Year End Favorites

For many reasons, I will be super happy to kick 2014 to the curb.  But as I look back on all of the amazing books I read this year, I will keep them as a bright spot of the last 365.  I make no attempts to balance my favorites of the year. I don't look at award criteria. What I look for is a balance of high quality writing, great stories, interesting information and the good old heart-song book.  There were many to choose from this year, and these were the ones that rose to the top for me.

Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson

Rising to the very top is this amazing memoir that goes beyond genre and format and is simply dreamy.  Luscious and glorious all at once, this is a family story, a writer's story, a story of race in America, and the story of a girl. It is a book I will revisit in pieces and as a whole.

Greenglass House, by Kate Milford

This is a book where I have loaned out my personal signed copy (sans dust cover) to a student when we didn't have it in the library.  Rich in setting and cinematic in scope, I just love Milo and his family and can imagine that if I read this at 11 years old, I would have dreamed of living in the inn. I think this may become a read aloud Christmas tradition in my house.

The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander

There is no denying the poetry of Kwame Alexander.  Begging to be read aloud, but at the same time an intimate story of brothers and family that wants to be read in corners and quiet rooms, this one will surprise, delight and kick you in the gut in equal measure.

Nest, by Esther Ehrlich

Character driven, so sad yet hopeful, Chirp and Joey went straight to my heart. This is a quiet book nestled into the Cape Cod 1970s setting that tackles serious themes with aplomb.

Neighborhood Sharks, by Katherine Roy

Defying age categorization, this non-fiction incredibly illustrated book about the Great Whites of the Farallon Islands will have readers pouring over the pages again and again.

The Family Romanov, by Candace Fleming

Incredibly informative and readable at the same time, this is Fleming at her best.  Thought provoking and oddly timely.









These are the titles that rose to the top for me.  What are your favorites of 2014?

The Greenglass House, by Kate Milford

Our brains seem to want comparisons.  Every time a new book comes out, editorial blurbs sing, “For fans of….”, or “Blank meets blank in this striking new novel…”  I am both attracted to and wary of these comparisons, because they often create a false hope.  After all, a significant amount of connection to a story comes by what we bring to it.  I was first struck by the gorgeous cover of The Greenglass House, by Kate Milford and then I started hearing the buzz.  I started to hear talk of The Westing Game . Now, if you don’t already know, any time someone asks me what my favorite book of all time is, The Westing Game slides quickly from my mouth.  No questions asked. Over the adult titles that I have swooned about, the Newberys I have loved, the picture books that spawned the art that is matted and framed on my walls, The Westing Game is still firmly on the tippy top of the pile.  So the talk worried me a bit.

Silly me.

Milo and his family have just settled in for the holidays at their inn, The Greenglass House.  The guests have all departed, school is out for a couple of weeks, and it’s officially family time.  Imagine Milo’s surprise when the bell rings to alert the family that a guest is ready to come up the hill in the rail car called the Whilforber Whirlwind. Situated on the top of Whilforber Hill, the inn is somewhat iconic in their town.  Nagspeake is a smugglers’ town, and Milo’s parents are as likely to get paid in goods by the folks passing through as they are money. But smugglers have seasons and the winter holidays are not smuggler time.  Who could be coming to stay now?

Milo and his family are even more surprised when the bell keeps ringing!  More than one guest?  What is going on?

After the passel of guests shows up, Milo’s folks call on their regular help to come and help with meals and rooms and such.  Since it is break, the cook brings her kids and even though  Milo has never met Meddy before, the two get along famously even starting to role play using Odd Trails -- a game Milo’s own dad played when he was young.  Milo’s personal character Negret comes in handy when guest’s belongings start disappearing.  

This is such an atmospheric, multi layered story -- I just can’t say enough about it.  When you put all of the aspects of the story into writing, they can seem overwhelming.  We have the mythos of the town, the rules of the game, the mysterious guests, the criminality afoot, Milo’s own adoption story and sense of self, the lore of the house...it goes on and on.  But in Milford’s deft hands all are perfectly balanced and unfurled just so.  I started to slow down as I read this one, because I didn’t want it to end.  I ache to see this on the big screen, and am anxiously awaiting the first real snow of the season so I can hunker down and treat myself all over again!

The Night Gardener, by Jonathan Auxier

Molly and Kip are trying to find the Windsors, their new home of employment, but the locals are not making it easy for them.  Every time Molly asks, they speak of the sour woods and tell Molly that she should stay away.  But it's not like Molly has a choice - she and her brother are far from home and without parents.  When they encounter Hester Kettle on the road, they seem to have found a piece of luck.  She is willing to tell the children how to get to the Windsors for a promise of future stories. Molly agrees and they are soon on their way.

Molly's introduction to the family is a far cry from welcoming.  Hired by the Windsor's solicitor, Constance has no idea Molly is coming and is less than pleased to find her telling stories to her young daughter Penny in the dusty foyer of the house.  Constance and her son Alistair want Molly and Kip to leave immediately, but Molly is able to use her gift of the gab to convince them that they would much rather live in a well tended house, and that she and Kip can provide it for them.

She will soon live to regret this move, as the family and the house seem to be harboring dark secrets.  While she is able to throw herself into the ample work of cleaning up the household during the day, it is at night when Molly is most afraid.  Every night since she's been sleeping in the house, she has been having terrible nightmares.  And it turns out the darkness isn't just in her mind.  She wakes to find her door open, leaves in her hair and mud on the floor.

As it turns out, the Night Gardener Miss Polly has mentioned is real.  He wanders the house and the grounds at night and has his hand in the nightmares of the household.

And he is not the only dark element at the Windsors' place.  The tree, growing much too close to the house, is more than it seems as well, and will soon ensnare Molly as it has the Windsors.

This is a deliciously scary story that will have readers up into the night to finish. Jonathan Auxier is one of those writers who seems like he's been around forever.  Not because there are a plethora of his books lining the shelves, but because he is a craftsman.  His books have a timeless quality to them and are made of the stuff with staying power.  The Windsor's legacy is slowly revealed piece by piece which helps bring the suspense level to that of a slow burn.  He explores the themes of human weakness and greed, family and loyalty with aplomb.  The setting is expertly laid out and even now as I close my eyes I can see the grounds, the stables and the green door.

Fans of dark fantasy, Victorians, and well crafted stories will be left shivering with delight.

Under the Egg, by Laura Marx Fitzgerald

Theodora Tenpenny may live in Manhattan, but it's not a glamorous existence for her.  She lives in a ramshackle house with her absent minded math genius mother and her grandfather Jack.  But right on page 4, Jack is killed and leaves Theo only with the dying message of "Look under the egg."

Not much for a 13 year old who is trying to keep it together to go on.  So between gardening, taking care of her chickens and pickling for food, scanning the streets for useful objects and caring for her mother, Theo needs to unravel what her grandfather's wishes were.

Theo is up in her grandfather's art studio one day trying to figure out the mystery when a mouse runs up her leg and she jumps up and spills some rubbing alcohol on one of Jack's paintings - the painting unlike his other paintings.  The egg.  As Theo desperately tries to clean the rubbing alcohol off, the colors smear and smudge and she is devastated at losing this last bit of Jack.  But when she looks closely she realizes that under the egg, a different painting is revealing itself.  Could this be what Jack's dying words were about?

Theo is at a neighborhood diner owned by a friend of Jack's where she forms an unlikely friendship with Bodhi - another 13 year old who has just moved down the block and happens to have Hollywood parents.  Where Theo's existence is positively Little House on the Prairie, Bodhi's is the Jetsons in comparison.  Theo surprisingly lets Bodhi in on the secret painting, and soon with Theo's art history knowledge and Bodhi's internet skills, they are on the trail to the truth.

Woven into the text are explanations of fine art, as well as bits of history involving WWII.  There are also real life bits of NYC living including the Staten Island Ferry, Grace Church, the Met and the Jefferson Market Library.  All of these true things had me actually google Spinney Lane to see if it was one of those Manhattan streets I've walked by a million times but not walked down.

This is a solid summer mystery with a really fantastic sense of place.

A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Lloyd

Sometimes a book will just call out to you.  It tells you that it was meant for you and that you need to read it.  The first time I heard the title A Snicker of Magic, I was intrigued.  The first time I saw the delightful cover, I knew I had to get my hands on it.

Felicity Juniper Pickle is a collector of words.  Not in the same way that some of us are, she is lucky enough to see words.  Words surround certain people and things, and when Felicity sees them, she writes them down in her always present blue notebook.  When her little sister Frannie Jo asks for a poem, Felicity can pluck them out of the air and combine them into a soothing rhyme for her.

There are two things that Felicity Pickle cannot do, however.  She cannot comfortably speak those words in front of anyone, and she can't stay in one place too long.  The first thing she can work on, but the second thing is all because of her Mama.

Her Mama is cursed with a wandering heart.  She loads her girls up into her beat-up van and travels around with them.  This last jaunt has brought the Pickles home to where Mama grew up: Midnight Gulch.  Midnight Gulch used to be a magical place, but a few generations ago the magic seemingly up and left town right along with the famous Threadbare brothers.

But for Felicity, Midnight Gulch does turn out to be a magical place.  First of all, she acquires her very first friend - Jonah Pickett.  And Jonah, it turns out, has a secret and a bit of a magical identity as well.  As he takes Felicity under his wing, she sees the things that could be -- the things that she didn't even know she was longing for as Mama shuttled them around "Per-clunkity-clunk, per-clunkity-clunk" across the country.

Natalie Lloyd has created the kind of world that readers want to jump into.  This small Tennessee town should exist and feels like it does.  Perfectly quirky, the characters are interwoven, layered and kind. Turns of phrase verily melt in your mouth, and beg to be read aloud.  This is a heart-song book, if ever there was one.