The Wee Free Men

Title: The Wee Free Men
Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2003
ISBN: 9780060012380

Reading Level: Age 10 and up

Genre: Fantasy--Magic and Wizards

Reader’s Annotation: Tiffany sets off to rescue her little brother from the Queen of Fairyland with nothing but a frying pan and a clan of ugly little fairies.

Review
I got this book (and the second in the series, A Hatful of Sky) from my sister Julia for Christmas. Julia is 14 and the Wee Free Men series is one of her favorites. The Wee Free Men of the title, also called Nac Mac Feegle, are fairies--ugly, rude fairies. They're little men with blue skin, red hair, and broken noses. This last feature is due to one of their favorite pastimes: fighting. Their other favorites are drinking and stealing.

Our heroine, Tiffany Aching, encounters the Feegle when her world bumps up against the world of Fairyland. They warn her that the Queen of Fairyland, a very dangerous person, is heading toward the Chalk--Tiffany's home turf, where most people are shepherds and Tiffany's deceased granny is regarded nearly as a goddess. Tiffany already knows that she wants to be a witch when she grows up, though she's had no training as yet. But when the Queen makes off with Tiffany's obnoxious little brother, there's no one else to go after him. So Tiffany enlists the help of the Nac Mac Feegle, who know the Queen and how Fairyland works. (They used to live there, but were thrown out because of their favorite activities. They call themselves the Wee Free Men because they no longer allow anyone to rule over them. In fact, their favorite chant is "Nae King! Nae Quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna be fooled again!" As you can tell, the Feegle speak in an entertaining Scottish-like dialect. Other common exclamations include "Crivens!" and "Oh, waily, waily!")

Tiffany has a good voice. She's practical and stubborn, good-hearted but unsentimental. The magic is also well done. Fairyland is a place of dreams--they're how the Queen ensnares and controls people. (The way the dreams work is reminiscent of the movie Inception.) And witchcraft in Tiffany's world is mostly about taking practical, necessary action when action is required. There's a little magic, too, but it's limited and used sparingly. Pratchett can't resist slathering his message on a bit thick--subtlety is not his strong suit--and the escape from the Queen is a little too drawn-out. Overall, though, this is an entertaining read with great characters and an interesting world.

Challenge Issues: Frying-pan violence and drunken fairies

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Title: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Publisher: Nintendo
Copyright: 2006
ASIN: B00204AA0O

Description
In Twilight Princess, as in the many other Zelda games, it is up to Link to save the world from the powers of evil. This time the villain, Zant, is trying to transform the kingdom into a twilight world, stuck between night and day, where his power will reign supreme. As Link, the player must find the Master Sword and the lost pieces of both the Fused Shadow and the Mirror of Twilight. To do this, Link has to complete several major and side quests that take him to various settings: a forest dungeon, an underwater temple, a city in the sky, etc. In these different settings he needs different powers, tools, and skills, such as breathing under water and swinging through the air with grappling hooks. He is aided in his quests by Midna, a mysterious fairy-like creature. Throughout most of the game Link also has the power to transform into a wolf, and can only perform some of his tasks while in wolf form.

Critical Evaluation
Twilight Princess is too advanced a game for my meager video game skills, but I still found it exciting and fun. (It’s even fun to watch.) Playing it is a creative process—you can essentially go where you want and take on tasks in the order you choose (with some restrictions). (This is termed non-linear gameplay.) There are lots of puzzles to solve, and you often have to think fast. The fantasy world has many interesting places and creatures that are fun to discover. The eerie mood and the possibility of being attacked at almost any time contribute a sense of urgency.

The graphics are good, but not groundbreaking. The music has a nostalgic quality that goes well with the fantastic character of the world of the game. Play is controlled with a joystick and remote, which are pretty easy to use. The Wii platform allows you to select things on the screen simply by pointing and to engage in sword fights with just a flick of the wrist.

Why is this title included?
I included this title at least in part because my husband has been addicted to the Zelda games since he was a teenager. Twilight Princess is too advanced for kids, but still accessible to people who aren't necessarily hardcore gamers. The fantasy setting makes it particularly appealing to teens.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Director: David Yates
Studio: Warner Bros.
Copyright: 2011
ASIN: B001UV4XIS

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grade 7 and up

Genre: Adventure

Viewer’s Annotation: In the final installment of the blockbuster movie franchise, Harry and friends race toward a final showdown with Voldemort.

Plot Summary
With three Horcruxes down and four to go, Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave the seaside house where they buried Dobby and go back on the hunt. They first head to Gringotts bank, where they break into Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault with the help of a goblin. They find a Horcrux there—Helga Hufflepuff’s cup—but are nearly caught when the goblin betrays them. Next they go back to Hogwarts, where Harry believes they will find the next Horcrux. Harry learn’s that it is Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem, and goes to search for it in the Room of Requirement while Ron and Hermione go to the Chamber of Secrets for basilisk fangs. Soon only two Horcruxes remain, and Harry realizes that Voldemort’s snake, Nagini, is another. But time is running out as Voldemort and the Death Eaters converge on Hogwarts. Believing Snape to be the true owner of the powerful Elder Wand, Voldemort seeks out and mortally wounds him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who followed Voldemort, rush in to hear Snape’s final words. Snape gives Harry some of his memories, which Harry takes to the Pensieve in Dumbledore’s office as the battle rages. From Snape’s memories, Harry learns that he is the final Horcrux and must die in order for Voldemort to be defeated.

Critical Evaluation
I was initially skeptical when I learned the final Harry Potter book would be made into two movies. It seemed like nothing more than an attempt to squeeze every last possible dollar out of the blockbuster movie franchise. But I was pleasantly surprised by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Cutting the book in half gave the filmmakers the flexibility they needed to actually make a good movie while remaining true to the book. The previous three movies were so busy stuffing in all of the action that there was no time for reflection or feelings. Part 1 has feelings in abundance. Part 2 is almost non-stop action. Taken together, Part 1 and Part 2 make one balanced movie, but Part 2 on its own feels a bit unbalanced. Nevertheless, there is emotion here too—Neville’s impassioned speech is thrilling and Fred’s death is heartbreaking.

As they have been for the last several movies, the three leads, Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione, and Rupert Grint as Ron (who’ve been making these movies since they were 11, 9, and 11, respectively), are competent but uninspiring. Critics often rate Rupert Grint as the most talented, but I find his Ron rather dopey and lacking in emotional range. The supporting cast (especially the adults) is as excellent as ever. Helena Bonham Carter is perfectly insane and deliciously evil as Bellatrix. Mrs. Weasley, played by Julie Walters, gets a well-deserved moment in the spotlight when she takes on Bellatrix with a cry of “Not my daughter, you bitch!” Alan Rickman once again makes Snape the most interesting character with a nuanced performance. My only serious complaint is that Bonnie Wright is utterly wrong for Ginny Weasley. She has none of the sparkle and sarcasm that make Ginny a great character.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: N/A

Challenge Issues: Violence, mild language

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include positive reviews from Roger Ebert, The Washington Post, and The Daily Telegraph and mixed reviews from The Boston Globe and New York Magazine.

About the Author: N/A

Why is this title included?
Harry Potter is wildly popular among teens of all ages. This movie's dark tone puts it firmly in young adult, rather than children's, territory.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Title: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Director: Edgar Wright
Studio: Universal Studios
Copyright: 2011
ASIN: B0041T52S6

Age Level/Interest Age: Grade 9 and up

Genre: Comedy

Viewer’s Annotation: Scott, a pretty average guy, wants to date the awesome Ramona. Unfortunately, he has to defeat her seven evil exes first.

Plot Summary
Scott Pilgrim is a bum. Though he’s in his early twenties, he doesn’t have a job and lives rent-free with a wealthy roommate. He spends much of his time playing in a rock band, Sex Bob-Omb, that’s on the verge of success. At the beginning of the movie he has started dating a high schooler, Knives Chau, because it’s easy. Then he meets the awesome new girl in town, Ramona Flowers. With a little persistence he gets her to go out with him, but soon learns that if they’re going to date he will have to defeat all seven of her evil exes in video game-style combat. At the same time, Sex Bob-Omb is competing in a battle of the bands and Scott is busy avoiding Knives. Among the exes Scott must defeat are an action-movie star, the bass player in Scott’s ex-girlfriend’s famous rock band, and a big shot record label owner. He uses a combination of trickery, skill, and musical prowess in the battles, and later gains the “powers” of love and self-respect by taking responsibility for his actions and committing to his feelings for Ramona.

Critical Evaluation
Scott Pilgrim is a frenetic romp of a movie with a unique visual style, loads of pop culture references, and near-constant laughs. The plot may be thin and nonsensical, but the lightning dialog and video game-style action make it hard to care. The characters are thin, too, but intentionally so—some of them even go by epithets that convey all the information we ever get about them, such as Stephen “The Talent” and Young Neil. Thinness of character is a problem, though, when it comes to the two leads. Scott is supposed to be crazy enough about Ramona to risk his life seven times over, but all we know about her is her looks and her dating history. And why Ramona would like Scott is even more of a mystery—he’s not only a bum, he’s also goofy looking and not particularly nice. The actors can be divided into two groups—those who ham it up (most of the exes and the hilarious Kieran Culkin as Scott’s gay roommate) and those who speak their lines in snarky voices with limited acting involved (notably Michael Cera as Scott, who, though he’s turned down the sweetness here, plays essentially the same character in every one of his movies).

The script is fast-paced and consistently funny, combining sarcasm, puns, and rhyming with absurd situations. In my favorite scene Scott fights an evil ex with “vegan powers” (earned at the “Vegan Academy,” of course). His vegan powers make him too strong for Scott, who tricks him into drinking dairy (by claiming the coffee he’s offering contains only soymilk). This breach brings the “Vegan Police” into fray, and Scott crows in triumph, “You once were a ve-gone, but now you will be gone!”

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: N/A

Challenge Issues: Sexual and homosexual content, language, mild violence

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include positive reviews from The New York Times, Christianity Today, Rolling Stone, USA Today, and The Village Voice.

About the Author: N/A

Why is this title included?
This popular, well-reviewed movie is based on a popular series of graphic novels and has a popular young actor as its lead. Its PG-13 rating indicates that it targets high school students.

Life of Pi

Title: Life of Pi
Author: Yann Martel
Publisher: Mariner Books
Copyright: 2001
ISBN: 9780156027328

Reading Level: Adult
Interest Age: Grade 9 and up

Genre: Adventure/Thrillers--Survival Stories

Reader’s Annotation: Pi Patel survives 227 days at sea with a tiger in his lifeboat.

Plot Summary
Pi Patel had a happy childhood except for the small matter of his name. He grew up in Pondicherry, India, helping his parents and brother run the family zoo. He began life a devout Hindu and later became a devout Muslim and Christian, too. But his full name, Piscine Molitor Patel (after a swimming pool in Paris) earned him the nickname “Pissing Patel,” making his school life difficult.

At 16 Pi and his family set out for Canada, taking a few of their animals on the boat with them. A storm comes up only a few days out and the boats sinks, drowning everyone but Pi, an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. They all share the lifeboat for a few tense days. First the hyena eats the zebra (bit by bit) and the orangutan, then Richard Parker eats the hyena. Once the boy and the tiger are alone in the lifeboat, Pi decides that he would rather have Richard Parker than no company at all. So instead of trying to kill him, Pi trains the tiger to believe that he, Pi, is the alpha animal. When the lifeboat’s supplies run out, Pi uses the water desalination kits and learns to fish with the limited equipment he has. He and Richard Parker survive for months amid sharks, rain, and blistering sun, ever hoping for a sight of land.

Critical Evaluation
Pi’s voice has a distinctive blend of melodrama, pedantry, and humor. His first words to the reader are, “My suffering left me sad and gloomy.” Describing his academic career in Canada, he says, “I got every possible student award from the Department of Zoology. If I got none from the Department of Religious Studies, it is simply because there are no student awards in this department (the rewards of religious study are not in mortal hands, we all know that).” He recommends his training program for Richard Parker as a good way to deal with "major lifeboat pests."

The book is divided into three sections, the middle one comprising the bulk of the story—the lifeboat journey. This is ingeniously told. The details of how Pi managed to survive render the outrage premise almost plausible. The first and third sections describe Pi’s childhood (his naming, teasing, zoo experience, and various religious conversions) and the aftermath of his arrival in Mexico, respectively. Both feel a bit superfluous and go on too long. There is also a frame for Pi’s story—the “author’s notes”—that seem rather self-indulgent to me and don’t add much.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: Describe how Pi trains Richard Parker.

Challenge Issues: Some gore

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include glowing reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker.

About the Author
The award-winning author of four books, the most recent of which is What Is Stephen Harper Reading?, Yann Martel is one of this country's most interesting and surprising writers. Born in Spain in 1963, Yann grew up in various places as the son of diplomats. His parents now live in Montreal, where Yann visits regularly.

He won the Journey Prize for the title story in The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios. Life of Pi was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. It was the winner of the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction as well as the Man Booker Prize. Yann lives with writer Alice Kuipers and their son, Theo, in Saskatoon.

http://www.randomhouse.ca/newface/martel.php#about

Why is this title included?
Cart identifies Life of Pi as an adult book that is a crossover hit with teens. It's also received great critical acclaim, including winning the Man Booker Prize.

The Lord of the Rings

Title: The Lord of the Rings
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Publisher: Mariner Books
Copyright: 2005 (original 1954-55)
ISBN: 9780618640157

Reading Level: Adult
Interest Age: Grade 9 and up

Genre: Fantasy--Epic Fantasy

Reader’s Annotation: The fate of Middle Earth is in the hands of a hobbit, Frodo Baggins. He must travel into the very heart of the Dark Lord's land to destroy the One Ring.

Plot Summary
When the hobbit Bilbo Baggins sets out to spend his last years having adventures, he leaves everything to his nephew, Frodo. This includes his magical ring, which Gandalf the wizard soon identifies as the One Ring—the Dark Lord Sauron’s greatest instrument of power, long lost. Now Sauron is rising again, preparing for war, and searching everywhere for his lost treasure. Frodo sets out with three other hobbits, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, to take the Ring to Rivendell, a stronghold of the Elves. Along the way they are pursued by Black Riders of Sauron and meet Aragorn, a man of kingly heritage. Once they make it to Rivendell, it is decided that the Ring must be taken into the land of Mordor and destroyed. The Fellowship of the Ring is formed to carry out this quest. In addition to the four young hobbits, Gandalf, and Aragorn, the Fellowship includes Boromir, a man; Gimli, a dwarf; and Legolas, an elf.

The members of the Fellowship travel through many strange lands and meet people of many races. Frodo and Sam leave the others to take the Ring to Mordor alone, but are soon joined by Gollum, a treacherous creature obsessed with the Ring. The others must fight both the traitorous wizard Saruman and the armies of Mordor. Aragorn is revealed as the heir to the throne of Gondor, the greatest kingdom of Men, and Boromir, Merry, Pippin, Legolas, Gimli, and Gandalf all commit acts of great heroism.

Critical Evaluation
One of the many joys of reading The Lord of the Rings is getting lost in the rich fantasy world Tolkien created. Middle Earth has its own history and mythology, geography, peoples, and even its own languages (complete with alphabets, grammar, everything). For some readers, though, the very level of detail may be a barrier to getting into the books. There are quite a few songs and poems that disrupt the flow of the story (though many of these are quite delightful—see Frodo’s expanded telling of the Man in the Moon and Sam’s poem about the troll). The story itself is incredibly intricate, spanning many months and countries and following several different groups of characters. It is also thrilling—full of clever plans (such as the trick Merry and Pippin use to escape from the orcs), terror (the hobbit’s flight from the Black Riders), acts of heroism (Eowyn and Merry’s defeat of the Lord of the Nazgul), and camaraderie and love (Sam’s pursuit of Frodo when he tries to leave his companions and face the danger alone). This is one of those books where in the end everything feels right—all the storylines are followed unhurriedly to their logical conclusions and poetic justice is achieved. For these and many other reasons, Middle Earth is a place readers will want to revisit time and again.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas
Profile a few of the characters, perhaps Aragorn, Pippin, and Gandalf.
Bring a map of Middle Earth and describe trace the Fellowship's journey(s).

Challenge Issues: Violence, occult content

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include the Amazon.com review, which notes the "universal" influence of Tolkien's work.

About the Author
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature there from 1945 to 1959. He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

After his death, Tolkien's son Christopher published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda, and Middle-earth within it. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the larger part of these writings.

While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien,[5] the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature—or, more precisely, of high fantasy. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning dead celebrity in 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

Why is this title included?
This classic is one of my all-time favorite books and a must-read for any fantasy fan. Though published as an adult title, it has crossover appeal to older teens. I'm using this one-volume version because Tolkien intended it to be one book, not three.

The Graveyard Book

Title: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2008
ISBN: 9780060530921

Reading Level: Grades 5-8
Interest Age: Grades 5-12

Genre: Paranormal and Horror--Ghosts

Reader’s Annotation: A toddler narrowly escapes death when the rest of his family is murdered and finds a new home among the ghosts in a graveyard.

Plot Summary
The Graveyard Book begins with the murder of a family. The man Jack kills the parents and little girl with his knife, but the toddler escapes, having gotten out of his crib and set off on an adventure. The boy wanders into a nearby graveyard, where a kindly ghost named Mrs. Owens lobbies to hide him. After some discussion, the ghosts agree to give the boy “the Freedom of the Graveyard” and it is decided that Mr. and Mrs. Owens will raise him. He’s given a name, Nobody Owens (or Bod for short), and a guardian, Silas, a vampire who can come and go from the graveyard at will. Silas supplies Bod’s human needs—food, clothing, and school supplies. Silas also becomes one of his teachers, along with the Owenses, a werewolf named Miss Lupescu, the ghost of a witch, and another ghost named Mr. Pennyworth. Along with the usual things children learn at school, they teach him ghostly skills like Fading, Haunting, and Dream Walking. The plot proceeds primarily in discrete episodes from Bod’s life (like The Jungle Book, on which it is loosely modeled), such as his trip into an alternate world through the Ghoul Gate and his encounter with an ancient creature called the Sleer. When after many years the man Jack finally hunts him down, Bod must call on everything he’s learned from his life in the graveyard.

Critical Evaluation
Gaiman’s writing has a mysterious, dreamlike quality. (“At the best of times his face was unreadable. Now his face was a book written in a language long forgotten, in an alphabet unimagined. Silas wrapped the shadows around him like a blanket, and stared after the way the boy had gone, and did not move to follow.”) Nevertheless, there is a lot of humor here, as well. (“Silas ate only one food...and it was not bananas.”) Many quirky characters live in the graveyard, some of whom get their own episodes to tell their stories and make their particular ghostly complaints. (“There’s not much that happens here to make one day unlike the next. The seasons change. The ivy grows. Stones fall over.”) But along with great warmth there are some genuinely scary moments. (“The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.”) Gaiman is very successful at bringing the world of the graveyard to life. Indeed, he makes it seem like a great place to grow up.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas
Read the chilling first chapter.
Describe some of the humorous characters in the graveyard.

Challenge Issues: Mild violence

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include positive reviews from (among many other possibilities) School Library Journal, Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, Kirkus Reviews, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, and VOYA.

About the Author
Neil Gaiman was born in Hampshire, UK, and now lives in the United States near Minneapolis.  As a child he discovered his love of books, reading, and stories, devouring the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Branch Cabell, Edgar Allan Poe, Michael Moorcock, Ursula K. LeGuin, Gene Wolfe, and G.K. Chesterton. A self-described “feral child who was raised in libraries,” Gaiman credits librarians with fostering a life-long love of reading.

Neil Gaiman is credited with being one of the creators of modern comics, as well as an author whose work crosses genres and reaches audiences of all ages.  He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. 

Gaiman’s books are genre works that refuse to remain true to their genres. Gothic horror was out of fashion in the early 1990s when Gaiman started work on ‘Coraline’ (2002). Originally considered too frightening for children, ‘Coraline’ went on to win the British Science Fiction Award, the Hugo, the Nebula, the Bram Stoker, and the American Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla award.

Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels ‘Neverwhere’ (1995), ‘Stardust’ (1999), the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning ‘American Gods’ (2001), ‘Anansi Boys’ (2005), and ‘Good Omens’ (with Terry Pratchett, 1990).

Gaiman wrote the screenplay for the original BBC TV series of ‘Neverwhere’ (1996); Dave McKean’s first feature film, ‘Mirrormask’ (2005), for the Jim Henson Company; and cowrote the script to Robert Zemeckis’s ‘Beowulf.’ He produced ‘Stardust,’ Matthew Vaughn’s film based on Gaiman’s book by the same name.

He has written and directed two films: ‘A Short Film About John Bolton’ (2002) and Sky Television’s ‘Statuesque’ (2009) starring Bill Nighy and Amanda Palmer.

An animated feature film based on Gaiman’s ‘Coraline,’ directed by Henry Selick and released in early 2009, secured a BAFTA for Best Animated Film and was nominated for an Oscar in the same category. The film adaptation of ‘The Graveyard Book’ is in production.

http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/About_Neil/Biography

Why is this title included?
Though aimed at a younger audience, this enjoyable read will appeal to teens of all ages (especially as Gaiman already has many fans among their ranks). It's received many honors, including the 2009 Newbery Medal and selection for YALSA's Teens' Top Ten, 2009.

Sorcery and Cecelia

Title: Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot
Author: Patricia C. Wrede, Caroline Stevermer
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Copyright: 2003 (originally published 1988)
ISBN: 9780152046156

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 7-12

Genre: Fantasy--Magic and Wizards, Alternate Formats--Epistolary Novels

Reader’s Annotation: Cecelia is disappointed at being left in the country while her cousin Kate gets a London season, but events take an exciting turn for both when they become embroiled in a magical intrigue.

Plot Summary
The full title of this novel is Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country, which tells you about all you need to know. Cecelia and Kate are best friends and cousins. While Kate gets to go to London for the Season with her older sister Georgina, Cecelia is stuck at home in Essex with her father, brother, and stuffy Aunt Elizabeth. While they are apart they share news of all their doings, both exciting and mundane, in frequent letters.

The beautiful Georgina is expected to “take the town by storm,” though she is not-so-secretly in love with Cecelia’s older brother Oliver. Kate is not as striking as Georgina, and is a bit clumsy to boot. But she soon finds an eligible suitor by unconventional means. At the installation of the girls’ Essex neighbor in the Royal College of Wizards, she saves Thomas, Marquis of Schofield from poisoning.

Meanwhile, Cecelia is also making good use of her time by investigating untoward magical goings-on. Charms have appeared in her house, so Cecelia decides to make some protective ones of her own discovering along the way that she has quite an aptitude for magic. Also, James Tartleton (son of a local family and friend of Kate’s marquis) is spying on her for reasons unknown. The mystery deepens as the girls share their discoveries in letters that sometimes arrive a little too late.

Critical Evaluation
While several reviewers have called this book a cross between Harry Potter and Jane Austen, a more apt comparison is with Susanna Clarke and Georgette Heyer. As in Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, the magic here is an accepted part of life in British upper-class society, not underground as it is in Harry Potter. And though Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer are fairly similar, Heyer’s books tend to be lighter and funnier. Stevermer and Wrede’s vocabulary, syntax, and tone owe much to Heyer’s (as they acknowledge).

In any case, the combination is delightful. Kate and Cecelia are curious, intrepid heroines and entertaining writers. In her first letter Cecelia writes, “Not that we are without amusement in Essex; quite the contrary! Aunt Elizabeth and I called at the vicarage yesterday and spent a stimulating afternoon listening to the Reverend Fitzwilliam discoursing on the Vanities of Society and the Emptiness of Worldly Pleasures. Aunt Elizabeth hung on every word, and we are to return and take tea on Thursday. I am determined to have the headache Thursday, if I have to hit myself with a rock to do it.” The epistolary form feels natural, as Wrede and Stevermer actually wrote the book that way—by sending letter written in character back and forth, without consulting each other about where the story was going. Though this resulted in the plot getting a bit frenetic and some loose ends not getting tied up as neatly as they could have been, the final product is still well worth reading.

Curriculum Ties: History--Regency period

Booktalking Ideas: Read excerpts from the first few letters.

Challenge Issues: Occult content

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and VOYA.

About the Authors
(WREDE)
I was born on March 27, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. I am the eldest of five siblings
(four girls and one boy). Currently, I have four nephews and four nieces living in
Alabama, Maine, and Illinois.

Everyone in my family is a voracious reader, and I grew up surrounded by books
(pretty much literally--we had bookshelves on nearly every flat wall in the house,
and there were books in the back of the linen cupboard, books in the bathroom
storage shelves behind the cleaning supplies and towels, and books in all the
closets). Among my favorites were the Oz books (I have over thirty of them), the
Narnia Chronicles, and a long list of collections of fairy tales and myths.

I graduated from high school in 1970 and attended Carleton College in Minnesota,
where I earned an A.B. in Biology in 1974. Then I moved up the road to
Minneapolis/St. Paul and worked in clerical jobs for a year before returning to school
at the University of Minnesota for my M.B.A.

I married James M. Wrede in 1976, got my M.B.A. in 1977, and started working as a
financial analyst while writing in my spare time. I sold my first novel, Shadow Magic,
in 1980 (it was published two years later, in 1982). In the same year, I became a
founding member of the Interstate Writers' Workshop, aka the Scribblies, to which I
belonged for five extremely productive years.

By 1985, I was having increasing difficulty in balancing a full-time job in finance with
full-time writing. Something had to give, and with a lot of support from my friends
and family, I chose to quit my day job and write.

Since then, I have made my living as a fiction writer. Jim and I divorced in 1991; I
have no children. I still live in the suburbs of the Twin Cities with my two cats,
currently Cazaril (a Maine Coon/tabby mix) and Nimue (an elderly medium-hair of
uncertain parentage).

http://www.pcwrede.com/AboutPat.html

(STEVERMER)
Caroline Stevermer (born 1955) is a writer of young adult fantasy novels and shorter works. She is best known for two series of historical fantasy novels.

With Patricia C. Wrede, she wrote three novels set in an alternate Regency England where magic and non-magic society exist side-by-side and cooperatively.

The authors tell these stories from the first-person perspectives of cousins Kate and Cecelia (and, in the third book, two additional characters), who recount their adventures in magic and polite society. These works are unusual in modern fiction in being epistolary novels, written using the style of the letter game.

Her Galazon series comprise a Ruritanian romance series with magic: A College of Magics (1994) and its semi-sequel A Scholar of Magics (2004), as well as When the King Comes Home (2000), a medieval prequel. Caroline Stevermer attended Bryn Mawr College, and Greenlaw, the College in A College of Magics, may be based on her experiences there. Terri Windling selected College as one of the best fantasy books of 1994, describing it as "charmingly distinctive . . . [marked by] the sly wit and sparkling prose that have earned her a cult following".

Her 1992 novel River Rats, a Minnesota Book Awards finalist, is a post-apocalyptic adventure on the Mississippi River with echoes of Mark Twain.

Her first novel written as Caroline Stevermer is a 1988 fantasy called The Serpent's Egg. She has two previous books written as C.J. Stevermer: The Alchemist: Death of a Borgia (1980) and The Duke and the Veil (1981), both published by Ace. These feature an English alchemist in the Rome at the time of the House of Borgia.

She has participated in Terri Windling's Borderlands shared universe and in the Liavek shared universe.

In 2008, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Stevermer

Why is this title included?
Its unusual form and blend of genres make this novel unique and ensure that it will appeal to a broad range of readers. Its best-of recognitions include the Children's Literature Choice List, 2004 and YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2004.

Dreamhunter

Title: Dreamhunter
Author: Elizabeth Knox
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Copyright: 2006
ISBN: 9780374318536

Reading Level: Grades 9-12
Interest Age: Grade 7 and up

Genre: Fantasy--Alternate and Parallel Worlds

Reader’s Annotation: Laura has a rare gift--she can enter the Place, which means she can become a dreamhunter like her famous father.

Plot Summary
At 15 cousins Laura and Rose are ready to make their Try—the official first attempt to enter the Place, an alternate world whose borders only a rare few can cross. Those few can become dreamhunters, bringing back vivid dreams from deep within the Place to the cities of Southland, where audiences gather in luxurious dream palaces to share them. Laura’s father discovered the Place 20 years earlier, and Rose’s mother is among the most famous (and wealthiest) of the dreamhunters. Confident, beautiful Rose is sure that she will enter the Place at her Try and become a dreamhunter, but Laura has doubts about her own abilities.

To everyone's surprise, Laura passes her Try and Rose fails. But Laura begins to uncover the Place's dark side right away, by catching a nightmare instead of the entertaining dream she was supposed to find on her Try. And when she returns, her father has disappeared. There are hints of a government conspiracy and cryptic final instructions from Laura’s father. When she heads into the Place to try to carry them out, Laura discovers that she possesses an unusual brand of magic that runs in her family. Mysteries abound and the real action is barely beginning when the book ends, making the sequel, Dreamquake, a must-read.

Critical Evaluation
Dreamhunter gets off to a bit of a slow start. The world, characters, and plot are all complicated and occasionally confusing. There is much to explain about how Southland society and dreamhunting work. Knox adds a historical element by basing the non-magical parts of Southland on early 20th-century New Zealand. She also spends a lot of time introducing Laura and Rose’s family history and the relationships among the family members. Later on, especially in the second book, this groundwork serves the reader well, but it makes this one hard to get into. (The two books would make more sense as a single volume, since the second picks up essentially where the first left off.) But although most of the action takes place in the sequel, Dreamhunter still succeeds at building intrigue and tension. The highly original premise makes the reader eager to learn more about the Place and share in its powerful dreams. (The ones recounted here are mesmerizing.)

The characters are realistically flawed. Laura is rather dour for a heroine, and since much of the third-person narrative focuses on her perspective, her dark outlook influences the tone of the book. The sandman Laura creates late in the book is the most fascinating character, though his personality takes a while to emerge. In his company, Laura becomes more sympathetic.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas
Read the description of one of the famous dreams performed at dream palaces.
Tell the story of how Laura's father discovered the Place.

Challenge Issues: N/A

About the Author
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Elizabeth is the middle of three sisters. The Knox family moved around a number of times during Elizabeth’s childhood. They lived in Pomare, Wadestown, Waikanae, and Paremata. The sisters were close, and always played imaginary games. By the time Elizabeth was eleven, the games had become one game, an ongoing saga set in another world -- a game she shared with her sisters and several friends. One day, when Elizabeth was sixteen, her father interrupted a discussion the girls were having about the possible results of a secret treaty and said, “I hope you’re writing some of this down.” The idea hadn’t occurred to Elizabeth before, and she thought it was a very good one. She, her sisters, and friends began writing letters between their characters and stories about them. Elizabeth enjoyed writing and decided that this -- writing fiction -- was what she wanted to do with her life.

When Elizabeth left her secondary school, Tawa College, which she attended from 1972 to 1976, she took a job as a clerk in the Inland Revenue department in Porirua. While workmates her age were saving for cars, weddings, and overseas travel, Elizabeth saved in order to take eight months off work and write a novel. This first novel, One Too Many Lives, completed when she was nineteen, was not to be published (though there was kind interest from a number of publishers in New Zealand and the UK). Again Elizabeth went back to work to save money, and at twenty-two took another year off and wrote another novel, Salamander, which she disliked and put away.

In 1983, Elizabeth went to Victoria University and began a degree in English literature. In 1984 she took Bill Manhire’s Original Composition course and began writing After Z-Hour. Bill Manhire encouraged her to finish it (actually, he told her he’d rather see her finish her novel than her degree). After Z-Hour was published by Victoria University Press in 1987. The same year, Elizabeth graduated from Victoria University with a B.A. in English literature and was awarded the ICI Young Writers Bursary (now the Louis Johnson Bursary).

Elizabeth Knox has been a full-time writer since 1997. She has published eight novels and three autobiographical novellas. Her best-known book is The Vintner’s Luck, which won the Deutz Medal for fiction in the 1999 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and the 2001 Tasmania Pacific Region Prize. The Vintner’s Luck has been published in seven languages and is being made into a film by Niki Caro (Whale Rider; North Country). Elizabeth’s most recent book, Daylight, was short-listed for Best Book in the South Pacific & South East Asian Region of the 2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize. Elizabeth’s first book for young adults, Dreamhunter: Book One of the Dreamhunter Duet, was chosen as a White Raven by the International Youth Library, and is the winner of New Zealand’s prestigious Esther Glen Medal. Its sequel, Dreamquake, was published in March 2007.

Elizabeth lives in Wellington with her husband, Fergus Barrowman, and their son, Jack.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/elizabethknox

Why is this title included?
Dreamhunter is one of Booklist's Top 10 Fantasy Books for Youth, 2006 and YALSA's Best Books for Young Adults, 2007. Its sequel, Dreamquake, is a 2008 Printz Award Honor Book.

Nation

Title: Nation
Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2008
ISBN: 9780061433016

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 7-12

Genre: Adventure/Thrilllers--Survival Stories

Reader’s Annotation: When a tsunami destroys his world, Mau sets out to rebuild it with the help of a "ghost girl," Daphne.

Plot Summary
While Mau is on his way home from time spent on an uninhabited island as part of his coming-of-age ritual, a great wave sweeps over his home (“the Nation”) and the surrounding islands. Mau returns to his home to find everyone dead. How could the gods have let this happen? Mau collects the bodies of his people, giving them proper burials at sea so they can become dolphins. But he is not alone on the island. An English girl, Daphne, whose ship was carried up onto the island survived the wreck. At first deeply suspicious of each other, Mau and Daphne (whom he thinks of as “the ghost girl”) gradually learn to communicate and come to rely on each other. Soon more people, survivors from other, smaller islands, begin arriving. Together they begin building a new society built on both the traditions of the Nation and Daphne’s rationalism. But soon this fledgling people faces its greatest challenge yet—cannibal raiders are on their way, led by the mutineers from Daphne’s ship.

Critical Evaluation
Nation starts out promisingly. The scenes of Mau’s return to his ruined home and his burial work are very powerful, and his early interactions with Daphne humorous. The writing is elegant and the setting detailed. Mau and Daphne are believable and touching as two teens who have lost everything but gather their hope and courage to try to build a good world. Unfortunately, Pratchett can’t resist hammering away on the “problem of evil.” While Mau’s questions about how the gods could allow his world to be destroyed (and his conclusion that they must not exist) are valid and thought-provoking, Pratchett allows these questions to dominate, rather than inform, the story. The priest character, who argues with Mau about continuing the religious practices of the Nation, is a cartoonish, dogmatic, lazy jerk. Toward the end of the book, Mau makes an unlikely discovery that further derails the plot. Deep in a cave he finds evidence that his people had astronomy and other sciences before Europeans did; they just forgot about them because they became too religious. This has the opposite effect Pratchett intends. Instead of showing that all of the world’s cultures deserve respect for their unique contributions, this discovery seems to say that only advanced science can put other cultures on an equal footing with the western world.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: What if your whole life were swept away? How would you rebuild it? Whom would you trust? How would it change you?

Challenge Issues: Anti-religious content, violence

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist, Bookmarks Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Kliatt, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, and VOYA.

About the Author
SIR TERRY PRATCHETT: born 28 April 1948, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. Major source of education: Beaconsfield Public Library (though school must have been of some little help). After passing his 11-plus in 1959, he attended High Wycombe Technical High School rather than the local grammar because he felt ‘woodwork would be more fun than Latin’. At this time he had no real vision of what he wanted to do with his life, and remembers himself as a ‘nondescript student’.

When Terry was thirteen, his short story ‘The Hades Business’ was published in the school magazine Technical Cygnet, and two years later, commercially, in Science Fantasy. With the proceeds he bought his first typewriter. Other short stories –  ‘Solution’, ‘The Picture’ and maybe others, yet undiscovered –  also appeared in the Cygnet. Terry was in line for a bright future. Having earned five O-levels and started A-level courses in Art, History and English, he decided after the first year to try journalism, and when a job opportunity came up on the Bucks Free Press, he talked things over with his parents, and left school in 1965. While with the Press he still read avidly, took the two-year National Council for the Training of Journalists proficiency course (and came top in the country in its exams) and passed an A level in English, both while on day release.

Terry married Lyn Purves at the Congregational Church in Gerrards Cross in October 1968, by which time he had interviewed Peter Bander van Duren, my fellow director of our publishing company Colin Smythe Limited, for the Bucks Free Press about a book he had edited on education in the coming decade, Looking forward to the Seventies. At this time Terry mentioned to him that he had written a book called The Carpet People and asked whether we would consider it for publication? So Peter passed it to me. Yes. It was a delight, and it was obvious that here was an author we had to publish.

He was working at the CEGB when we published the first of the Discworld books, The Colour of Magic, in 1983.

While on tour in America in summer 2007, Terry told audiences at the National Book Festival in Washington DC (during which Terry breakfasted at the White House and dined at the Library of Congress with the other featured authors) and in New York, that he’d had a stroke, but the symptoms had been misdiagnosed, and were of a far worse illness, posterior cortical atrophy, a rare variant of Alzheimer’s disease, which was diagnosed in December.

Terry has now written fifty books (of which thirty-nine are Discworld novels) and co-authored a further fifty more. Between them they have sold over 65 million copies in thirty-seven languages, which I calculate would be a pile of books over 1,000 miles high, stretching further than Land’s End in Cornwall to the furthest tip of the Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland – or from New Orleans to Chicago, and then some.

The year [2008] climaxed with the announcement that Terry had been included in the 2009 New Year’s Honours List, being appointed a Knight Bachelor, ‘for services to literature’, with the press handout adding that it was ‘in recognition of the huge impact his work has had across all ages and strata of society and across the world’.
   
Terry is now an adjunct Professor at Trinity College, Dublin University, and in November 2010 went to Dublin to give his inaugural lecture and masterclasses, as he did so again in March 2011.

http://www.colinsmythe.co.uk/terrypages/tpindex.htm

Why is this title included?
Nation is on many best-of lists and has won several prestigious awards, including Best Kids Books of the Year, Washington Post, 2008; Booklist Best Books for Young Adults, 2009; Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books, 2008; School Library Journal Best Books, 2008; YALSA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, 2009; Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 2009 Winner Fiction and Poetry; Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2008 Winner Young Adult Literature; and the Michael L. Printz Award, 2009 Honor Book. Obviously other reviewers found it less flawed than I did.

The Golden Compass

Title: The Golden Compass
Author: Philip Pullman
Publisher: Turtleback
Copyright: 2001
ISBN: 9780613961509

Reading Level: Grades 7-12
Interest Age: Grade 6 to adult

Genre: Fantasy--Alternate and Parallel Worlds

Reader’s Annotation: Lyra's odyssey takes from Oxford to the frozen north in the company of gyptians, a polar bear, witches, and, most frighteningly, her parents. Along the way she is guided by the enigmatic alethiometer (or golden compass) that tells the truth to those who can read it.

Plot Summary
Lyra has grown up in Oxford believing herself to be an orphan, playing with the street children and her daemon, Pantalaimon. (A daemon is a piece of the soul that lives outside the body in animal form.) When her supposed uncle, Lord Asriel, comes to visit, Lyra becomes inextricably entangled in an intrigue that involves the Gobblers (kidnappers of children) and another world in the sky. Soon Lord Asriel sets off on an expedition to the North, one of her friends from the street is taken by Gobblers, and the elegant Mrs. Coulter comes to take Lyra away with her. Before she leaves, Lyra receives an alethiometer, a rare and precious instrument that tells the truth—about past, present, and future—to those few who can read it.

When Lyra finds out that Mrs. Coulter is a Gobbler, she escapes aboard a gyptian boat, setting out on an odyssey that takes her to the frozen North in search of her friend. Along the way she learns to read the alethiometer and discovers that her parents are Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter. Lyra befriends an armored bear, Iorek Byrnison, who travels with her on his way back to his kingdom. Eventually they come to the land of the witch clans, who point them toward Mrs. Coulter’s research facility. When Lyra is captured and taken there she learns the terrible truth about what the Gobblers are up to—separating children from their daemons to unleash the energy of their bond.

Critical Evaluation
This highly imaginative work combines interesting characters, a credible alternate reality, beautiful writing, and an action-packed plot. The result is a complex yet gripping epic tale—and this is just the first book in a trilogy totaling over 1300 pages. The fascinating Mrs. Coulter is one of the scariest characters I’ve ever encountered. Iorek Byrnison is a fierce, honorable warrior with a deep tenderness for Lyra. The existence of daemons (who are really just externalized parts of the self) allows for a kind of relationship unlike any other. The reader observes several such relationships, but mostly intimately the one between Lyra and Pantalaimon. Pantalaimon’s caution complements Lyra’s impulsiveness; together they are a much more well rounded character than Lyra is alone. The bond between Lyra and Pantalaimon is well established by the time the narrative reaches the two most wrenching scenes in the book—Lyra’s encounter with a “ghost boy” who’s been separated from his daemon and Lyra and Pan’s own near separation. The emotion of these scenes is palpable, as the reader can by then well imagine the intense pain and loss of self such a separation would cause. The details of Lyra world—from the use of gas instead of electricity and zeppelins instead of airplanes to the existence of many and varied kinds of sentient beings—feel consistent. It’s easy to become immersed in this fully realized setting. Readers will be reluctant to leave it.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: Imagine if you had a pet you could talk to, who was in fact part of yourself. What would it look like? How would it affect your life?

Challenge Issues: Violence

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll put in positive reviews from VOYA, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist, and mixed reviews from The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and School Library Journal.

About the Author
I was born in Norwich in 1946, and educated in England, Zimbabwe, and Australia, before my family settled in North Wales. I received my secondary education at the excellent Ysgol Ardudwy, Harlech, and then went to Exeter College, Oxford, to read English, though I never learned to read it very well.

I found my way into the teaching profession at the age of 25, and taught at various Oxford Middle Schools before moving to Westminster College in 1986, where I spent eight years involved in teaching students on the B.Ed. course. I have maintained a passionate interest in education, which leads me occasionally to make foolish and ill-considered remarks alleging that not everything is well in our schools. My main concern is that an over-emphasis on testing and league tables has led to a lack of time and freedom for a true, imaginative and humane engagement with literature.

My views on education are eccentric and unimportant, however. My only real claim to anyone's attention lies in my writing. I've published nearly twenty books, mostly of the sort that are read by children, though I'm happy to say that the natural audience for my work seems to be a mixed one - mixed in age, that is, though the more mixed in every other way as well, the better.

My first children's book was Count Karlstein (1982, republished in 2002). That was followed by The Ruby in the Smoke (1986), the first in a quartet of books featuring the young Victorian adventurer, Sally Lockhart. I did a great deal of research for the background of these stories, and I don't intend to let it lie unused, so there will almost certainly be more of them.

However, my most well-known work is the trilogy His Dark Materials, beginning with Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the USA) in 1995, continuing with The Subtle Knife in 1997, and concluding with The Amber Spyglass in 2000. These books have been honoured by several prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Award, and (for The Amber Spyglass) the Whitbread Book of the Year Award - the first time in the history of that prize that it was given to a children's book.

And finally, The Book of Dust. My work on this has been interrupted over the past couple of years, but the book is growing slowly and before long I shall take it up again full-time. What can I tell you about it? Nothing, except that it’s by far the most important thing I’m doing, and I intend to do it as well as I possibly can. When it’s finished, you’ll hear about it, I guarantee.

http://www.philip-pullman.com/about.asp

Why is this title included?
This series has been one of my favorites for years. It stands up well to rereading and is as enjoyable for adult readers as it is for children. It's also on several best-of-the-best lists, including Amazon.com's Essential Books for Young Adults and YALSA's Best of the Best Revisited (100 Best Books for Teens 2001).

Spindle's End

Title: Spindle's End
Author: Robin McKinley
Publisher: Turtleback
Copyright: 2000
ISBN: 9780613734776

Reading Level: Grades 7-12
Interest Age: Grade 5 to adult

Genre: Fantasy--Fairy Tales

Reader’s Annotation: In this Sleeping Beauty retelling the lost princess can talk to animals

Plot Summary
Katriona, an apprentice fairy from a far-flung corner of the kingdom, goes to the name-day celebration of the baby princess as the representative from her town. When the evil fairy Pernicia shows up and curses the baby to die on her 21st birthday, Katriona suddenly finds herself standing by the cradle, giving the baby her gift—the ability to speak with animals—in the midst of all the confusion. With the knowledge of no one but the queen’s fairy adviser, Katriona takes the baby back to her home to be kept hidden. Along the way, wild animals feed the baby and help Katriona escape undetected. Katriona and Aunt (also a fairy) raise the girl as Rosie, an ordinary village girl. Though blessed by her good fairy godmothers with characteristics like golden ringlets and long eyelashes, Rosie isn’t actually very pretty. She’s unprincesslike in other ways, too—she prefers the society of animals to that of most humans, likes whittling instead of sewing, and habitually wears breeches. Her best friend, Peony, looks and acts much more like a princess than Rosie does.

In the lead-up to the big birthday, Rosie finally learns her true parentage, and a plan is devised to try to circumvent the curse. Peony is publicly identified as the princess, with Rosie posing as a lady-in-waiting. Though a huge celebration is planned for the birthday, everyone still fears that Pernicia will come to make sure her curse is fulfilled.

Critical Evaluation
In Spindle’s End McKinley brilliantly updates and expands the Sleeping Beauty tale, taking a story that can be told in two minutes and turning it into a 400-page novel that never feels slow or thin. She accomplishes this by developing characters, the magical world they inhabit, and several subplots in rich, often humorous detail. Rosie, for example, is about as different from the helpless, passive heroine of the original as it is possible to be. She hates her distinctive princess features, and (already pugnacious at the age of four) tells her admirers, “ ‘I am not pretty. I am intelligent. And brave.’ ” Her ability to speak to animals contributes both a wealth of amusing characters in her animal friends and an important element in the fight against Pernicia. Details of the setting, such as the carved spindle ends that give the book its title (developed in response to the curse, so that pricking a finger on a spindle is impossible), also contribute to the plot in clever ways.

McKinley alternately pokes fun at the fairy tale genre (as with the princess’s full name, Casta Albinia Allegra Dove Minerva Fidelia Aletta Blythe Domnia Delicia Aurelia Grace Isabel Griselda Gwyneth Pearl Ruby Coral Lily Iris Briar-Rose) and embraces it (everybody gets his or her true love). Most importantly, she gives Rosie an active role in saving herself and her kingdom, making Spindle’s End an excellent girl power choice for fairy tale fans and detractors alike.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas
Read the name-day ceremony scene.
Describe the Gig (the part of the kingdom where Rosie grows up) and the kind of magic that exists there.

Challenge Issues: N/A

About the Author
Robin McKinley is an American writer who has won many awards in the US, including the Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown, a Newbery Honor for The Blue Sword, and the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature for Sunshine.

She lives in Hampshire, England with her husband, author Peter Dickinson, two hellhounds nicknamed Chaos and Darkness, an 1897 Steinway upright named Rhodanthe, and increasing numbers of rose bushes wedged into three [sic] tiny gardens. The view out her office window is her change-ringing bell tower and in the next village over is a paragon among horses whom Robin is so fortunate as to have permission to ride. Check out her blog at robinmckinleysblog.com.

http://www.robinmckinley.com/bio.php

Why is this title included?
Robin McKinley has long been one of my favorite authors. Though many of her books, including Spindle's End, can be enjoyed by younger readers, they are so rich in detail and character that they reward rereading and improve with age.

Incarceron

Title: Incarceron
Author: Catherine Fisher
Publisher: Dial
Copyright: 2010
ISBN: 9780803733961

Reading Level: Grades 9-12
Interest Age: Grade 7 and up

Genre: Science Fiction--Dystopia

Reader’s Annotation: Incarceron is a sentient prison large enough to be a world unto itself, but only the Warden knows where it is.

Plot Summary
Incarceron takes place in two very different worlds. Claudia’s world is all about the politics of court and is restricted by Protocol—the requirement that everything conform to the Era. Years ago, after a war that “hollowed the moon and stilled the tides” King Endor decreed the end of human progress. All traces of modernity were removed and society was remade in the image of a pre-industrial, feudal Era. At the same time the great prison Incarceron was made, and a quarter of the world’s surviving population shut away inside forever. Incarceron is both a world—of dungeons, cities, and beautiful landscapes—and a sentient being. Finn lives in Incarceron, but he believes he hasn’t always been there. He is a “starseer” with memories (or are they just dreams?) of Outside. When Finn finds a key with mysterious powers, he sets out with a loose band of allies to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Sapphique, the only prisoner ever to Escape from Incarceron. Finn soon learns that he can communicate with Claudia, who is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, through the key. Though Claudia is Outside and wealthy, she has problems of her own—she’s engaged to a brutish prince, and his mother, the queen, keeps sending her barely-veiled threats.

Critical Evaluation
I found Incarceron disappointing because its premise is so compelling. The glimpses into the histories of the repressive regime and the prison provided in the chapter-starting epigraphs are more interesting than the action. The beginning and end of the story feel planned and solid, but in between the plot wanders. The characters keep doing things, but they seem to be motivated more by the author’s desire to explore the imaginative settings she’s created—both inside and outside the prison—than by emotion or logic. For example, the mysterious stranger who rescues Finn et al midway through the novel later tries to poison them, then lets them go. Fisher doesn’t even try to explain his motivations. In fact, the characters, with the exception of Incarceron, are pretty flat. There’s the beautiful, spunky heroine; the cold, haughty father; the devil-may-care pretty boy; the superstitious, grumpy old man; and the sensitive hero with a mysterious past. Their voices are difficult to distinguish and they all tend to say their lines either “bitterly” or “sourly.” Also, there are timeline inconsistencies--the prison has existed for either about 80 years or centuries. There are enough interesting elements to keep you reading, but with a little more care (and better editing) Incarceron could have been much better.


Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: Read some of the epigraphs that begin the chapters. They provide insight into the history of the dystopian society of Incarceron and are without exception very intriguing.

Challenge Issues: Mild language and violence

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include positive reviews from Booklist, Children's Literature, Kirkus Reviews, and Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, along with mixed reviews from Library Media Connection and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

About the Author
Catherine Fisher was born in Newport, Wales. She graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in English and a fascination for myth and history. She has worked in education and archaeology and as a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. She is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy.

Catherine is an acclaimed poet and novelist, regularly lecturing and giving readings to groups of all ages. She leads sessions for teachers and librarians and is an experienced broadcaster and adjudicator. She lives in Newport, Gwent.

Catherine has won many awards and much critical acclaim for her work. Her poetry has appeared in leading periodicals and anthologies and her volume Immrama won the WAC Young Writers' Prize. She won the Cardiff International Poetry Competition in 1990.

Her first novel, The Conjuror's Game, was shortlisted for the Smarties Books prize and The Snow-Walker's Son for the W.H.Smith Award. Equally acclaimed is her quartet The Book of the Crow, a classic of fantasy fiction.

The Oracle, the first volume in the Oracle trilogy, blends Egyptian and Greek elements of magic and adventure and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Books prize. The trilogy was an international bestseller and has appeared in over twenty languages. The Candleman won the Welsh Books Council's Tir Na n'Og Prize and Catherine was also shortlisted for the remarkable Corbenic, a modern re-inventing of the Grail legend.

Her futuristic novel Incarceron was published to widespread praise in 2007, winning the Mythopoeic Society of America's Children's Fiction Award and selected by The Times as its Children's Book of the Year. The sequel, Sapphique, was published in September 2008.

http://www.catherine-fisher.com/about.asp

Why is this title included?
I'd wanted to read Incarceron since it came out. I saw it reviewed on Amazon.com's Best Books of the Month list and bought it for my teenage sister. It's one of her favorites. Plus, other reviewers have found it much less flawed than I did.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Author: J. K. Rowling
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Copyright: 2000
ISBN: 9780439139595

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grade 4 and up

Genre: Fantasy--Magic and Wizards

Reader’s Annotation: Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts is enlivened by the Triwizard Tournament, in which he involuntarily competes as a superfluous champion.

Plot Summary
Like all of the Harry Potter books, this installment contains layer upon layer of subplots. The main events are as follows. Before school starts, Harry goes to the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasleys and Hermione. After the match, Death Eaters appear and cast the Dark Mark in the sky. Back at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are excited to learn that the Triwizard Tournament will take place this year. This contest tests young witches’ and wizards’ courage, knowledge, and magical skill. Students from two other schools of magic, Beauxbatons in France and Durmstrang in Eastern Europe, arrive to enter the tournament. Though there is supposed to be only one champion per school, and there is a strict age requirement of 17, Harry’s name emerges from the magical Goblet of Fire, making him an unprecedented fourth champion. In the first of the tournament’s challenges, champions must retrieve a golden egg protected by a dragon. The Yule Ball poses another kind of challenge for Harry and Ron—getting dates. For the second task, they must rescue a loved one held captive by the merfolk at the bottom of the lake. The final challenge is a maze, with the Triwizard Cup at its center. The first champion to grasp the cup wins. But Harry and Cedric arrive at the cup together and decide to take it at the same time. They are transported to a graveyard, where a new, dark chapter in the history of the wizarding world begins.

Critical Evaluation
The Harry Potter series reaches a major turning point in this book. For one thing, it is much longer than the previous installments, coming in at well over 700 pages. More importantly, though, it is much darker than the previous books. This is where Harry Potter becomes a young adult rather than a children’s series. Goblet of Fire also begins a story arc that continues through the end of the series. Though elements from the first three books are carried on in the later ones, each contains an essentially complete story. From Book 4 on, the action doesn’t let up. As the series grows up in this book, so do the characters. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all become interested in the opposite sex and turn into moody teenagers. (Harry and Ron spend the Yule Ball sulking because the girls they wanted to take to the dance went with other boys.)

Rowling is a master storyteller. Despite the novel’s great length, she manages to see each of the disparate story lines through to the end. She leaves clues and explanations along the way so that the climax is earned, not manufactured. (For example, she introduces the port key—the magical mode of transport that takes Harry and Cedric to the graveyard—at the beginning of the book.) For the impatient reader with a little background on the series, Goblet of Fire is the place to start reading Harry Potter in earnest.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: Describe the Triwizard Tournament.

Challenge Issues: Violence, occult content

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll put in positive reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist, Kliatt, and The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews and a mixed one from Kirkus Reviews.

About the Author
After leaving university I worked in London; my longest job was with Amnesty International, the organisation that campaigns against human rights abuses all over the world. But in 1990, my then boyfriend and I decided to move up to Manchester together. It was after a weekend's flat-hunting, when I was travelling back to London on my own on a crowded train, that the idea for Harry Potter simply fell into my head.

I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. To my immense frustration, I didn't have a functioning pen with me, and I was too shy to ask anybody if I could borrow one. I think, now, that this was probably a good thing, because I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me. I think that perhaps if I had had to slow down the ideas so that I could capture them on paper I might have stifled some of them (although sometimes I do wonder, idly, how much of what I imagined on that journey I had forgotten by the time I actually got my hands on a pen).

Nine months later, desperate to get away for a while, I left for Portugal, where I had got a job teaching English in a language institute. I took with me the still-growing manuscript of Harry Potter, hopeful that my new working hours (I taught in the afternoon and evening) would lend themselves to pressing on with my novel, which had changed a lot since my mother had died. Now, Harry's feelings about his dead parents had become much deeper, much more real. In my first weeks in Portugal I wrote my favourite chapter in Philosopher's Stone, The Mirror of Erised.

I had hoped that when I returned from Portugal I would have a finished book under my arm. In fact, I had something even better: my daughter. I had met and married a Portuguese man, and although the marriage did not work out, it had given me the best thing in my life. Jessica and I arrived in Edinburgh, where my sister Di was living, just in time for Christmas 1993.

I intended to start teaching again and knew that unless I finished the book very soon, I might never finish it; I knew that full-time teaching, with all the marking and lesson planning, let alone with a small daughter to care for single-handedly, would leave me with absolutely no spare time at all. And so I set to work in a kind of frenzy, determined to finish the book and at least try and get it published. Whenever Jessica fell asleep in her pushchair I would dash to the nearest cafe and write like mad. I wrote nearly every evening. Then I had to type the whole thing out myself. Sometimes I actually hated the book, even while I loved it.

Finally it was done. I covered the first three chapters in a nice plastic folder and set them off to an agent, who returned them so fast they must have been sent back the same day they arrived. But the second agent I tried wrote back and asked to see the rest of the manuscript. It was far and away the best letter I had ever received in my life, and it was only two sentences long.

It took a year for my new agent, Christopher, to find a publisher. Lots of them turned it down. Then, finally, in August 1996, Christopher telephoned me and told me that Bloomsbury had 'made an offer.' I could not quite believe my ears. 'You mean it's going to be published?' I asked, rather stupidly. 'It's definitely going to be published?' After I had hung up, I screamed and jumped into the air; Jessica, who was sitting in her high-chair enjoying tea, looked thoroughly scared.

And you probably know what happened next.

www.jkrowling.com

Why is this title included?
The Harry Potter books are the most popular the world has ever seen. They're not likely to be forgotten any time soon. Though teens may have read the whole series as children, they may well want to reread it later. I chose to review Goblet of Fire because it is the turning point of the series (see above).

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Copyright: 2003
ISBN: 9780385732314

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grade 9 and up

Genre: Paranormal and Horror--Occult

Reader’s Annotation: Gemma starts having visions at the time of her mother's mysterious death. After being shipped off to an English boarding school she finds a diary that entices her and her friends to explore dangerous magic.

Plot Summary
Sixteen-year-old Gemma has spent her whole life in India, but longs for fashionable London. When her mother is killed Gemma has a terrifying vision. She is soon shipped off to boarding school in England, where the visions intensify. She finds a former student’s diary that begins to explain them. But the sexy young man Gemma first saw on the day her mother died has followed her from India. He claims to be the representative of a secretive society and orders Gemma to control her visions and refrain from using her emerging powers.

At the same time, Gemma must find her place in the school’s pecking order. The two queens of the mean girls, daring Felicity and beautiful Pippa, at first torment Gemma and her charity-case roommate, Ann. But when they find out about the diary, and eventually about Gemma’s powers, the four girls band together to escape the restrictions of Victorian society and explore the magical Realms that Gemma learns to access. The girls know the magic they are dabbling in is treacherous, but become addicted to its power. Danger draws near from several directions. A malevolent being is searching for Gemma in the Realms; Felicity’s reputation is close to ruin; and the romantic Pippa is engaged to a rich but horrible suitor. When the girls try to use the magic of the Realms to influence their lives in the real world, the situation spirals out of control.

Critical Evaluation
This novel’s gothic feel is its greatest asset. The mood is dark and scary, and the intoxication that the girls feel with power and danger is strongly evoked. There are some steamy scenes, though all the girls remain technically “pure.” Characterization is also strong. Felicity, especially, is as fascinating to the reader as she is to Gemma. Felicity is the wildest of the girls. She can be cruel, but also fiercely loving. Though she admires both her heroic father and scandalous mother, she hates them for forgetting about her.

The language feels a little off. It’s not exactly period, but not exactly modern, either. Take this passage, for instance:
“‘I think you shall be very happy here, Miss Doyle.’
Translation: That is an order.
‘Spence has turned out many wonderful young women who’ve gone on to make very good marriages.’
We don’t expect much more from you. Please don’t embarrass us.
‘Why, you might even be sitting here in my position someday.’
If you turn out to be completely unmarriageable, and you don’t end up in an Austrian convent making lace nightgowns.”
As above, the shalls sound forced, and Gemma’s narration has a much more modern tone than the dialog does.

The plot has some holes and contrivances, such as the gradual doling out of information from the diary. Realistically, Gemma would read the whole thing as soon as she discovered it had something to do with her visions, but that would have unraveled the mystery too quickly. Also, the rules of the fantasy world are not well established, which is one of my pet peeves. For example, who is Pippa’s knight—a creation of the Realms? If he’s not really a person who wants to woo her, but just a magical construct sent to play out her fantasies, how can he make her happy? There are several loose ends left at the end, but they are presumably dealt with in the two books that follow.

Curriculum Ties: History--Victorian era

Booktalking Ideas: Read pages 86 and 87, from "What frightens you? What makes the hair on your arms rise, your palms sweat, the breath catch in your chest like a wild thing caged?"

Challenge Issues: Occult content, sexual content
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I will pull positive reviews from Booklist, Children's Literature, and Kliatt, along with a negative review (that expresses disapproval of the novel's dark worldview) from The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews.


About the Author
The Straight-from-the-Author-Herself Version
What is it about writing an author bio that gives me that deer-in-headlights feeling? It's not exactly like I'm going to say "I was born in Alabama…" and somebody's going to jump up and snarl, "Oh yeah? Prove it!" At least I hope not.

I think what gets me feeling itchy is all that emphasis on the facts of a life, while all the juicy, relevant, human oddity stuff gets left on the cutting room floor. I could tell you the facts–I lived in Texas for most of my life; I live in New York City with my husband and six-year-old son now; I have freckles and a lopsided smile; I'm allergic to penicillin.

But that doesn't really give you much insight into me. That doesn't tell you that I stuck a bead up my nose while watching TV when I was four and thought I'd have to go to the ER and have it cut out. Or that I once sang a punk version of "Que Sera Sera" onstage in New York City. Or that I made everyone call me "Bert" in ninth grade for no reason that I can think of. See what I mean?

The Haiku Version
I grew up dorky,
With home perms and Led Zeppelin.
You ask why I write?

The No-Frills Version
Libba Bray was born in Alabama but moved to Texas soon after. She went to jr. high, high school, and college there. Now she lives in New York City and writes books. When she dies, we will let you know.

http://www.libbabray.com/bio.html

Why is this title included?
A Great and Terrible Beauty is a New York Times Bestseller, YALSA Best Books for Young Adults (2004) pick, and a YALSA Teens' Top Ten (2004) pick. Libba Bray is a rising star of YA literature. Her novel Going Bovine won the 2010 Printz Award.