Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Sadly, I’m not even kidding. Maybe a Fox was co-written by Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee, but if you follow the Nicholas Sparks rule of “if two characters are truly happy together, there’s a good chance one of them is going to die”, you won’t be far off. Jules and Sylvie have lost their mother already, and Jules loses Sylvie not 60 pages into the novel. (That’s not a spoiler if you’ve read any description of the book at all.) Meanwhile, Senna the Fox is born with a special connection to the human world, and she loves and IS fiercely loved by her family even while she knows she has something she must do that sets her apart from them. Jules’ and Sylvie’s friend Sam is grateful to have his older brother home from Afghanistan, but Elk isn’t the same brother that left a year ago; he is grieving the loss of his best friend, Zeke, who didn’t return. Zeke’s grandmother raised Zeke because his parents died in a car accident, and she’s still grieving for him while helping Jules and her father in the wake of Sylvie’s loss. Throw in an unwise young bear and the possible return of the rare, gone-for-decades catamount to the Vermont woods, and you have a beautifully written tale of grief and love and loss within both the human and the animal world.

Bottom line? There is no shortage of sadness in this book, friends. The Vermont setting called to me, and I appreciate and respect beauty when I see it; on the other hand, I wouldn’t reach for another such book anytime soon.

You’ll have to make your own decision about this one.

I finished listening to Jack Gantos’ From Norvelt to Nowhere last night, and WOW. Dead End in Norvelt was definitely a bizarre sort of funny, but it was also a meaty sort, if you know what I mean. Its sequel is kind of all over the map; it’s got a shade of “Murder by Death”, something of the road trip zaniness of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” and lots of talk about white whales and Captain Ahab. Eleanor Roosevelt’s death and a new murder in Norvelt are the catalyst for Miss Volker and Jack to head to D.C. and then Florida (it’s a long story), by train and then VW Bug. Spizz is hovering around, but he’s not the only one also heading south, and by the end, following the thread of who’s really doing what versus who’s pretending gets a little nuts. The climax is satisfying, in a crazy way, but there’s a surprise “what really happened?” afterward that messed with my head a little. Ultimately, I preferred the first book–it was definitely more character-driven–but the target audience will probably be wildly entertained by the sequel. Either way, it’s a book about a boy that doesn’t rely on bathroom humor.

That’s ALWAYS a win for me.

I was totally going to at least TRY to review a book today–only I got caught up in rearranging/organizing-in-the-garage-so-the-Christmas-things-can-fit-there-now mania. On the positive side, some of our Christmas stuff is already in the garage, and a bit more of it is at least boxed up. On the other hand, there’s still PLENTY to be done. Reviews will have to wait–and really, aren’t you guys all doing the same things at your houses?