What I Saw and How I Lied November 20, 2008

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Evie is a normal teenager in post-WWII New York: interested in boys and hanging out with her best friend, buying chocolate and practicing smoking. And she’s happy that her step-father, Joe, has returned safely from the war. But when Joe starts getting mysterious phone calls and decides, on a whim, to pack the family car and head for Florida, things start to get a little bit crazy.

At first, Evie enjoys Palm Beach and their extended vacation, but she craves some excitement. Enter Peter, a handsome ex-GI who served with Joe in the war and for whom Evie falls, hard. But Peter and Joe’s relationship isn’t as simple as it seems and as Evie begins to figure out the truth and the plot takes a deadly turn, she must make decisions that will change her family’s life forever.

“What I Saw and How I Lied” just won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. It’s a mysterious thriller with a film noir setting that will suck you into the plot. (Heather, Reference)

National Book Award Finalists October 20, 2008

National Book Award Finalists for Young People’s Literature, 2008

 

           

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon & Schuster)

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt (Atheneum)

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell (Scholastic)

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (Hyperion)

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp (Alfred A. Knopf)

It’s Absolutely True – Alexie wins! November 14, 2007

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is this year’s winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. (Little, Brown, 2007)

 

Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, is born with “brain grease” (hydrocephalus, or excessive accumulation of fluid on the brain) which in his words “mucked up the works.” Junior has 10 extra teeth, a large head, a lisp, a stutter, and eyeglasses by age three, and he rapidly becomes a candidate for the black-eye-of-the-month club thanks to school bullies. To avoid being beaten up, he stays inside and draws cartoons and reads books. The son of an alcoholic father and “long suffering mother,” life on the reservation (Spokane Indian) poses its share of challenges for Junior.

 

So he decides to take a chance on an “all-white” school 22 miles away where the only Indian is the school mascot. A new world opens up for Junior, but many of his reservation friends, including his best friend Rowdy, think he has sold out. Juggling these two worlds leaves Junior feeling like a part-time Indian. Through it all he keeps drawing, and his cartoons keep him afloat: “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.”

 

Thankfully for us, while Junior keeps drawing, Alexie keeps writing (and laughing). Move over Holden Caulfield – meet Arnold Spirit! (Christie, The Loft)