Alex Award
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
by Sam Arnold-Boyd on Dec.15, 2008, under Alex Award, Grief, Historical Fiction, Multicultural Fiction, Sam's Reviews, War
Who would like this book? Older readers (mature 7th grade and up) who want to read a significant book with personal, political, and literary themes. It is an adult book with teen appeal.
Why? On an island in the South Pacific called Bougainville in the early 1900s, political upheaval over mining claims creates a civil war that brings hardship to the natives. One of the native girls, Matilda, tells the story of what happens on the island. Her prose is beautiful (a detail that makes sense when you get to the end of the story), and her focus is on the one white man that remains on the island after the war starts. Mr. Watts, married to a mysterious native woman, takes it upon himself to become their teacher, using Dicken’s Great Expectations as the main text. The power of a story and of the imagination comes alive in this book. Be aware that a brutal war is the backdrop to the events of the novel and that some of these events are disturbing. It’s not surprising that this book has one many awards, including the Alex Award (for adult books with teen appeal from the American Library Association) and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize (53 countries!). I highly recommend this book. Now I need time to read Great Expectations!
The details: 272 p. 2006 A Sam review
Criss Cross by Caroline B. Cooney
by Sam Arnold-Boyd on Jun.11, 2007, under Alex Award, Real life, Uncategorized
Who would like this book? Younger teens who are interested in what life was like for teenagers in the early 1960s in a small town, and who can navigate a book with two narrators and multiple forms (prose, haiku, poems, questioln-and-answer).
Why? There’s a mismatch in this criss-cross. The narrators, Debbie and Hector, are 14 and each in their own way self-counsciously waiting for their lives to begin. So, the plot would be interesting to a pre-teen or one in her/his early teens. Problem is, the format might be difficult for the audience who would be interested in the plot. Or, perhaps if read with a bit of guidance, the book could act as a springboard to different forms of creative expression. I got bored with the plot and characters, but humorous situations kept me reading.
The details: 337 p. 2005
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
by Sam Arnold-Boyd on May.14, 2007, under Adult Read, Alex Award, Fantasy, Grief, Historical Fiction, Real life, Uncategorized
Who would like this book? Adults or teenagers with a sense of the power of imagination and story as a way to explore grief and loss.
Why? David, a twelve-year-old British boy, is mourning the death of his mother on the eve of WWII. When his father remarries and has a son with his new wife, David burns with hatred and retreats into his books and imagination. The line of reality begins to blur, and the reader is not jolted when David finds his way to an alternate reality in which heroes, monsters, kings are real and fairy tales are twisted expressions of David’s fears. John Connolly is Irish; this novel fulfills every promise of the magical story-telling of the Irish. It’s an Alex Award book (adult book with teen appeal). It won my heart and soul.
The details: 339 p. 2006. Alex Award Nominee
