bea bloggers & the fantastic flying books of mr. morris lessmore

As mentioned previously, I’m in New York.  I’m using vacation days from my real job to go to BEA Bloggers and Book Expo America 2012.  Real life friends: if you weren’t convinced before, I AM A NERD.  Okay, done now.

BEA Bloggers was a full day devoted to book blogging.  Book bloggers networked, checked out panels on everything from critical reviewing to monetization, and had a chance to meet favorite authors as well as learn and share their tried-and-true methods for keeping things new, interesting and on the right side of the ethical line.  My favorite panel of the day was one entitled ‘Demystifying the Book Blogger & Publisher Relationship’ – each of the panelists provided great input and the audience appreciated the topic.

On a different note: I got incredibly lucky with my breakfast table and made several new friends (also: was SO HAPPY to find danielle. from My Mercurial Musings sitting right next to me!  ask her about the level of happy.  it was pretty epic).  Best part of the day, by far, was meeting bloggers both new and familiar.  I heart you, wonderful book people!

One of the books in my ‘swag bag’ at BEA Bloggers (yes, this was a thing!) was a charming picture book by William Joyce called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.  I love a good picture book, though I don’t search them out as often as I should (I have little cousins, but no kids of my own).  This?  Is a special story in a beautiful package, and one I’ll be buying for many years of baby showers and birthdays to come.

The book that inspired the Academy Award–winning short film, from New York Times bestselling author and beloved visionary William Joyce.

Morris Lessmore loved words. 

He loved stories.

He loved books.

But every story has its upsets.

Everything in Morris Lessmore’s life, including his own story, is scattered to the winds.  

But the power of story will save the day. 

Stunningly brought to life by William Joyce, one of the preeminent creators in children’s literature, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a modern masterpiece, showing that in today’s world of traditional books, eBooks, and apps, it’s story that we truly celebrate—and this story, no matter how you tell it, begs to be read again and again.

Morris Lessmore is in the habit of writing his daily joys and activities in his own book.  But when his world is turned upside down, things turn dull and confusing.  It takes a special encounter, a flying book and a lady floating through the sky for Morris to find his place among the books. 

The story is simple, redeeming, and magical.  The few lines on each page are almost window-dressing for the lovely illustrations.  Those illustrations range from sepia-toned and melancholy to bright, happy and action-filled.  There were a couple of page spreads that were particularly wonderful – including the one here (you can see that I enjoyed this book IMMEDIATELY), with its letters and words super-sized and at odd angles.  It’s about getting lost in books, and should come across as sweet, earnest, and perhaps a bit nostalgic for the average reader.

Recommended for: fans of beautifully illustrated picture books, readers large and small, or old and quite young, and especially anyone who sees a book and knows that enchantment awaits inside.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore will be released on June 19^th, 2012 from Atheneum Books for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster).  For more on the film and app that preceded the book, check out the website.

graffiti moon

Brooklyn – I’m there/here.  I’m in New York for Book Expo America (all the madness starts tomorrow with BEA Bloggers), and staying with my cousins in a lovely part of Clinton Hill.  We’ve been going to fun places to eat at night and randomly dropping in to open art studios and truck festivals because they’re happening just down the street.  Last night outside one of the studios an artist was doing a huge mural on a fence – a graffiti mural.  And I couldn’t help myself – I thought ‘how perfect! I’m reading about Australian teenagers with art obsessions, and I happen across graffiti happening in real life half a world away.’  The world is funny sometimes and the coincidence burns bright in my mind.

That book I read (finished it just now, actually) was Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley.  It’s a story of one night – one evening’s epic quest and the beauty of letting an adventure move your world.

Senior year is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight, she's going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city. He's out there somewhere—spraying color, spraying birds and blue sky on the night—and Lucy knows a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for. Really fall for. Instead, Lucy's stuck at a party with Ed, the guy she's managed to avoid since the most awkward date of her life. But when Ed tells her he knows where to find Shadow, they're suddenly on an all-night search around the city. And what Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.

Graffiti Moon is narrated in two voices by Ed and Lucy (with various contributions by Poet), two kids with wildly different paths and pasts that are about to collide, connect and possibly shatter.  But more than being about the lives of two teens, this book is about art and finding out the truth, about second chances and unconventional choices.  It’s about forgiving yourself and finding a way (and maybe, love. the real kind.).

Ed is in stasis when we meet him – he’s dropped out of school, lost his dead-end job, and broken up with his girl friend.  He’s about to take a bad turn – because the world feels like it’s gray and he’s trapped.  Lucy is on the edge of a new life, but she can’t help worrying about her parents, her friends, and obsessively searching for the graffiti artist she admires, Shadow.  When she’s saddled with former crush Ed for a night, she is not pleased.  The unexpected adventure that results is a little bit heart-breaking, compulsively readable, and written so that you feel beauty and truth and adrenaline running free in your veins.

This bit is from page 176, to show you a bit of Ed and humor and the tension of this crazy night they’re having:

She moves close and holds my hand, and I go from scared to mad.  Because I’ve been wanting her to do that all night, and it’d be perfect if we weren’t surrounded by a psychopath and his gang of psychets. 

Recommended for: fans of Markus Zusak’s I Am the Messenger, the romantic, the realist, the artist, the simple art enthusiast, and anyone who appreciates painfully beautiful words that may steal away a reader’s heart.

a confusion of princes

Dear Garth Nix, 

I will buy any and every book you write – and often extra copies for gifts.  Seriously.  I think your work is fantastic.  Shade’s Children chilled me to the core years before dystopian fiction got big.  My copies of the middle grade fantasy Keys to the Kingdom books are well-loved and much-read.  And I don’t think I can say it any better than Amanda of Dead White Guys did on twitter: “The best YA trilogy I've ever read was Garth Nix's Sabriel. I don't know why I just remembered that it existed, but it owned my face.”  Also, you sent me a signed postcard once (thanks!), which I still have (not creepy, not creepy at all).  As expected, I loved your newest sci-fi YA title, A Confusion of Princes.  Thank you for writing wonderful books!

Sincerely,

Me

A grand adventure that spans galaxies and lifetimes, A Confusion of Princes is also a page-turning action adventure.

These are the three deaths of Prince Khemri. Told in his own words, we follow him as he trains to become a Prince of the Empire, an enhanced human being, equipped with biological and technological improvements that make him faster, stronger and smarter than any ordinary person. Not to mention the ultimate benefit: should he die, and be deemed worthy, he will be reborn…
Which is just as well, because no sooner has Prince Khemri graduated to full Princehood than he learns the terrible truth behind the Empire: there are ten million princes, and all of them want each other dead, because there can only be one Emperor…

As A Confusion of Princes opens, the reader is introduced to Khemri, an altered and improved human being whose fate it will be to rule as Prince in a vast Empire – as long as he isn’t killed first.  Khemri has been brought up his entire life to believe in his own importance, and his first steps into the universe he is sure he was born to dominate are an unpleasant shock.  The book follows his journey from an egotistical and selfish novice Prince to an adult, with understanding and capabilities that do justice to his purpose.  The story explores Khemri’s coming-of-age on intellectual and emotional levels, and manages to be a fully entertaining sci-fi adventure at the same time.  In a word?  Awesome.

This book is: a first-person narrative from a male perspective, hard* sci-fi, and all about character growth (Prince Khemri goes from blank, selfish slate to somewhat patient, empathetic, and humble over time? Be still my heart!).  Also: there’s alien action, sweet star ships, manufactured beings, mind-controlled servants and made-from-scratch beasts, and of course the battles and adventures and impossible tests that go into the making of any space opera worth its salt.

Have I mentioned the world-building?  The world-building was REALLY GOOD.  There you have it.  Oh, you need specifics?  Okay.  Nix took sci-fi clichés and twisted them into new configurations.  The Empire is arranged along a strict social hierarchy and surveillance, with no real ‘religion’ (no Star Wars-type Force, in other words).  But Princes and Priests and the Emperor come from somewhere, and the long-abandoned history of Earth makes appearances in the narrative.  The morality and purpose of Princes is also an interesting theme – as is Khemri’s evolution in that area.  And I am now fascinated by movement via wormhole jumps and the different kinds of Tek – I want more! 

In all, Nix’s latest is satisfying for a couple of reasons: complex characterization and exciting plot being two of them.  But the best barometer of its appeal (to me) remains the fact that my 21-year-old brother called to discuss how much he enjoyed it.  One day after getting it in the mail, I might add. That is a good book.

Recommended for: fans of science fiction and first-person narratives, those who have enjoyed the recent spate of superhero films and books, and anyone with a taste for excellent characterization in YA fiction.

*Liviania pointed out the difference between hard sci-fi and this book's characteristics in the comments.  Thanks for setting me right!

waiting on wednesday (28)

I’m participating today in "Waiting On" Wednesday. It is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, and its purpose is to spotlight eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. 

I often find myself searching for ‘happy’ books.  I don’t mean fluffy or light, necessarily – I mean a book that will knock me right out of my mundane, stressed-out self and into someplace cheerier, with much more resourceful protagonists than I.  And if there is anything that will ‘fix’ a bad day and make me laugh my way out of a gloomy mood, it’s clever Regency romance, à la Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen.  This book, with its lovely cover art and promising synopsis (!) will be out in just a few weeks – and I am VERY excited.  Keeping the Castle will be published by Viking Juvenile (Penguin), and releases on June 14th, 2012.

Seventeen-year-old Althea is the sole support of her entire family, and she must marry well. But there are few wealthy suitors—or suitors of any kind—in their small Yorkshire town of Lesser Hoo. Then, the young and attractive (and very rich) Lord Boring arrives, and Althea sets her plans in motion. There's only one problem; his friend and business manager Mr. Fredericks keeps getting in the way. And, as it turns out, Fredericks has his own set of plans…

This witty take on the classic Regency—Patrice Kindl's first novel in a decade—is like literary champagne!

What books are you waiting on?