Random Wonder

July 3, 2009

Miami Literacy Examiner

I've been writing some literacy articles as the Miami Literacy Examiner over on Examiner.com. Wanna come check it out? Click HERE

© 2007-2009 - www.RandomWonder.com

July 1, 2009

The wonders of childhood: Michael Chabon wonders where they went

Michael Chabon is one the few authors whose books I purchase the minute they publish. His Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is in my top ten great literary loves. On July 16th, he wrote a wonderful essay on the loss of childhood adventure in our culture. I have wondered his same thoughts so many times while raising my own children, and especially once I moved them from the relative safety of an Indiana farm to a South Florida metropolis. I've also considered the implications of adult-children who seem unable to grow up, how they linger at home for years after, fearful and unsure, way too dependent on their parents care.

If you have a moment, jump over to The New York Review of Books to read Chabon's article. As usual, his writing is masterful, poignant and insightful.

© 2007-2009 - www.RandomWonder.com

June 30, 2009

What makes a book reviewer a professional?

There's a little dust-up going on in the book review/writer world. Seems Alice Hoffman, one of my favorite writers as I've mentioned here and here and here, went a little mental yesterday and published the address and phone number of a reviewer on her Twitter account. Two blogs I read regularly, Edward Champion's Reluctant Habits and Read Roger, both made note of the immaturity of this response and I, being the Hoffman fan that I am, felt compelled to recenter the story on Hoffman's original, and what I feel is valid, point.

The reviewer, Ms. Roberta Silman, gives away major plot points in her review. As a recent purchaser of the reviewed book, The Story Sisters, I was pissed. I didn't need to know who died. I wasn't reading a critical analysis of the work. It's not the sort of book that deserves a critical analysis (sorry Alice). It's a mainstream fiction entertainment novel. It's not going to win a Pulitzer and I doubt Ms. Hoffman ever thought it would.

However, I do not think it is ever wise to include spoiling plot facts within a review. This place, my little humble home, may have a few. I don't have time this morning (double wisdom tooth extraction at 10 am, thank you) to go back over all my reviews and check, but I'd like to think that I stayed away from spoiling anything for anyone and remember clearly writing SPOILER on my Harry Potter review.

Lost in the banter over Hoffman's inappropriate tweet, is a kernel of a fact that I've been arguing all over comments on various blogs: book reviews are changing hourly. Publishers and authors are seeking amateur reviewers because there is also a place for their voice. I do not think we will replace the professionals (those with English Lit. degrees who get paid to review for major media outlets), but I do think our voices have some impact on publishing. Newspapers are more than endangered, magazines are barely holding on and the internet generation is here.

Academics, of which I'd like to include myself in certain circles, rightly argue about the dumbing-down in this, but I also know that having read a few half-page reviews is more helpful when I head out to a bookstore. If I want to read a long-winded critical review, I'll be doing it to gain knowledge, not pick a fun read.

© 2007-2009 - www.RandomWonder.com

June 28, 2009

Goblins by Royce Buckingham - Book Review

What makes a good book for teen boys? How do you get a reluctant reader invested in a story? Which factors will entice the most challenging reading student to pick up a book?

With Goblins!: An UnderEarth Adventure, author Royce Buckingham has answered some of these dilemmas.

He begins with an action-filled opener – a goblin has escaped the UnderEarth. He features identifiable protagonists - twelve-year-old Sam on the brink of juvenile delinquency and seventeen-year-old PJ, stuck in a nowhere small-town while he visits his policeman father. These two form an unlikely, but appreciable, dynamic duo as they follow the Guardians of UnderEarth on a battle to keep the goblins from finding the tunnel that leads to our world.............

To continue the review, head over to Reading Rumpus.

© 2007-2009 - www.RandomWonder.com

Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez - Book review

Apolonia (Lina) Flores lives in Corpus Christi, Texas with her father. She has a best friend and a would-be boyfriend. She enjoys science, playing volleyball on her middle school team and collecting socks. She’s also Mexican–American, has recently suffered the loss of her mother and grown frustrated with her widowed father who has literally, and metaphorically, buried himself in books.

Navigating the wearisome waters of change alongside Lima is her best friend Vanessa, whose recently divorced mother has developed her own coping mechanism – making confetti filled eggs called cascarones. Lima’s boyfriend isn’t immune to difficulty either. He must deal with a speech impediment and the taunting that accompanies it. Confetti Girl features characters who are all dealing with life’s struggles.

But hidden within the individual problems of the characters lies a positive message............

To continue the full review, head over to Reading Rumpus.

© 2007-2009 - www.RandomWonder.com

June 24, 2009

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly - Book Review

The Book of Lost Things jumps out at you. The cover art is beautiful and the premise enticing. Heaps of praise have been handed to it. And the website? Well, it's a shimmering site to behold. Yet, is that enough? Can a fancy website and a ton of praise bear out the book’s worth?

Protagonist David is a twelve-year-old boy who has recently lost his mother. If this weren’t enough, his father has remarried and the woman is pregnant. David’s father has moved them all to his new wife’s countryside home where it's safer from the German WWII bombings in London. In this respect, The Book of Lost Things begins as a fairly standard tale.

But David’s new attic bedroom has a shadow that continues to both taunt and entice. The books that have long afforded David an escape no longer captivate him. A Crooked Man seems to be beckoning, and soon David has entered a world of danger and horrors.

It is David’s entry into the world of the Crooked Man that turns The Book of Lost Things from standard to unique. Fused with both Grimm-like fairy stories and Oz-like wonders, where David must rely on his own wits to bridge the gap between child and adulthood, The Book of Lost Things begins to shimmer much like its elegantly designed cover and website.

The Book of Lost Things seems an all-out bildungsroman: David must make the arduous journey to adulthood while maneuvering through a land of sometimes-conflicting characters. His progress on the other side of the journey is marked by maturation and personal growth. And while the characters David meets seem to be pulled straight from a Grimm’s tale, they are also timelier. They are a twisted version of a Grimm tale, a more psychologically charged foil. The dual settings, WWII and the fantasy world David enters, are both dark and evil-filled places. David’s quest will be a difficult one (as are all journeys out childhood’s door) and his respect and understanding of the bookish will be his saving grace.

David’s love of books and his escape into them, both real and analogous, is the underlying theme in The Book of Lost Things. In many ways, the entire story is an ode to books. Author Connolly's own love of tales must be considerable as his familiarity is brimming. In fact, the only real flaw in the writing is the inclusion of so many references that they become somewhat distracting, causing loss of momentum as the reader pauses to reflect on the origins.

The Book of Lost Things begins with a great opening line, "Once upon a time -- for that is how all stories should begin -- there was a boy who lost his mother," but it ends with an unnecessary epilogue. Readers do not need the know the everyday nuances in adult David’s life. It detracts sorely from the magic the rest of the tale holds and muddies the poignancy of David’s quest and triumph.

Read The Book of Lost Things, because it’s a really good tale, but skip the last chapter. The luminous praise, website and cover reflect the magic that lies within its pages.

Also published on my reviews only site: Many A Quaint & Curious Volume.

© 2007-2009 - www.RandomWonder.com

June 23, 2009

Serendipity

You MUST See Terrible Yellow Eyes. It's a blog collection of art inspired by Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. This particular work of art is by Patrick Ballesteros.

I don't think Alice will ever be the same again! Here are some photos just released of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland:
(via USA Today)