Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

The Tower of Flints, patched unevenly with black ivy, arose like a mutilated finger from among the fists of knuckled masonry and pointed blasphemously at heaven. At night the owls made of it an echoing throat; by day it stood voiceless and cast its long shadow.

A decrepit castle the size of a small city. An noble lineage ruled by obscure ritual. A retinue of servants, all insane in their own unique ways. Gothic and absurd, Titus Groan is a lush fantasy novel with as much in common with Alice in Wonderland as Lord of the Rings.

Published in 1946, Titus Groan is the first book in Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. It tells the story of ancient Gormenghast castle, where over the centuries, life has fossilized into an endless series of ceremonies. Any meaning the rituals once had was forgotten generations ago, but they're still clung to with a spiritless sense of duty by the seventy-sixth earl of Groan, his family, and their servants. It is what has always been done, and so it is what must be done forever.

"Yellow Eyes" and more: A quick quartet from a school guide

Being an "author dad" at my son's school (my youngest son's -- my oldest is in high school, and parents don't seem to figure into the equation quite as much), I occasionally get asked about books for young, midgrade or YA readers, are there any titles I could recommend, especially when said reader is done with X title, or Y series?, etc.

Occasionally, I am not even stumped when I get asked this.

Recently, I was asked to write up a brief "thumbnail guide" of overlooked titles for a school booklet that would be chockablock with similar handy/useful advice on other subjects, given out as part of a school fundraiser. Here, then, is a rewrite of that recent page-long guide, which required to me to focus on five titles, only. Since one of those titles was the reviewed-last-month "The Year of the Bomb," that leaves a quartet for us. So straight from the pages of the "parent's guide" and program, to you, the remaining foursome of oft-overlooked titles:

Hopefully, this list will help round out the list of your reader who wants to know "what's next?" after finishing the latest Percy Jackson or Wimpy Kid offering.

Note that books aren't "ranked" in any way -- rather, just listed in the order in they occurred (or re-occurred!) to your humble servant and scribe:

1) "Yellow Eyes" by Rutherford Montgomery. Montgomery was a writer and ranch hand from the turn of the century -- the previous one -- and here writes an unforgettable classic about the closing in of the west told from the point of view of a cougar. Yellow Eyes escapes hunters and dogs, and grows from a cub into adulthood, in what reads like a vastly fiercer Disney tale. It permanently shaped my views on wildlife and wilderness. I re-read it as an adult, and it still holds up. I need to read it again.

2) "Heaven Eyes" by David Almond. In keeping with our initial "eyes" theme, this work by the British, and always worthwhile, Almond isn't quite as well known as his prize-winning "Skellig" (another fine read), but presents a somewhat gothic, spooky twist on various Huck Finn themes, as two orphans flee their captivity on a raft, into a post-industrial wasteland, where they meet their titular host. And then the journey really begins.

3) "Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time" by Lisa Yee. Set just down the 210 freeway from -- and several decades later than-- Kidd's book, SoCal-based author Yee here spins a sequel to her better known (and also recommended) "Millicent Min, Girl Genius," wherein Min's friend Stanford finds himself in need of tutoring the summer before middle school, so he can make the basketball team. His tutor? The much-dreaded Min! A lively blend of sports, hormones, and happily mingled SoCal cultures. Fun stuff, whether it's summer vacation, or not.

4) "The Great God Pan" by Donna Jo Napoli. Perhaps the "oldest" book on this list, in terms of intended readership, Napoli takes two unfinished Greek legends -- that of the nature god Pan (rumored to be the only one among the pantheon whose death was noted by humans), and the very mortal princess Iphigenia, slated to be sacrificed by her father, so he can get his war on. The legends have various twists on whether her father, Agamemnon, was ultimately successful. Here, Napoli provides one more. Full of yearning, and a broken heart or two, it's a great next step after your reader has finished all the "Percy Jackson" books. And maybe experienced his, or her, first crush.

One of the Survivors by Susan Shaw

How do you feel when you are blamed for something that is not your fault? What if you can't prove your innocence? What if people were hurt? What if a classroom of your fellow students and your teacher were killed in a fire and you can't explain why you left just in time?

In One of the Survivors, Joey Campbell and his friend Maureen leave their classroom against the orders of their teacher, Mr. Bednarik. The alarms have been going off for a while and everyone assumes there is no real danger. Except that Joey has had experience with fire and he goes against his strong desire to follow the rules, which proves to save their lives.

Now, at the insistence of his father, Joey is writing in a journal. He recounts the horrifying dreams, the fence they built to keep out the angry townsfolk who can't understand how he could have survived while others died and how Maureen is changing as well. It is a dark period where even his own back yard is unsafe, due to the garbage-throwing mobs.

Joey writes about a lot of things though, like his cat Preston and vanilla ice cream. As is her previous novel, Safe, Shaw deals with tragedy with a subtle understanding. The story and Joey's healing are slowly revealed during the incredibly engrossing One of the Survivors. Fans of Jacqueline Woodson's Peace, Locomotion or Zane's Trace by Allan Wolf will enjoy this novel.

Risking everything to find out the truth

From Holly Cupala, another interesting interview, this time with Allan Stratton, author of Borderline (See the GLW review of the book from a couple of months ago). Here's a bit of Holly's interview:

I’ve also visited many mosques in Egypt, Turkey and Spain. (The imam at the Mosque of Quaitbey in Cairo was kind enough to let me climb the minaret to see the surrounding City of the Dead.) But work on BORDERLINE introduced me to a range of Muslim congregations and prayer services, both conservative and progressive, where I was reconfirmed in the obvious: that there is an equally wide range of religious interpretation and observance in Muslim congregations and individuals as there are in Christian and other faith traditions; and that the media has done a great disservice in reinforcing only negative stereotypes of Islam, rather than exploring the progressive elements of the faith as well.

That said, I must stress again that this is a character-based, coming-of-age mystery/thriller. By the time one starts writing, all one’s research should be internalized so that the reader isn’t aware of it. Characters and story are paramount: they must be gripping. Research can help root a novel by giving it a more authentic voice; for the greater the human truth of a novel, the greater the spell it casts on its audience.

Read the whole interview at Holly's site.

Politics and Pathetic Losers

If a fourteen-year-old had degrees in Theology and Medieval History, what would he write about? Perhaps the Knights Templar, a religious order of warriors that were said to be so brave and righteous they could battle ten-to-one odds and win. It's not written by a teenager, but Solomon's Thieves (by Mechner and Pham) had enough escapes and sword duels (especially the one at the end that travels up into the rafters) to keep the teen boy in me quite happy. Meanwhile, this story of three rough and tumble knights also explores how the politics of the Church went about finding scapegoats and the hideous methods they used to exact confessions. One of these knights gets caught up in the Church's plans, but he escapes from his torturers and hooks up with a pair who have plans to stick it back to the Church but good. This one's out in May, but follow ups promise to detail a Medieval heist worthy of Ocean's Eleven.

On a lighter note, take Matt Blurdy, the star of The Helm (by Hardison and Sears): a pudgy loser, thirty-years-old, working in a video store and living with his Mom. Things might be looking up though, when Matt finds an ancient helm in an antique store, which tells him flat out that he's got a heroic destiny waiting for him and all he needs is to put the helm on and claim it. Except when he does, the helm apologizes. Sorry, big mistake, Matt definitely does not have a heroic destiny waiting for him. But this is Matt's chance, see, so he keeps the helm and starts a hardcore regimen designed to make him a hero. Only problem is, he's got to beat the murder rap and shed a few pounds before the dark forces looking for that helm catch up with him. Both hilarious and exciting, this is for all the comic book and fantasy geeks out there and for anyone who ever loved them or hated them.

Fantasy to make you laugh or cry.

Extinct... or Not?

There's a lot that I like about The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. And a lot that makes me crazy.

I like the story of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a bird that is close to extinction, if, indeed, it still exists. The author, Phillip Hoose, has worked on the staffs of the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. He's also a songwriter, a performing musician, and a founding member of the Children's Music Network. Very cool. His writing is thoughtful and compelling.

What makes me crazy, though, is the incredible ignorance. In the late 1800s and into the twentieth century, rare birds were hunted and killed, to be sold to collectors. And "by about 1870... many American women wouldn't think of buying a hat that wasn't topped by at least one long bird feather." "Some of the hat brims were like small tabletops, holding up great heaps of feathers. And it wasn't just feathers: one of the... most admired styles contained the beak, claws, and legs of a dead crow." An ornithologist (one who studies birds) in 1887 walked two blocks in New York City. Frank Chapman counted 700 hats, and 542 had feathers sewn into them.

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker's habitat is practically gone from the earth. Vast old-growth forests in the southern U.S. have been wiped out. The last confirmed sighting was in Cuba in 1987.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Seriously, do you need to know anything more than the title?

The big "what if" here is basically little more than Buffy the Vampire Slayer merged with the life story of the sixteenth president of the United States. Lincoln was born, fated as it were, toward a life of vampire killin' in the name of preserving the Union. Unlike Buffy, however, Honest Abe takes his marching orders from a master vamp who finds the purpose and methods of his Southern brethren reprehensible. Add a dose of revenge to Lincoln's early life and the tall, soft-spoken gentleman of our history books becomes the axe wielding vampire assassin with more blood on his hands, literally, than any other president in history.

Oh yeah, there's blood alright. Red blood, and plenty of it.

Interview with Ron Koertge

I had the privilege of asking Ron Koertge, author of the book I reviewed today, Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs, the Guys Lit Wire "Five Quick Questions". Here they are, with Ron's answers:

1. What do you do for a living and what do you like best about your job?

My job now is writing. I taught at a community college for a bunch of years. I liked it and I was a good teacher, but when I hit sixty and could hang it up, I did. What I like most about being a writer is working every day. I have a dandy studio and Buddy the cat and I come up here pretty much seven days a week, fifty-two weeks of the year. There's supposed to be two kinds of writers -- those who like to write and those who like having written. I'm the first kind. I can be the second kind. It's fun to go places and stay in nice hotels and meet librarians and readers but it doesn't get the work done. My parents lived through the Depression; they were solid, blue collar folks. I went to work in my dad's confectionary when I was ten, got a Social Security card as soon as I could, and worked through high school and college selling clothes, being a waiter, doing yard work, etc. I have a feeling that the books and poems I write are prodding at me, urging me to keep going. I'm the door, after all, that lets them from their world into this one. So I understand why they're anxious.

Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs by Ron Koertge

In 2006, Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge hit the shelves in libraries and stores. No, it's not about William Shakespeare. Instead, it tells the story of 14-year old Kevin Boland, a talented first baseman sidelined by mono. While sitting out a good part of the season, Kevin starts writing poetry - about baseball, about girls, about his dead mom. The whole story is told in poems - some free verse and some in forms, ranging from haiku to a sonnet to a pantoum and more, some using rhyme, some not.

This spring brings the release of Shakespeare Makes The Playoffs, which picks up a bit later in baseball season. Kevin and Mira are still going out, although Kevin is starting to question that relationship a bit - Mira doesn't "get" him or his poetry, whereas a new girl he's met (named Amy) sure does. Not only that, she writes poems with and for Kevin. What's a guy to do?

Welcome to the End of the World

When I first heard that Marvel was adapting Stephen King's epic The Stand into graphic novel format, I got pretty excited. The Stand is one of my favorite books of all time, one that I re-read every few years, one with scenes and characters that are unforgettable to many. I wasn't disappointed in the first 2 collected gn volumes, Captain Trips and American Nightmares, and I'm looking forward to the continuation of this familiar story being told in a new way. So yes, I'm writing this as someone who knows the original material well--and I would love to hear an opinion on this adaptation from someone who hasn't read King's novel.

Volume 1, collecting issues 1-5, sets up the battle between good and evil to come, introducing us to the characters on each side, and of course we have to start with how we got to this specific apocalypse in the first place. Besides meeting the survivors of the superflu (aka Captain Trips), we get a bit of backstory involving Project Blue, a governemnt biolgogical weapons project that got out of control. Only 1 man escaped the compound before it was locked down, but 1 man was enough to spread the epidemic throughout the country, maybe the world.