The main character, Katsa, has been used by her uncle as a thug to keep his kingdom in line.  She is tired of it and, in unprecendented defiance of him, confronts him to say she will no longer do his bidding.  She knows that he may try to kill her, but she also has the skill to defeat anyone and everyone that is sent her way and to kill the king on top of that.  With all her heart, she doesn’t want that to happen, but her instinct is to kill anyone who tries to harm her.  The quote that really stood out to me was this: ” Mercy was more frightening than murder, because it was harder, and Randa [the uncle] didn’t deserve it.”

Isn’t that awesomely true.  Mercy is so much more difficult than lashing out and punishing the people who hurt us.

Unfortunately, only a few chapters later, Cashore killed the wonderful attachment I was beginning to feel to her main character.  Katsa starts spouting modern feminist rhetoric.  Now, I’m all for women being treated with respect and equality, both in the work place, in the home, and in places of worship, but some people take it a little too far for my comfort.

In the story, Katsa declares that she can never marry because she would no longer be her own and be herself.  Even when she meets a man who loves her AND respects her individuality, she still claims that marriage would result in a loss of her fredom and of her very personality.

It hurts me to hear a character (and supposedly, the author) saying such things against marriage.  There’s nothing wrong with being single, but to remain single because you fear being “owned” is kind of ridiculous.  My own marriage has not resulted in a loss of my “self” but has developed a richness my personality that stems from being responsible for another’s wellbeing and happiness.  I wouldn’t be nearly as understanding nor as generous with my self and my time if I did not have my husband in my life.

So, in the end, although the story was entertaining and engaging, I wasn’t at all happy with Graceling.  (Also, the Epilogue left much to be desired as far as closure.  I understand wanting to leave things open for a sequal, but if you don’t give me something to feel good and finished about, I might not come back for the next one.)

Now, over the summer, I read all three books that were nominated in the young adult category.  If you have read my reviews, you are aware that a couple of them dealt with some pretty heavy topics, such as teen sex and drug use.  Our librarian, therefore, decided not to offer that category for our students, considering that our school includes sixth graders, many of whom are just not ready for books like that (actually, whose parents are not ready to deal with topics like that).

So, that meant that I hadn’t read any of the books my students would be reading, which was the whole point!  I then set to work on reading the three nominees at the middle school level.  Here are brief reviews of each, in the order in which I read them:

1. Blood on the River: Jamestown 1607–This was a fun book as far as the history goes.  I like that the author uses a young protagonist to tell the story through, not only keeping kids engaged in a story that is dominated by adults, but also giving young readers a child’s perspective of life in the “New World.”  I also liked that the author draws on contemporary research about the Jamestown settlement and on Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, rather than relying on Smith’s (and Hollywood’s for that matter) romanticized version of the events.

I can’t really put my finger on anything I didn’t like about the book, but I got a little bored with it.  It’s certainly filled with plenty of fighting, but that is interspersed with a lot of starving, working, and back biting between the colonists/fortune hunters.

2. The Wednesday Wars–The basic premise in this novel is that one day a week, the Protestant main character is stuck alone with his teacher for the last hour of class because all of his classmates are attending religion classes (the rest of those classmates being either Catholic or Jewish). He is convinced that his teacher hates him because she is stuck with him for that hour, but as the year goes on they manage to find some common ground.

This one was definitely my favorite, probably because it contains the type of humor that appeals to me and that I think kids get.  There were parts that made me laugh out loud:

But her (the teacher’s) nefarious ploot to bore me to death failed again, because The Tempest was even better than The Merchant of Venice.  In fact, it almost beat out Treasure Island–which is saying something.

It was surprising how much good stuff there was.  A storm, attempted murders, witches, wizards, invisible spirits, revolutions, characters drinking until they’re dead drunk, and angry monster named Caliban…I was amazed that Mrs. Baker was letting me read this.  It’s got to be censored all over the place.  I figured that sh hadn’t read it herself, otherwise she would never have let me at it

Caliban…he knew cuss words.  I mean, he really knew cuss words.  What Mr. Vendleri said while standing on Danny Hupfer’s desk didn’t come close.  Even Doug Swieteck’s brother couldn’t cuss like that–and he could cuss the yellow off a school bus.

Okay, maybe that humor is geared more towards an adult audience, but there are certainly some antics that I think kids can appreciate, including a scene where some rats escape from their cage.  Anyway, there are also passages that brought tears to my eyes, such as when the protagonist tries to hurry to the sporting goods store after performing as Ariel in The Tempest (wearing yellow tights with feathers on the butt) so that he can get Mickey Mantle’s signature.  He gets there just in time only to have his baseball icon blow him off and make fun of his costume.  In a very touching scene, his best friend hands Mantle back the ball he just got signed and says he doesn’t want it anymore.  After this scene, our protagonist reflects:

When gods die, they die hard.  It’s not like they fade away, or grow old, or fall asleep.  They die in fire and pain, and when they come out of you, they leave your guts burned.  It hurts more than anything you can talk about.  And maybe worst of all is, you’re not sure if there will ever be another god to fill their place.  Or if you’d ever want another god to fill their place.  You don’t want fire to go out inside you twice.

Okay, I’ve gone on about this one a little too long, but I really enjoyed reading it.  So many funny moments and some powerful writing.

3. Alabama Moon–This one just wasn’t my cup of tea at all.  The protagonist is a young boy who has grown up living out in the woods with his father.  His father was a Vietnam vet who came back feeling like the government was the worst evil in the world, so he took his wife and young son away from civilization to live off the land, instilling in the boy an absolute dread that one day the “law” would come after them.

His father ends up dying of an infection from a broken leg that he refuses to seek treatment for, leaving Moon all alone in the forest.  The rest of the book chronicles his attempts to escape from various law enforcement officials and institutions in order to get to Alaska, where his father said he’s be able to find more people “like them.”

He does manage to make some friends along the way and slowly begins to realize that maybe his dad didn’t really have the right idea after all.

My problems with the book start with my belief that young readers will have a difficult time relating to the main character.  That aside, I felt like the plot development was predictable, and all along, I suspected that the author had some ulterior motive, some message that he wanted to communicate about crazy people who live in the forest or government officials who want to lock kids up or some other such.  My suspisions were confirmed toward the end of the novel when a judge summarizes the problems with Moon’s situation:

You see, there’s this boy whose raised out in the woods and doesn’t know a thing about the world but what he’s seen within a couple of miles of his stick hut.  One day this kid pops out of the woods, ten years old, and starts walkin’ down the blacktop.  We automatically think we got to put him in the system.  Get him in the boys’ home.  Make him property of the state.  Well, everybody can’t fit that slot.  Why can’t you just put the kid on your sofa and help him out a little?  Hell, put him on your floor.  This kid would’ve been fine in somebody’s barn.  You’ll kill a boy like this in an institution.

Now, I don’t have any problem with a book having a message.  I just have a problem with the author thinks he needs to have one of his character’s make it obvious.  It shows a lack of faith in the reader’s competence, and closes the door to any other interpretations or messages his creative work could have offered to a diverse group of readers.

Other than that, I thought the book was at least interesting, well paced, and unique.

Of course, after writing all that, I am apparently a terrible predictor of what young readers enjoy. When the students voted today, they chose Alabama Moon. Of course, these are just our school site’s results. They get sent in to the CYRM organization, and we won’t receive the official results for another month or so.

I must brag that last year, even though my favorite book did not win our school site’s nomination, it did ultimately win the medal. I’m hoping for another come-from-behind win for my favorite.

The story not only deals with his experiences on the reservation, but also his experiences when he decides to attend high school in a town off the res and the resultant further alienation from friends and family back home.

The most memorable thing about this book is that it kept me laughing and, yet, also managed to make me cry. Alexie adeptly brings up Native American social and political issues, both past and present, without apology and without it feeling heavy handed. He even brings in issues of death and loss in a way that is poignant without being contrived, overly simplistic, or melodramatic, as is sometimes the case in literature that is geared towards young adults.

This was certainly my favorite for this year’s California Young Reader Medal, hands down. My one word of caution for adults introducing and discussing the book with their own young readers is that it does contain references to sex and masturbation, which is probably to be expected in a book written from a teenage boy’s perspective. Personally, I don’t feel that these references are distracting or inappropriate, and considering all the other issues for discussion that this book brings up, it is just one more conversation starter.