Review of Gary D. Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Reviewed by Suzanne, Teen Services Librarian

Seventh grade can be tough—especially if your teacher hates you. In Gary D. Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars, Holling Hoodhood is left alone every Wednesday afternoon with the treacherous Mrs. Baker. While his Catholic and Jewish classmates leave early for religious education, Presbyterian Holling is clapping erasers, cleaning rat cages, and [gasp!] forced to read Shakespeare!

As a recent transplant from Long Island, I was immediately drawn into the world of Holling which takes place in suburban Nassau County. The chapters, broken down into the moths of the school year, chronicle the (mis)adventures of Holling and Mrs. Baker’s Wednesday afternoons.

The book starts a little slow, but if you are a persistent reader, you will be thoroughly delighted by The Wednesday Wars. It’s a feel-good read with some truly hilarious moments. However, set during the Vietnam War, The Wednesday Wars is not without its somber moments. Holling Hoodhood (my new favorite name in literature!) is a refreshing character. Although he always comes out on top, Holling is hardly flawless. Luckily his nemesis, Mrs. Baker, is always around to bail him out.

The Wednesday Wars received Starred Reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Horn, and there is both Newbery and Printz buzz surrounding it (check back January 14, 2008 to see if it won any awards). The Lewiston Public Library owns one copy; it can be reserved through NIOGA. To read more about Gary D. Schmidt and The Wednesday Wars, visit Clarion Books.

Review of Anna Godbersen's The Luxe

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
Reviewed by Suzanne, Teen Services Librarian

Gossip Girl meets New York City's Gilded Age in The Luxe. Author Anna Godbersen's debut is a page-turner from beginning to end. Full of romance and scandal, The Luxe is a murder-mystery rocking high society.

Elizabeth Holland, back from Paris, is betrothed to Henry Schoonmaker, the city's most eligible bachelor. Unfortunately, their union is not based on love but on convenience. Instead of planning and celebrating, there is cunning and scheming abound. Everyone has a secret and The Luxe is crammed with lust, love, envy, greed, and hate.

The packaging of this book is fabulous—from the cover photography to the carefully chosen typesets inside. Godbersen's meticulous research into this time period is obvious to and appreciated by the reader.

Between the spectacular cover, however, were some faults. The Luxe was extremely predictable. Godbersen leaks too many clues too early, and by a quarter of the way in, the reader is able to (correctly) predict the ending. Also, for a 433 page book, the characters are not deeply explored. They are familiar stereotypes which lets Godbersen off the hook from creating a back-story. The only deviation from the bland cast is Diana Holland, whose complicated spunkiness is a delight.

Nevertheless, this book is a juicy read. If you want to be entertained, The Luxe is an ideal choice. Godbersen is currently writing a sequel which I am certainly looking forward to reading.

To read more about The Luxe visit Harper Teen. The library owns one copy; it can be reserved through NIOGA.

New year, new teen page!

Since my arrival in late-August I have been working hard to increase the services offered to teens at LPL.

First order of business was to get us on MySpace. Our MySpace page allows you to connect with popular authors. Our MySpace friends include Meg Cabot, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, and Chris Crutcher. Some generous authors, such as Niki Burnham and Elizabeth Scott sent us copies of their new books! If you haven't already, make sure you visit our MySpace page ASAP!

Thanks to our generous Friends of the Library, we have been adding some fantastic non-fiction titles to our teen collection. Check out Encyclopedia Horrifica, Ana's Story, and author Jack Gantos' autobiography Hole in My Life. The Friends are also going to help us host some great teen programs at the library, including a special raffle that will take place during Teen Tech Week in March (spoiler alert: it will involve iPods!). Our fiction and graphic novel collections are also growing.

With all these exciting changes, I decided that our teen page needed a make-over. After scouring the web for exciting ideas, I decided the Google's Blogger was the way to go. Using Blogger, I am not only able to give you the latest library updates, but you are able to interact with us.

So... what do you think of our new look? I want feedback! It is still a work in progress, but I can only make it better with help from you. What do you want to see on our page? What do you want to see at the library? What can your library do for you???

Keep reading,

Suzanne

Teen Services Librarian