The Borrower

The Borrower: A Novel by Rebecca Makkai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From Goodreads

Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten- year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?

What a fun little book. I enjoyed the adventures of Lucy and Ian "on the lamb" and constantly wondered how this whole mess would turn out. There were some laugh out loud moments- "we're Ferret-Glo twins!" The ending was a little hard to swallow but it was satisfying nonetheless. I encourage those who love libraries and the joy of reading to pick this one up.

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Ban This!

In honor of Banned Books Week (September 25-October 2), Bites and Steph Su are celebrating the freedom to read by having a month long celebration. If you have a blog you too can participate in the fun by creating a post about banned books then adding your post to Mr. Linky here. In honor of this important event, I read Laurie Halse Anderson's book Speak which has been challenged in school libraries. You can read a post on Laurie's blog about a particular challenge to her book here.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (web site)
Published April 23, 2001 by Puffin
Genre: Young Adult
Paperback 198 pages
Literary Awards: National Book Award Nominee for Young People's Literature (1999), Golden Kite Award for Fiction (1999), Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (2000), BCCB Blue Ribbon Book (1999), Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult (2000) ...more Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult (2000), Printz Honor (2000), South Carolina Book Award for Young Adult Book Award (2002), ALA's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (2000)

From Goodreads: 

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth.

What a powerful book this was to read. It's been awhile since a book brought me to tears...a lump remained in my throat long after I closed the book. As a parent I know how clueless we can be sometimes but I was especially distressed to see how Melinda's parents couldn't see that there was something much deeper beneath the surface of their daughter. I would encourage parents to read this thoughtful story. Sometimes we forget how difficult it is to be a teenager on an average day let alone how it must feel to deal with such a traumatizing event such as rape. I felt the story was completely appropriate for a young adults to read and for those who wish to keep this compelling story out of hands of young adults are living in a fantasy world. We simply cannot shelter our children from all of the perils of the world. Writers like Laurie give a voice to teenagers and hope that anyone can survive the atrocities they might encounter in life. I've heard the phrase from parents that certain books are just too deep for someone so young however they are kidding themselves if they don't acknowledge that our kids are dealing with these "deep" issues now. I've added two other books written by this author, Twisted and Wintergirls. I will also be reading Lessons From a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles since it made the 2009/2010 Banned and/or Challenged book list. If you're interested in seeing this list and others check out Banned Books Week at the ALA site. While you're there check out the Banned Books map to see where in the world these books have been banned or challenged.

And Finally I will be wearing my "I'm With The Banned" t-shirt on Monday to celebrate this worthy cause!

You can buy your own at Upstart!

Awful Library Books

After recently doing inventory in our middle school library (and weeding out some really awful library books), I learned about the Awful Library Book blog. The blog creators, Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, regularly post about awful library books found on local shelves. If you need a little chuckle to your day, check this blog out (the photo on the left is just one example). If you're interested in a discussion about why libraries weed out books, check out the page WHY WE WEED. We're not talking about weeding out classic books but rather the kind that makes you cough and sneeze when you open them. After reading through some of the comments there seems to be some debate as to whether or not books should be weeded out or kept for historical value. If you're interested, here's an article about weeding library books.