Merry's Book Club
Brought to you by The Merry LibrarianArchive for young adult
“The Vast Fields of Ordinary” by Nick Burd
The plot:
Dade, a closeted gay teenager, has just graduated from his Iowa high school, ready to head off to college and away from the people he’s known most of his life. Unfortunately, his jock love interest, Pablo, is more interested in keeping quiet about their activities, not to mention occasionally being violent with Dade when Dade mentions the “l-word.” Through a friend of a friend, Dade meets Alex, who is cute, funny, and almost the exact opposite of Pablo, and really falls hard.
Why You’ll Love It:
While there are obvious GLBT themes (Burd won the ALA Stonewall Award for this novel), at its heart, Vast Fields is a story of first love and first lust, and the awkward time between high school, college, and adulthood, when the kid can sometimes be more mature than his parents. There are hints of ghost story within, when a local girl goes missing and “appears” all over town, but it fits in nicely with Dade’s own feelings of being lost.
Who Will/Should Read It:
Teenage readers, even guys, should like this hard-to-put-down novel. If you’re an adult fan of YA fiction, pick it up as well; you will be glad you did.
Review by Stacey Rottiers
“M is for Magic” by Neil Gaiman
Not your everyday fairytale…
Genre: Fantasy Age group: YA
Neil Gaiman is the author of Coraline, which was recently made into a movie. It was a strange book and an even stranger movie—just what I like to read. So when I saw another book by Gaiman, I checked it out to give it a go. Well, I have mixed feelings in regards to this book. It is a collection of short stories (most of which have been previously published). Each story takes some element from a fairy tale or myth. From Jack Horner, who investigates the death of Humpty Dumpty, to a troll living under a bridge, Gaiman uses his imagination to expand the characters and stories we are all familiar with. Some of the stories I really liked and they have stayed with me. One of these was “The Price” about a stray cat that goes to great lengths to protect it’s adoptive family. Another one I enjoyed was “Chivalry” about an elderly lady who finds the Holy Grail at her local thrift store. I just couldn’t get into a few of the other stories. “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” seemed obvious from the beginning and I didn’t feel it was a good story. “Sunbird” was just disgusting to me and seemed altogether unnecessary for this collection. Although the cover says ages 10 and up, I wouldn’t give this to a 12-year-old (let alone a 10-year-old!), but would consider it more appropriate for 14 and up. If you are looking for some ‘dark’ fiction, pick it up and see which stories you like.
