Kate's Tales of Books and Bands

On Sunday, October 11, 1998, the author Leslea Newman was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the University of Wyoming's Gay Awareness Week. Matthew Shepard died the next day, as a result of the brutal beating he had sustained six days before. Newman's incredible collection of poems, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard ,  brings back the outrage, horror, and the tragedy of that night through a myriad of voices. The fence that held Matthew as he hung, tied, through the long night. The stars looking down on him, mothers, fathers, townspeople, so many voices all focused on this one, horrific event and the guilt and pain that resulted. Deeply, deeply moving, this is a stunning collection, and a beautiful tribute to a dark event. As sad as it is (I cried more than once) the focus is on tolerance and growth. Teens who were too young at the time would be well served by reading this book. My food rating is the Passover meal. This solemn,  ritual feast commemorates an imp...

Can I just start by saying this is a terrible cover? Awful design, the person looks ugly and fake, and it has pretty much nothing to do with the book. In fact, I thought this would be a robot book at first. Plus, the little phrase is unrelated to the plot. 'Survival is just the beginning.' Ugh. So, the summary tells me that this book is set in a post-apocalypse setting. There's a girl and her younger brother (the brother being near death) hiding from authorities that will... what? Kill them? It was never clear why they were hiding. Anyways, to get money, the girl (Callie) sells her body. No, it's not prostitution. Her body is now a rental body that rich old people can enter and live in for a bit. The organization that controls this operation is called Prime Destinations. This is definitely a good start. The plot is creative and full of opportunities for self-reflection, nuance, and moral issues. Heck, I think this book could even go to the level of Miyazaki, if well pla...

 By Maureen Doyle McQuerry A story about an 18 year-old girl living in an alternate universe. She runs away to find her dad on her 18th birthday, bringing along her fingers with their extra knuckle and her sensitive, super long feet. On the train to Scree, the forest inhabited by supernatural beings named Peculiars. So starts the tale of Lena Mattacascar, who according to her grandmother has goblin blood. On the train to the edge of Scree, she meets a helpful, kind soul named Jimson Quiggly. Then, their fates are twined together and all that and life is good. Until they start getting shot at. Then they have to escape to Scree where Lena hopes all of her truths and answers lie. In my opinion, this book was really, very good. The characters are so  there  that you feel like you know them. Also, the story itself is inspiring and involving. What I really liked is that right up until the very last page, McQuerry pushed the action. Literally, right until the last two or three p...

By John Green              I was so excited when I found out the library had gotten this book.  I have heard a lot of good things about it since it came out. This novel is about a sixteen year old girl named Hazel who is dying of cancer. At the support group her mother makes her attend because she seems to be depressed (a side effect of dying) she meets a cute boy named Augustus Waters. He invites her to see a movie with him, and the rest is basically obvious. Except, of course, that Hazel is dying of cancer, and desperately wants to make him not like her so she won't hurt him when she dies. It was wonderful,  I was crying so hard by the end, so it was exactly what I had hoped for.              This novel was like brownie pudding. Rich, fudge-y brownie layer at the top, and a pudding or half baked batter layer underneath. Yum! Like brownie pudding, this made me so emotional. If, however, you can not imagine ...

Jeremy Barker lives by a personal zombie survival code. #1 Avoid eye contact #2 Keep quiet #3 Forget the past #4 Lock-and-load #5 Fight to survive An aficionado of zombie films, Jeremy understands the nuances of survival. The code guides him through the halls of his all boy private, Catholic high school. He relies on it to help him navigate life with his angry father, his absent mother, and his long-gone brother. It helps Jeremy with love, and in a shocking turn of events, it will help him with quite a bit more. Part Lord of the Flies , part Catcher in the Rye and part Prayer for Owen Meany , this extraordinarily well-written coming-of-age story is pitch perfect, and will be particularly appealing to male teens. Fast paced and punctuated with the daily, casual brutality of boy-on-boy violence, Jeremy’s resourcefulness and intelligence glow on the page, even as he gets sucked deeper and deeper into a chilling and increasingly horrifying mystery. I couldn’t put it down. And when ...

First, let me say that I love the cover, despite (and perhaps because of) the obvious frothiness and the girl standing awkwardly in the back. Turquoise is one of my favorite colors, and I love dresses with ruffles and mirrors. Okay, so this book is about a girl musician in a dystopian society. She's in a lower caste, composed of artists, which means she must work very hard every day to eat food. She is then selected because she's pretty and accomplished. Excuse me, she was selected via "random lottery", along with 34 other girls, to compete over the prince. She wins, but not really, because she loves someone else, and is only competing for the free food. Story in a nutshell. In all honesty, I really thought this was going to be a wonderful book, but no. It truly wasn't. First, the girl. Her name is America Singer. I'm pretty bothered by the name alone (named "America", she's a singer), but it was the plethora of nicknames she had. She was called ...

by Julie Hunt I'm surprised no one else has reviewed a picture book yet. I can't be the only one following the new publications of children's books, right? 'Take the Hope or the Dream or the Song or the Dance. You might choose the Joke. You might take the Chance. Take the Risk or the Scare or the Stunt or the Rip. What prize will you pick from today's lucky dip?' Precious Little is a circus hand who wishes to be a trapeze artists. She usually sits "backstage" and sews spangled stars and roses on the leotards. She takes the circus's famous Lucky Dip - and it appears that she is shot off into the universe. It's hard to tell. The summary calls it a " heart-stirring story about the rewards of perseverance, friendship and taking a chance." I saw no such thing while reading. I must make clear that this is not a children's book, by no means. This is certainly a young adult to adult book, cleverly disguised beneath fanciful illustrations...