems, advice which Dwight then ignores? Is the paper Jedi Grand Master for real? Dwight's classmate Tommy writes down Yoda's story in this book, gathering testimony from other students, to attempt to establish whether Origami Yoda is the genuine article.
*Want to make your own? Get folding instructions from the author here.

The Dark Deeps (Book 2 in the steampunk series, "The Hunchback Assignments") by Arthur Slade - This series is just great fun: adventure, with a dash each of history, science, romance, and espionage. Fourteen-year old Modo (yes, a hunchback), a British secret agent who was adopted by his boss, Mr. Socrates, at a young age, continues to pursue the agents of the evil Clockwork Guild. This time, his mission leads him on a submarine voyage to unravel the underwater mystery of something called the Ictíneo.

Watching Jimmy by Nancy Hartry - Watching Jimmy is the job of his best friend, Carolyn, even before Jimmy had a mysterious accident that left him with brain damage. What Carolyn knows about this "accident," and the implications for both Jimmy and his family, is revealed over the course of this deeply moving historical novel set in Canada in 1958. This is a story about single mothers, about war, peace, regret, loyalty, and health care (yes, Tommy Douglas makes a brief appearance). Winner of the 2010 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award (BOYCA), for which I am a judge.

Previous lists: 2009, 2008.

Favourite teen books of 2010

So, funny story. I have sort of been reading fewer teen books this year. I was worried I was using them as an emotional crutch in life, a kind of lazy bibliotherapy. I actually didn't realise how much I had cut back until I ran a list in LibraryThing for YA2010 tags, and there were a pitiful 10 titles. Well, that makes a Top 10 list hard to write! So here's my top, um, 5.

Heist society by Ally Carter - Slight guilty pleasure. Carter is a pretty good writer, but she airs on the side of repetetive, sometimes. That being said, don't let the cover put you off this book: while it looks chick lit-y, it does have some serious art history in it. Katarina Bishop is tired of being involved in her father's art heist schemes, and enrolls herself in a private school; alas, her "vacation" from the family is short-lived, as her father ends up the prime suspect in a major heist that, ironically, he claims he didn't pull off. In an attempt to clear his name, Kat assembles a team of teen accomplices to retrieve the stolen art (which ends up being stolen Nazi art). Great descriptions of exotic locales, fancy espionage techniques... I really stick with Carter for the humour, though.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - Captain Obvious, I know. The Hunger Games Trilogy was, in my mind, absolutely brilliant, and one of the most complex, disturbing teen titles to come out in a long time. I previously wrote about my anticipation of Mockingjay, the third and final book in the trilogy; in that post, I quoted an interview with Collins in which she described how her father told her stories about the war growing up. She said that "if the whole concept of war were introduced to kids at an earlier age, we would have better dialogues going on about it, and we would have a fuller understanding." Well, I think Mockingjay does that; the novel covers topics such as PTSD, child soldiers, media, and propaganda in an action-packed drama with real appeal to teens. Many meaningful links are drawn in all three books between Katniss' society, the ancient Romans (the candy-coloured buildings, the Latin phrase panem et circenses, or bread and circuses) and our modern age (media embedded with soldiers, the meld of performance, politics and battle - hey, we live in a world in which Stephen Colbert testifies - in character - in front of the Senate). Katniss is a tough girl to like, all right, but then so is any child soldier: she is selfish, and her relationships with those close to her (especially her mother) are forever marred by her experiences, and the choices she has had to make. Lots to chew on.

Wildthorn by Jane Eagland - Seventeen-year-old Louisa Cosgrove is a (mostly) respectable Victorian girl, with some not-very-respectable ambitions: she wishes to be a doctor, like her father. After her father's unexpected death, her somewhat unorthodox interests, which had been tolerated by her mother and brother until then, are promptly dismissed. When Louisa objects, her family has her committed to Wildthorn Hall, a home for lunatic women, under an assumed name. Deprived of her very identity, and faced with inhumane treatment by nurses and doctors, Louisa tries to hang on to her sanity, and forge bonds of trust with other residents of the Hall. Wildthorn is inpsired by true stories of women who were incarcerated in asylums in the nineteenth century.

The secret fiend by Shane Peacock ("The Boy Sherlock," #4) - This series works for kids 10+, but I'm putting it here anyway. There is a lot of darkness in Peacock's Sherlock, and I think Sherlock's growing self-awareness, and control over his emotions, is better appreciated by a more mature audience. I've been a fan of the boy Sherlock since Book 1, which blew me away. Peacock has mastered a truly remarkable, unique voice in these books: they are taut, gritty, realistic, historically authentic, and also, at times, touching and tender. Future classics.

Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas - What is Haida manga, you ask? Haida manga is a hybrid art form that com­bines clas­sic Haida design and sto­ry­telling techniques with manga. I enjoyed this book a lot because it was so utterly unique. I don't read a lot of folk tales anymore, but the art in this book drew me in. I read a review in Quill and Quire, and was fascinated by the fact that Red was constructed as a single giant mural; in other words, if you put every page together, they compose a single artwork. Each double-page spread also has its own image (see this for an example). The story itself comes from the oral tradition of the Haida Gwaii, and features a young man, the titular Red, seeking revenge. A more eloquent review of the book, with more spectacular scans of the art, and a video, is here.

Previous "Favourite teen books" of the year on this blog: 2009, 2008.

Favourite adult books of 2010

Why have I never done an adult top 10 list here? Who knows! Anyway, high time to start, I think!

(Children's and teens lists for 2010 are forthcoming)

The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart - Beefeater Balthazar Jones and his wife mourn the death of their young son while Balthazar struggles to keep in line the new menagerie of animals at the Tower of London, and his wife seeks to re-unite items lost on the Tube with their owners. Some reviewers criticised this book for being too "cute;" I disagree. Maybe I feel things too keenly, but the Jones' grief was palpable throughout the novel, undercutting any cuteness with a sense of loss and emptiness. Really, lost things, people and animals was the main theme of this work for me: the human characters wrestle with isolation or hidden passions, the animals are lonely, needy or cantankerous, and objects devise a life of their own, independent of their owners. An utterly unique, complex novel.

Room by Emma Donoghue - So much has been written about Donoghue's novel this year. It's cutesy / it's creepy; it's sensationalist / it's subtle. I'm exhausted from the media coverage. I am a fan of Donoghue's other work (especially Slammerkin and the magnificent Life Mask), and I thought Room was an interesting departure for her. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to get through the book, or wouldn't enjoy it, because it covers such a horrible topic: the imprisonment of a young woman and her son in a single room, held there by an abusive man. I find I am much more inclined to "inhabit" a character in a novel, rather than a character seen on TV, so this is a far cry from watching Law and Order, say. The voice of 5-year old Jack, the narrator of the novel, did, however, ring true to me, and caught me from page 1. I couldn't put the book down, and I could hardly take a breath. I actually also quite liked the second part of the book, which happens outside of Room, as Jack calls their home; I thought it raised an interesting discussion about re-integration into society, and what makes humans social beings.

Three Junes by Julia Glass - Disclaimer: I am sort of cheating since this book was originally published in 2003. Previously briefly blogged about here; read based on recommendation by Caitlin. Maybe you'd be surprised to learn that I worry a lot about legacies: what we leave behind, who we leave it to. This book reassured me a lot: it's all about the friendships and connections we forge with other people, whether family or friends. Set during three summers, years apart, the novel follows three siblings (Fenno and his twin brothers) and their aging Scottish parents. Fenno, a gay man living in New York in the 1980s, provides the central perspective in the novel: he feels himself an outsider (in his own family and as a Scot in the United States): the non-twin, the homosexual, seemingly at odds with his father. Throughout the novel, Fenno learns secrets about his parents and brothers that help shape and change his opinions about them, and he begins to find his place in the world, and understand the contributions he can make to his family's lives.

The News Where You Are by Catherine O'Flynn - I am a total closet architecture geek. This novel will perhaps always remain remarkable to me, in that it made me temper my hatred of Brutalism. Frank Allcroft, the novel's main character, is in the middle: he is a middle-aged television reporter for "Heart Of England Reports," a middle-England regional (not local, not national) news program. He is caught in the middle of a possible secret regarding the death of a former colleague, and is also caught in the middle between his daughter (reaching out for the future with both hands) and his mother (seemingly unable to move forward from a past filled with regret and depression). Meanwhile, the buildings his father, a brilliant but under-appreciated Brutalist architect, built, are being demolished; only one remains standing, as his city makes way for new construction and turns its collective back on the past.

Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith - Oh, Zadie. I do love you. I wish we were friends. I think we have a lot in common. A love of E. M. Forster, for instance. Smith writes about Forster in this collection of essays, literary criticism, and reviews. The Guardian called Changing My Mind "sparkling," the New York Times called it "quirky," the Globe and Mail called Smith a "maestro," and even About.com said the essays "come together like a patchwork quilt." Changing My Mind is divided into five sections: the first, "Reading," is composed of critical essays about the writings of Zora Neale Hurston, Joseph O'Neill, Tom McCarthy, E. M. Forster, Vladimir Nabokov and Roland Barthes. "Being" covers everything from Obama's oratorial style to the craft of writing; "Seeing" delves into film reviews, ranging from Spencer and Tracy classics to the more tepid rom-coms of the current day; "Remembering" focuses on the late author, David Foster Wallace. My favourite section, and I freely admit I am a sentimentalist, was "Feeling," a collection of three largely personal essays about Smith's family, especially her father. In the "Feeling" essays, she discusses family holidays, her father's wartime experiences (on D-Day: “So much experience that should be parceled out, tenderly, over years, came to my father that day, concertinaed into twenty-four hours”), and his love of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers. Full disclosure: I skipped the 40-page essay about David Foster Wallace. I know, I know. He is on my to-read list; I just figured the essay would be more meaningful after I have read his work.

My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares - This book is the wildcard in the list; I confess I simply cracked it open because of Brashares' popularity. The premise of this novel is that we have past lives, and there are some people (not many!) who can remember some or all of these lives, either in part or in full. What these people do with this information, and how it affects their current life and experiences, varies. I'm surprised this book didn't get picked up a bit more for reviews; it's certainly a popular, melodramatic romance, but it has some thoughtful moments, also, including an examination of the controls we try to exert on our environment and our own personalities, what makes us ourselves, and what makes us human.

The Way Things Look to Me by Roopa Farooki - 23 year old Asif Murphy's life hasn't turned out the way he intended it to....His mother's death leaves him in charge of his younger sister, Yasmin, who has Asperger's. That being said, Yasmin's life hasn't turned out the way she intended it to, either.... Asif, Yasmin and their other sister Lila each have secrets things about them that they think the other two will never understand. A surprising, touching novel.

The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World by Paul Collins - Previously blogged about here. Just go and read that, already, so you too can learn about Japan's love of Shakespeare in puppet form, and the people who devote their lives to creating spreadsheets of every copy of the First Folio. I am secretly kind of in love with Paul Collins. He just can't write a bad book. What's up with that?

The Help by Kathryn Stockett - I know, over-discussed book of 2010... but actually very good. The New York Times review accused it of pushing readers' buttons, and indeed it does that, but not just that. This is certainly not the first book about racism I have ever read, nor the first about the African-American experience in the Southern U.S., but the fact that the action of this novel is set at a turning point in American history (1962) lends it a certain danger and urgency. It's astounding, all over again, how women were treated (white or black); it's incredible to witness the bravery of individuals in the face of collective ignorance, hatred and the mob mentality; it's powerful to hear about women bonding together in the face of adversity, and despite numerous barriers.

Practical Jean by Trevor Cole - A wickedly funny story about an entirely impractical woman who decides on one practical and meaningful act in her life: unfortunately, it's a series of homicides. Nominated for the Writers' Trust Award and recently reviewed in the Ottawa Citizen.

As mentioned above, there are no previous adult reads lists from this blog, but check out these Top 10 lists from my BiblioCommons account: Favourite adult novels of 2009, Favourite adult novels of 2008.