Nerds Heart YA: Shine, Coconut Moon VS Skunk Girl

And here we are again for a second year of Nerds Heart YA. I'm judging the first round again. The books I have read are

• Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger

and

• Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim

Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger

The Summary
Samar is a seventeen-year-old girl living in Linton, New Jersey. Her family is of Indian origins but her mother, who brought her up as a single parent, has always tried to keep her away from her heritage and her grandparents. She's taught Samar to feel like an American, rather than Indian, with the same rights and freedoms of any other citizen, regardless of her ethnicity, but her mother's intentions to save Samar from the restrictions that she had to endure as a child are turning her into a coconut: brown on the outside and white on the inside.
An unexpected reunion with uncle Sandeep, whom Samar had never met, soon after the 9/11 attacks, ignites Samar's need to reconnect with her heritage and find out more about herself.

What I liked:
I thought the idea of linking the typical teenager's need of self-discovery to the exploration of one's cultural identity was a great idea. When Samar says: I couldn't feel more different. I feel like the epitome of different - from everyone. I feel like there's no one else like me on this whole planet she's channeling, unknowingly, the spirit of being a teenager. In her case it's symbolised by her new-found origins. But I challenge anyone to raise their hand and say they haven't felt this way at 17.
The 9/11 setting added some edginess, some uncomfortable moments, which at first they felt a bit deliberate but they all came together in the end.
Of course, I loved learning about Sikh culture, of which I know little about. Especially what it is like for a Sikh to live away from the homeland and still carry on the faith. Just as much as I was interested in reading about being a Muslim in Does my head look big in this? I enjoyed the parts which dealt with the rituals and the traditions of the Sikh.
Regarding the characters,I must say I loved uncle Sandeep. He's the sweetest, most likeable character, always ready to help, to talk, to hug. Although he's a bit too willing to please Samar and do whatever she asks him to do. Also, for all her faults, I thought Samar's mother was an example of an independent spirit, a women who rebelled and tried to instill the same spirit into her daughter, with unexpected results. I couldn't not like her.

What I didn't like:
Unfortunately I found Samar's character to be flat and occasionally annoying. Aside from her journey of self-discovery, there wasn't anything that made her stand out as a person. Was that the point? That she needed to find her true identity before developing a personality? I don't know, but aside from being a rebelling teenager, which is normal, I couldn't find any special likable qualities about her. At some point I even thought she was taking her anger against her mother a bit too far and I ended up siding with her mother. Am I getting too old?
Actually all the teenager characters were sort of bland, bordering toward boring, which was a little disappointing.

Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim

The Summary:
At 16-year-old, Nina Khan had two main things that plagued her life: the constant comparison to the super genius older sister and body hair.
She's also from a Pakistan family and one of the only brown kids in her school, which, as she puts, sucks.

It's not that I hate high school. It's just that I wish it would hurry up and end already.

A part from that, she's a normal teenager, who has friends, and would like to party and date like any other kid. But her family, unlike Samar's, is of the strict kind and won't allow Nina to mingle with boys. Things, of course, get harder for her, when a new kid, Asher Richelli, arrives in school and Nina falls for his Italian charm, like half of the female population in the school.

What I liked:
First of all, the writing was excellent. I loved Nina. She's smart, pessimistic and sarcastic, and completely lovable. You just want to squeeze her in a bear hug and tell her she's gorgeous. I also loved her friends, Bridget and Helena. Bridget seems to be the perfect Sagittarian: athletic but clumsy, and always blurting out whatever comes up in her head. Helena is the romantic, pretty type, always looking for the endless love, and always looking at the positive side of things. They are great counterparts for Nina's shy personality.
I also thought Nina's family was very likable. They are strict Muslims, but they visible love their daughter to bits. You can see it in her dad, especially, in his awkward attempts at bonding with Nina. So adorable. Also irresistible is his love for food, for Sufi mystical music, and for bear hugs.
All these great characters come to life thanks to Nina's hilarious sarcastic comments and humour. I frequently laughed out loud, while I kept my grin on almost all the time. And what can I do, books that make me laugh will always win my heart.
Like Shine, Cononut Moon, Skunk Girl is a journey of discovery. But unlike the other, this story is more about acceptance. As a teenager Nina feels restricted and repressed, but she also slowly comes to realise what a great gift it is to have a family who loves you and will care for you always.
Her parents are very similar to Samar's grandparents, and it'd be interesting to see how the two characters would fare if they could swap families. Nina would experience a greater freedom, but wouldn't be part of a bigger community of people sharing the same cultural background. Samar would understand what it meant for her mother to live under repressive rules, but would experience that comforting choral feeling of big family reunions. I think it would enrich both of them

What I didn't like:
Not much. I was a bit disappointed by the ending, but not completely. I knew it had to be that way, I just can't help wishing Nina would stand up to her parents just a bit more. Her religion seems to be imposed on her, as something she can't change, just accept, while I'd love for her to be free to experience teenage love without fearing her parent's fury. But I guess that's just how things are sometimes.
All in all, it was a great realistic insight into a Pakistani girl's life, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So, decision time. I'd say you will have guessed by now, but let's make it official.
The book that will go to the next round is:

Skunk Girl!

Nerds Heart YA 2010: the shortlist is here

Finally the shortlist is ready! I'm in the first bracket and the books I will read are
Shine, Coconut moon by Neesha Meminger and Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim. They're both about ethnic minorities in America written by two women with similar backgrounds as their characters.
Shine, Coconut moon is about an Indian American girl.

While the second one, Skunk Girl is about a Pakistan American girl
My bracket seems to go perfectly with my resolution of reading more multicultural books. It'll be interesting to compare the two, and see how they deal with similar themes of identities and prejudices. I'm really looking forward to starting reading.

I've hardly heard of any of the books in the list, but I'm very excited to read all the reviews and decision. As usual I expect them to add buckets to my wish list!
Here are all the books in the tournament:

Donut Days - Lara Zielin

Me, Just Different – Stephanie Morrill

Pure – Terra Elan McVoy

The World is Mine – Lyah B. LeFlore

Gringolandia – Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Wanting More – Rukhsana Khan

Devil’s Kiss – Sarwat Chadda

Jumped – Rita Williams-Garcia

Guantanamo Boy – Anna Perera

Shine, Coconut Moon – Neesha Meminger

Skunk Girl – Sheba Karim

Last Night I Sang to the Monster – Ben Alire-Saenz

The Rock and the River – Kekla Magoon

Purple Heart – Patricia McCormick

Alligator Bayou – Donna Jo Napoli

A Wish After Midnight – Zetta Elliot

Medina Hill – Trilby Kent

Lost – Jacqueline Davies

In the Path of Falling Objects – Andrew Smith

Funny How Things Change - Melissa Wyatt

Blessing’s Bead – Debby Dahl-Edwardson

The Blonde of the Joke – Bennett Madison

Say the Word – Jeannine Garsee

In Mike We Trust – P E Ryan

Evil? – Timothy Carter

Beautiful – Amy Reed

Tilmon County Fire – Pamela Ehrenberg

The Vast Fields of Ordinary – Nick Burd

Once You Go Back – Douglas A. Martin

Anything but Typical – Nora Raleigh Baskin

Border Crossing – Jessica Lee-Anderson

Rowan the Strange- Julie Hearn

I recently picked up Guantanamo Boy from the library, but haven't got to it yet.I'm glad it made the list.
Do you know any of the others?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of young adult books, I've failed to mention that recently my blog as been added to a list of recommend blogs for teen readers on the Online Degrees website. Check it out (Although they seems to think I'm a teenager. Ehm. Maybe at heart, yes...)

Nerds Heart YA - First Round: My Most Excellent Year VS The Opposite of Invisible

Welcome to the first round of the Nerds Heart YA Book Tournament!
Here I'm going to review, analyze and discuss two YA books:

• My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
• The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher
  

I'll start with My Most Excellent Year as I read it first.
The Summary:
This is the story of three kids: TC Keller, Augie Hwong and Alejandra Perez. When they're assigned to write about their most excellent year, they all agreed it was ninth grade. That was the year TC fell head over heels for Alè. The year Augie slowly realised he was also falling in love, but with a boy. The year Alé moved to a public school for the first time in her life and felt terrified. The year she decided to detest TC wholeheartedly.
Their story is told in alternating perspectives, mainly through diary's entries directed toward their chosen confidants. For TC it's his mother, for Augie is the Diva of the Week, and for Alé is Jacqueline Kennedy. But the book is also filled with instant messaging, e-mails and letters written to each other, or even by their parents and friends.
So what is it about really? A lot of things. Love, first of all. Family, in the broadest sense. Friendship, the kind that last forever. Baseball, especially the Red Sox. Musicals and divas thanks to Augie. Politics thanks to Alé. And Magic, in the form of a little deaf kid who believes in Mary Poppins, and who nobody dares to convince otherwise.

What I liked: The characterisation, first of all, was top class. TC, Augie, Alè, but also Hucky the deaf kid, were all unforgettable. I love the concept of extended family that TC and Augie establish with each other. They both decided when they were 8 that they were brothers, and that was it. Slowly the parents realised it was a serious matter and they just accepted it. So now Augie's parents are Mom and Dad, while TC's father is Pop, for both of them!
The writing was great, too. I giggled all my way through the end.
The romance, oh the romance...Of course I'm talking about Augie and Angie. Maybe I don't read much YA gay romance between boys, but I thought this was the sweetest, most romantic, most adorable, most everything boy-on-boy literary love. The way their family and friends reacted was even cooler. They knew all along Augie was gay and they were wondering how long it would take him to figure it out.
I probably felt closer to him than to any of the other characters because he's so into divas and musical. At his age, I was too. Maybe not that obsessively, but close enough. I used to write my diary to Audrey Hepburn, you know...
But I really did love all the others too. Alé is the main female character and she kicks ass. At first she probably sounds too stuck up and posh, but she redeems herself. She's smart, feminist and stubborn, so you have to love her. TC is just too irresistible. His relationship with the little kid, Hucky, is what won me over indefinitely. He would literally go to the moon and back, just to make Hucky happy. He tries harder than anyone else, and in the end, it pays off.
Finally, I thought the format worked really well. The letters, e-mails and texts made the story sparkle. It wasn't confusing or irritating at all. It actually made the book flow easily and it made me feel even closer to the characters.
It was a positive, happy, funny, romantic, original book that I'd love to reread one day.

What I didn't like:
Very little. I'm not the hugest baseball fun, so most of the references were lost on me. I have to thank all the baseball movies I watched when I was little, because I wasn't completely lost. If I managed to survive it, I think anybody can.
It was also very American. But it's not a flaw, it's just that I am not.
It was a happy book, mainly, but you could say that the way homosexuality was handled in High School was a bit too accepting, to be completely true. I wish it was that easy. Not that I didn't like it, I was delighted. Hopefully, the kids who will read it will take notice and take it as an example.
Last minor thingy: the writing style was amazingly good, but it was a bit too homogeneous. There wasn't much difference in how the kids talked and their parents. I liked it, but again, not too realistic.

Now for The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher.

The Summary:
Alice is a teenager girl, who feels like she is nobody at school. She's not in the popular crowd, and not even in the weird/outcast one. She's just a normal girl. But instead of keeping a journal, she talks to her poster, Le Visage de la Paix by Picasso. She tells her poster that she would like a normal date for the upcoming Halloween dance. She would like someone to hold hands with, kiss, dance, like everyone else.
But she feels too invisible to attract the attention of the boy she really would like to date: Simon.
Her best friend Jewel is the closest person she has. They talk about everything, but she knows she can't tell him about her crush. Because Simon is a football player, he's with the popular crowd, and Jewel despises them.
You know the saying "beware of what you wish for..."? That would apply to Alice exactly. Simon, the boy of her dreams, starts showing her he's interested in knowing her more. And at the same time Jewel starts acting weird around her, hugging her and looking at her differently. Suddenly she is not that invisible anymore, but is this was she really wanted?
This delicately told story, is not just about finding love. It's about understanding where we fit in, what we can do in life. About the satisfying and liberating act of creativity. It's also about the fine line between friendship and something else. And about the meaningless labels that people are given and that never truly describe what the person is really like.

What I liked: The realistic dialogues and situations. They were sometimes awkward and monosyllabic, but real. I liked the role of art, the way Alice finds a piece of world where to express herself, and just be her. The sense of calm and of dreaminess that sometimes the writing evoked.

What I didn't like: The premises and the development of the story. They were real, they belong to the teenage world and I appreciate that. But it didn't give me anything new. I wasn't amazed by it, I'm afraid. The writing was quiet, maybe too much. I wasn't drawn to the story that much, and although it was quite a slim book, it took me few days to finish it.
It just wasn't the style I was in the mood for.


How the two compared to each other: I was hoping for a very touch decision to make, but unfortunately it didn't happen. My Most Excellent Year was full of wonderful characters, a story that grabbed me and swept me off my feet. It was extremely funny and original. Heartwarming and magical. The Opposite of Invisible was sort of underwhelming compared to it. Very quiet, calm like the dove girl poster. Sort of low-key. It didn't have the "wow factor" like Kluger's novel. Maybe it's not fair to compare a first novel with the one of an experience writer. But that's how things were, so I'm declaring, officially...My Most Excellent Year as the winner of this round.
If you're curious and interested about the book you should totally have a look at its website. It's really really cool and it has lots of extracts from the book, so you can judge yourself.
It's called The Augie Hwong's Homepage.
And you should visit Liz Gallagher's page too. There's some pictures of the places mentioned in the book, which is set in Seattle. It definitely helped to visualize the story, so recommended!

This was great fun, I can't wait to read all the other judges' decisions!


Shop Indie Bookstores

Shop Indie Bookstores

Nerds heart YA book tournament - It's coming!

After weeks of heated discussions and of tough decision-making, we now have .....Ta Daaaa...
THE SHORT LIST!

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before by David Yoo
The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie
My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
Alive and Well in Prague, New York by Daphne Grab
I Know It's Over by C.K. Kelly Martin
The Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson
The Shape of Water by Anne Spollen
What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson
The City in the Lake by Rachel Neumeier
Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers
Debbie Harry Sings In French by Meagan Brothers
Feathered by Laura Kasischke
Leftovers by Laura Wiess
The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher

All YA titles published in 2008, all not very well known and deserving of more TLC.
The first round kicks off June 1st and ends June 22nd. By then the first reviews with the first round selections should be up on each of the judges blogs.
This is the bracket graph:

It was all designed by Renay. I think it's awesome!
I'm a judge and I'm in excellent company, look at that:
Jodie, Book Gazing
Natasha, Maw Books Blog
Ali, Worducopia and Lenore, Presenting Lenore
Mary Ann, Libr*fiti
Trish, Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin' and Vasilly, 1330v
Kelly, YAnnabe
Becky, Becky's Book Reviews, and Kailana, The Written World
Heather, A High and Hidden Place
Amy, My Friend Amy
Laza, Gimme More Books!
Stephanie, Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-Holic
Nicole, Linus's Blanket
Renay, YA Fabulous and Susan, She's Too Fond Of Books And It's Turned Her Brain
Chris, Stuff As Dreams Are Made On and Nymeth, Things Mean A Lot

So the fate has decided I'm going to judge The Opposite of Invisible and My Most Excellent Year. I've never done anything like this before, I'm very excited and a wee bit nervous. I want to be fair and unbiased so I hope I won't be bashed by fans of either book hihi :P

Apparently anyone can follow the YA nerdy developments on this Twitter account, but I haven't ventured into the twitter world yet (me sort of suspicious, don't know why), so I'm not really sure how it's all going to work.
Anyway, I hope anyone else is as excited as I am!

YA book Tournament!

Renay is organising it and we need judges and suggestions!
The idea is to read YA books published in 2008 that haven't received much media coverage/attention but deserve more. The judges will be reading the books in pair, then decide together which book should pass the next round, till there's only two left, ready for the final battle. I think it's sound fun, especially since the whole thing is about reading YA books and reviewing them with somebody else.

It'd be great if more teens participated, so don't be shy! We need as many as we can get:)

The list of possible books to read are still under discussion,so if you think you've read a book published in 2008 that hasn't got much attention, but it should, then please suggest it!

Renay has created a google group to discuss all these things in preparation for the tournament, it's called NERDS HEART YA. Go on, you know you want to join :)