My Thoughts (as the book's biggest fan) on the Shine Debacle...

I know this is kind of old news, but given my love for this book, I felt like I had to spew my thoughts on this matter...

If you've been a follower for any amount of time, you know that Shine (by Lauren Myracle) is my favorite book of 2011, and one of my favorites of all time (read my review HERE to find out why).  A couple of weeks ago when it was announced that it had been nominated for a National Book Award, I did a happy dance that lasted at least 5 minutes (which may not seem like a long time, but try it and see if you're not sweating at the end).  I was so happy for her because a.) I really, REALLY love the book, and b.) I think Lauren is the type of person who could teach a class (or write a book?) to help 90% of the world's population get a clue as to how to act; she is honest, sweet, down-to-earth, and kind- beautiful inside and out.  She has been the target of so many nutjobs wanting to dictate to others what they should read, when all she is really doing is being real.  She understands the teenage mind, and the crazies out there don't want to believe what they (really aren't) reading.  But that's another post (read it HERE if you want to).  Anyway, I was thrilled.  I usually think the judges of these awards (with very few exceptions) have their heads up their asses with their choices, so I was surprised when they finally got one right.  I should have known it was too good to be true...

While I was toiling away, running the book fair at my daughter's (who, by the way, is the reason I ever picked up one of Lauren's books, so Thank You, Emma!) school- away from the blogs, twitter, and the news- all of the chaos over Lauren's un-nomination took place.  (If you aren't aware of what happened, read this POST by Libba Bray, because she does a great job summing it up!)  When I heard, I was absolutely crushed, so I can't imagine how Lauren must have felt...  Yet, she handled herself with grace and dignity.  She gave several interviews, and while it was clear she was disappointed, she never once made it about her.  She was all about the message of the book and her reasons behind writing.  She was gracious to the point of excusing the morons at the National Book Foundation for their mistake.  After reading her responses, I felt embarrassed thinking about how I would have responded in her situation.  The National Book Award earned my respect by making Shine a finalist.  They lost it to the point where there is nothing that could earn it back when they retracted that.  Shine will always be a winner in my eyes and it certainly doesn't need that gold sticker, especially since it will never mean anything to me again after what they have done.  They should be ashamed of themselves.

If you tweet about this, make sure to use the hashtag #ISupportShine.  We want everyone, especially Lauren, to know that we as a community are behind her and her beautiful masterpiece!  If you haven't read it yet, drop everything and read it now. A couple of months ago I ranked it my #1 YA read of 2011, and that ranking still stands (read that post HERE).  Everyone, EVERYONE needs to read this book!

Review: What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Publication Date: November 1st, 2008

When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him... until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two.

As she begins to realize that almost everything she believed to be a truth was really a lie, Evie must get to the heart of the deceptions and choose between her loyalty to her parents and her feelings for the man she loves. Someone will have to be betrayed. The question is... who?

(Courtesy of Goodreads)

If your have been reading my reviews very long, you know that Historical Fiction is not my favorite genre; I never cared much for History in school and I would much rather read about what COULD happen than what already has.  That said, this review may be somewhat biased...

I picked up What I Saw and How I Lied as a part of a challenge in one of my Goodreads groups.  I like challenges because it is really the only way I read outside of my comfort zone.  I'm an overly competitive person and I will "suffer" through the task of reading a book I normally wouldn't for the sake of winning...  Well, this last quarterly challenge in my Wild Things YA Group assigned the task of "reading both a past National Book Award Winner and Nominee from the same year".  Well, I don't typically agree with the choices the judges of book awards make, so I kind of groaned when I saw this.  This book won the YA National Book Award in 2008.  Do I agree? Absolutely not.  Books like The Hunger Games, Graceling, The Knife of Never Letting Go, and Paper Towns were released in 2008; not one of these books was even nominated, all were much better.  Does this mean I didn't like this book?  No.  

As far as Historical Fiction goes, this is one of the better books I've read.  I actually quite enjoyed it.  It reminded me of the excellent television show, Mad Men.  I felt like it captured what I know of that era (and despite my advanced age, I have no first-hand knowledge, although my grandparents definitely do).  It was a well written, compelling story that had a nice mystery unfold.  It made me think about how innocent teens were during those times compared to when I was a teenager, and how much "older" the teens now are compared to even then.  Things were so simple then, but the emotions of the typical teen girl were very much the same.  I enjoyed riding Evie's emotional roller-coaster.  

This story started out well, but it did kind of drag for about 60 pages in the middle.  After that it picked up and was quite a page turner.  I never felt like I couldn't put this book down, but I didn't feel the need to put it down to read something else, if that makes any sense.  I wasn't thrilled with the ending of this book because I had a lot of feelings about how the story unfolded, but the ending made sense and I respect authors who don't wrap a book up with a neat, happy ending.  Overall, I liked this book.  Is it one that I feel a need to add to my personal bookshelf and tell everyone I know to read it?  No.  Although I enjoyed it, I don't feel like I would have been missing out on anything if I hadn't read it.  It would be a great read for a HS History class exploring that era or a person who is a fan of Historical Fiction and/or shows like Mad Men. 

My Rating: ★ ★ ★  

Grade Level Recommendation:  Perfectly acceptable for middle school and up (ages 10+).  Because the writing stays true to the era, it is quite clean.  I would let my 5th grader read it if I thought she would have any interest in it, but this is honestly a book that would appeal to adults more than teens.

**Don't forget to enter my AWESOME giveaway of an audio copy of the AMAZING All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin HERE!**