11.29.07

Ghosty Teen Books

Posted in Book Reviews at 12:57 pm by Bridget Zinn

I’ve been on a ghost teen novel kick lately — they’re perfect fall reading, even though I ended up with more novels on the funny side than on the strictly spooky side. The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper is the most current one I read and it was so incredibly satisfying. Sparrow is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter in a family chock full of mediums. Everyone predicts she’s going to be an amazing psychic but she spends the first fifteen years of her life pretending that there isn’t anything unusual about her at all. And of course the real truth of the matter is that she is a super psychic and doesn’t just get faint impressions or anything like that. She sees, hears, smells ghosts and can sit and have a chat with them, but she keeps it all on the down low. She even tries going to a school where no one knows her or her family of professional mediums so that she pretend to be normal. Of course it doesn’t work and that is what makes the book so fun.

I also read the Mediator series by Meg Cabot which is a little bit older — I think the most recent one came out a couple of years ago. This series is irresistible. I don’t know if it’s the character’s voice, her tendency to kick ghost bootie, or the fabulous Carmel, CA setting, but it’s a super entertaining read that you just don’t want to end. Suze can see and talk to ghosts and feels it’s her mission to help them move on to the other side. Until she meets Jesse the hot dead guy from the 19th century who inhabits her new bedroom. Does he really need to move on?

Also on my list was Beating Heart by A.M. Jenkins which is a the scariest of the ghost books I read. I was so in love with Repossessed that I had to go back and see what else A.M. Jenkins had written and I discovered Beating Heart. Evan moves into an old mansion with his mom and his sister and starts having these erotic dreams about a girl he’s never met. When the contractors renovating the house find a box of old photos and documents in a papered over wall safe, he discovers a photo of THE GIRL. Very creepy. His chapters are interspersed with chapters from the ghost’s point of view all done in poetry. It’s a great medium for her voice — very wispy and ethereal. Evan’s relationship with his real life girlfriend parallels the ghosts illicit relationship from when she was alive with the troubled boy who lived with her family. This adds a whole layer of drama as you start to figure out how she died and what that might mean for Evan. V. exciting.

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11.19.07

Beverly Naidoo

Posted in CCBC at 5:55 pm by Bridget Zinn

Beverly Naidoo of JOURNEY TO JO’BURG and CHAIN OF FIRE fame was so lovely last week. She came and spoke at Grainger Hall in a CCBC sponsored event. I have to say I briefly considered becoming a business major as an undergraduate simply because Grainger Hall had THE cushiest seats on campus. Little did I know they also have rooms with stellar views of the capitol and downtown Madison all lit up at night. I’m not sure what the theatre alums are doing but they aren’t donating money to the UW theatre department for cushy seats or windows with views (or actually any windows at all). At any rate, it was the perfect venue for our lovely guest speaker. The very best part was when she read her own work. It’s worth paying good money to fly somewhere to hear her speak (she lives in England and I don’t know how often she speaks in the U.S.), not just for the intriguing and intelligent things she has to say, but to hear her read her own work. She makes her stories come alive.  Keep your fingers crossed that she gets asked to read for audio book versions of her books.  

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11.09.07

Birthday Fun

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:23 am by Bridget Zinn

Best birthday ever! I’m a little over halfway into my Two Week Birthday Extravaganza that included lots of fun times, pampering, and a French Revolution Birthday Party (this involved a lot of cake, at least one tiara, and Robespierre bars).

And the most lovely present of them all — a year’s supply of firewood! This might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, but what’s nicer than a cup of tea and a roaring fire? Especially after a long night of inciting revolution?

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