Awards Books

Good! A book set in the 1950's (a time I remember well) about a young nurse, about her work in a psychiatric ward, about her conversations with other nurses, and, I am guessing, the possibility of a romance with the appealing Dr. Kerr.

Sounds good to me. I'd buy this book and I would read it.

I love the fifties. There is so much perspective to be gained about today's and tomorrow's challenges and opportunities by seeking insight into the lives led by our parents in that time. The first thirteen pages of Rubies began a journey that I wanted to continue. The restrictions of the period's rules and limitations, the promised security and certainty of those rules, the hints of rising turmoil that would not be recognized for some time to come, all tantalized this reader to go on. I looked forward to getting to know Kate, Rebecca, Sue Ann and June and felt trepidation and anticipation for that which awaited each. I am eager to read more.

I wish more of the story was here. This beginning was very engaging. I want to know what happens to the new young nurses. The setting reminds me of the Chicago hospital where my daughters were born.

There is wonderful insight in this book about the way that medicine was practiced. The writing evokes the old-style relationships between doctors and nurses, between staff and patients. Subtle touches, such as the shared ciagarettes, call up days long past. I'm also impressed by the expectations of these young women, and how different those expectations are from today's young women.

I'd like to read the rest of the story.

This promises to deliver a unique storyline, following the journey of four women in the nursing profession. What sets it apart is that it takes place in the 1950s era...quite a challenge for which the author has embraced. Successfully, I might add. Judging from the scenarios played out in the psych ward, Kate has chosen an extremely difficult field for which I'm sure she will emerge stronger for it. There are phrases like "Freudian theories cast shafts of light" that shine throughout this entry.

I would love to know where this journey takes these women, both in the work force as well as in the social arena. An excellent offering here, Margaret! Great job!

The author did an excellent job of bringing her characters to life in just a few pages -- no small accomplishment. The writing is quite descriptive, but not excessively, so the narrative keeps moving along nicely. And as a nurse working there during that time I can attest to the accuracy of the depictions of both 1950s-era Chicago and its inner-city hospitals.

An impressive effort -- I'm eager to see how the story line plays out.

At school my whole class read this book for read aloud! It was a very good book. Frida was very good at art. She had five sisters but it seamed like they didn't pay attention to her! She was always lonely and she was bored.But atleast she had Imaginary friends to comfort her. One day she got in a horrible bus accident! Read this book to find out how Frida turned out after her pain. Reccomended for people who may want to learn how to turn pain into beauty.

I own the Spanish version of this book, and I love it. So do all my students - I teach Preschool Spanish (ages 3-6). My 5 year old daughter is an artist and she loves the vivid colors and imaginative characters that follow Frida through her life. The children I teach do not know Spanish, but they are able to look at the pictures and understand the story. They regularly request this book and enjoy looking for the 'spooky' characters.

My son and daughter could really relate to another person's life thanks to this well-written and cleverly illustrated book. Frida was, as they are now, someone who wasn't always able to have her mother's attention. She lived out fantasies in her mind, just as they do. She used her imagination even when she was unable to move her body, just like they do before they fall asleep at night. Frida's quotidian and extraordinary experiences spring to life thanks to the inventive illustrations and sympathetic writing.

More than once, creating art saved Frida Kahlo's life. Even though she had five sisters, she was almost always lonely and sad. When she was infected with polio and she was very sick, even her imaginary friends couldn't cheer her up, but painting and drawing rescued her. Most of her life, she was in heart-breaking pain after being in a horrible bus accident. Read this book to find out how art saved her once more. Recommended for people who want to learn how Frida Kahlo turned terrible pain into beautiful masterpieces.

My mom read me this book and I saw that art is important and special, it can save you and allow you to express your imagination even when times are tough

What a wonderful journey through small town middle America. Growing up in the Midwest I find Patricia Ann Lawson's characters so familiar. I truly enjoy the intermingling of all of the different personalities and I love the frequent bursts of dry and sarcastic humor that she uses in her writings. It truly brings the story to life. --the Buddhist moving company and George's buddy diet with his dogs are my favorites.
Patricia Lawson has me chuckling throughout the story and I find myself roaming the streets of the Il Villaggio subdivision with "Blue Grandma, Red Grandma and Little Bea."
I can't wait for the rest of the story.

What's not to like? A cast of characters out of Flannery O'Connor. A narrator whose eye for detail and understated irony would leave the terminator laughing. Good pacing. What must they be thinking down at Publisher's Weekly? Ah, Roachton, I will heed your siren song.

In a state whose minimal landscape begs the imagination to fly in any direction, whose motto could easily be "The Blank Slate State," finding Il Villagio di Trevi "sitting squarely" on the Kansas plains is more believable than one might guess. In this fly-over state that claims as its own a source for Swedish lutefisk, a tourist attraction whose creator is entombed under glass in a pyramid in the backyard, Brown (and evolution) vs. Board of Education, Dr. Phil, and a thriving herd of camels, why not an Italianate sub-division?
Patricia Lawson's eerily familiar town of Pleasant Outlook, fka Roachton, comes to life through an unseen narrator who is as much a character in the story as is, say, the "we" in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." Try as she might to simply report the facts, this narrator is involved in the goings-on of Pleasant Outlook. She cannot resist the genealogic insertions, the essential third dimension of all small-town gossip, the minutiae that reveal the real spirit of Pleasant Outlook.
By ordering alternate custody of the orphaned Bea Fay to her very different grandmothers, the court imposes a bi-polar existence that leaves Bea unable to "fix her thoughts for long on another person." Lawson approaches the serious repercussions of an unfocused home life humorously, satirically, and absurdly with perfectly nuanced details. We can laugh at the little things that warp a child's psyche far into adulthood.
I want to know what happens. How will the arrival of Bea's first real friend (from Nepal) in seventh grade color the course of Bea's life and the vast canvas of the Midwest? I want to read the whole book.

What great fun. I loved the humor and expanse of "Il Villaggio Di Trevi" by Pat Larson. It is a refreshingly humorous look at the ex-urbs of a Midwest America where small town and city infringe on each other. Bea is being raised by her two grandmothers who live across the lake from each other in a new suburb of the small town where they live. The granddaughter is the only common ground between the two ways of life that each represents--one, staid and rigid, the other free-spirited but in some ways just as fixed in her ways. The humor of the novel lies in Bea's appreciation of the value and richness of growing up in both households.

The success of the novel depends on the author's ability to reveal the complexity of life in the middle: the middle of America, of the simultaneous shrinking and expanding of a small town, of tradition and change, of humor and seriousness. This is a delightful beginning to a novel I look forward to reading to the end.

Il Villagio Di Trevi drops us into Pleasant Outlook, changed from Roachton, a name that displeased the town council. The excerpt treats Pleasant Outlook as a contemporary Gopher Prairie, the town depicted in Sinclair Lewis' Main Street, where faux culture endures during a town's long stagnation. The style is clean and comic. The narrator interjects opinion and frequently chooses to either skip or defer elaboration. The narrator as agent--biased, flawed, opinionated--is a rising, or more accurately, resuscitated theme among a small but growing group of authors in contemporary literature. The story races forward following Bea Fay as she alternates between living with her Blue and Red grandmas; only when I finished reading did I begin to ponder the developing themes in the story. The novel's ironic but easy style and armchair narrator makes for an urgent desire to follow Bea's travails to the end. Can't wait till the book is out.

I was drawn in by the storyline and would like to get the chance to finish the story. The setting descriptions are very good and allow a one to form a mental picture. I would hope that the characters would become more dimensional as the story progresses. 14 pages was enough to introduce the characters and start the plot but not good enough to get a good feeling as to what the characters were all about.

Set in present-day Turkey, this novel conveys the history and culture of another country with two intertwined mysteries. What is the secret past of Marta, a calculating executive who reluctantly returns to her homeland? What is the story behind an elderly man who return to Turkey to bury his brother? I was enthralled after the second paragraph and cannot wait to read the entire novel.

I am anxious to read My Bondage, My Freedom, My Country by Dawn Leger. I truly believe that"coindences" are really the hand of God guiding each of us through our life. I am fascinated with Marta and would like to travel with her to reslsove her past relationship with her mother, and with Visilli, to see how he deals with his brother's death and his mother as well. Also, I look forward to reading Leger's descriptive tour through Turkey.

Leger's writing creates a world both familiar and foreign, drawing on the universal experience of revisiting one's childhood to introduce the reader to Turkey's rich culture. Her characters, even in this abridged form, are vibrant. The ending left me wanting more, but only because the time I spent in this exquisitely detailed world was far too short.

Dawn Leger's novel, My Bondage, My Freedom, My Country, is a compelling read that draws you in. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down, and wanted to read more. The characters are well-drawn, attention-grabbing, and make you care about them. Marta's reluctant journey into her past piques the interest of the reader. What impact will the encounter with Vasilli Vassilios have on her well-planned-out life? In a few pages the reader cares about the characters and wants to spend time with them on their journey. Dawn Leger's well-crafted pages are a great beginning to a novel that I will definitely read.

I grew up in the south and the story of Chas Newcomb made me feel like I was home again. Mark Ray has written a story that pulls readers in within the first few sentences. I can't wait to find out what happens to Chas and his career at WUWU and what happens with the girl from he met at the Piggly Wiggly.

I found this story to be quite engaging and it reminded me of my own experiences in a small Southern town (granted Texas is a different "country," but some of the same elements are still there). I can't wait to hear more about Chas' trials and tribulations with the new lady in his life!

I feel like I'm right there in Salvia, experiencing all there is to experience in "Small Town America." Mark Ray creates characters and situations that are humorous, yet real. We've all been there in one way or another and I'm left waiting for more. Please hurry . . .

Kentucky Homes & Gardens

I thought this excerpt was MUCH too short and VERY well done! Being a transplant from Ohio to a southern town myself, I found the events of the story to be fun, witty and intriguing! I want to know more about Chas and the (mis)adventures he faces in Salvia, Mississippi...

Okay--it's not precisely the "perfect country and western song" as defined by David Alan Coe (You Don't have to Call me Darlin'); however, we do have mention of Mama and a train--and it's early yet. Mark Ray's got time to throw in drunkeness, coffee, pickups, prison and all the rest.

The story's about Chas, a young man from Columbus, Ohio, who was supposed to have joined his father's law firm. He wanted to become a classical music DJ. Where he landed was Radio WUWU, "coming to you from the Historical Crowder Pease Funeral Home in Salvia, Mississippi."

While several other reviewers have made comparisons, to me this story seems like someone dropped a stranger at OKKK Radio in Tuna, Texas. Yes, the puns are thick and fast and the town is years behind.

This is one of the funniest stories I've read in this contest and it's worth a read for the laugh value alone.

Will it make it to the finals--no, it probably shouldn't with so many very strong literary novels in the running. However, the story should make it to print and maybe even to a movie. If the rest of the novel is as funny as the excerpt, Mark A. Ray has a winner. And we need more funny stories in this cold, cruel world.

How Walter Dean Myers ever dreamed up a picture book of the Vietnam War is beyond me. I immediately wanted to read it and buy it. It turned out to be very good and contains imagery of the scariness of war. It avoids gore but people do die and soldiers do kill. Haunting.

"Patrol" by Walter Myers is a great book. The main charactor doesn't have a name in this book. Anyways, he is in the forsests of Vietnam during the vietnam war. He is slowly walking through the woulds and than he hears gun shots. He dives to the ground and and looks for the opponent. People who would like this book are kids to adults. Adults would like it because they can remember the war that was going on when they were a kid. Kids would enjoy it because a lot of times kids like to play as if they were army men fighting in a war.Thise book is Historical Fiction because the war happend but not this particular scene.

This book has different types of pictures. The pictures are a bunch of picturesf cut out and put on one piece of paper. I think this army book is a great book for kids to understand what it feels like to be in a war.
The writting of this book is also unique because it is a type of poem writting form. This book is easy to read and understand. Kids should read this book if they are interested in war stuff and if they don't like to read long books.

Boom! A granade went off next to my buddy and sent him flying back to his death. Could I be next thought the brave soldier? Patrol is about the Veitnam War and a soldier who is very cautious about his surroundings. This book is very mysterious because you don't know what will happen to the soldier. He is constantly thinking about his family and how his death could come to him.
He is trapped in the middle of the Vietnamise forests and is lost with his buddies. They have a long maze of problems ahead of them including how they get back home. This book is good if you are a follower of this war or if you like stories that always are mysterious and are hard to guess what is going to happen. It is a picture book but that doesn't mean that is isn't good. Patrol is a mix of mystery and heroic. The author, Walter Dean Myers, realy knows how to make a great book for children.
I enjoied reading the book Patrol so I think you will too! Don't get too caught up in the pictures because they are awsome. If you are looking for an awsome picture book to just read then this is for you.

Patrol
Patrol is about a soldier in war looking for the enemy and doing what he is told. War makes the main character relies what he could loose and what he could gain. The captain never let up on the main character and never lets the platoon or him rest. Even when they are fired upon the captain tells them to shoot and keep moving. The main character calls in a bomber and the gun battle is over but that's not the end to the book.

I was very taken with the prose style. Every time I felt confused or curious (who is that? what just happened?) I was given an explanation in a beautifully subtle way that didn't drag down the narrative. It was a pleasure to read.
I purposely didn't read the synopsis or any reviews before I read the excerpt, and I must say I had no idea when or where the story was taking place. A place and date would be nice.
Like some other reviewers I too wondered about the modern language elements. In the end I decided it was for the better. The story is written in modern English after all, and making it sound formal or antiquated would not have expressed how ordinary people have always spoken to one another. The greater pitfall will be if modern culture and values are transported to ancient times. (e.g. Were girls allowed to participate in competitive sports?).
Very well done, Mr. Gage!

An engaging story with pertinent details and an interesting setting. Believable, likable characters. Opening somewhat confusing. Most of the writing was strong and in active voice. Some spots could be smoother, such as the transition about serious choices. Ending of chap. one too quick - should be milked a little. I had some confusion about the time period due to the odd names of the characters and names of towns combined with dialog that is contemporary, "Get off me already." The writing was appropriate for a young adult novel. Good job, Atthys.

The Quickening Wind is captivating from the first paragraph. The pacing of the story is good so far --not too much too soon, but enough to grab and hold the reader. The author helped me to clearly visualize the story, down to small details like Tak's fingers walking along the tree limb. I think the book would benefit from even a bit more description of the setting. Please publish this so I can find out what happens to Tak!

I am struck by how few words this author uses to convey whole characters or settings. The names alone establish the setting, ie, Tak, Thetis, Leannas, Sentry Rock. This makes for a fast-paced adventure story that takes place a very long time ago in the Mediterranean. I like how the author plunks us down from the very beginning in the middle of an exciting story with a 50 headed monster and a heroine who strikes him down. It's definitely a beginning that makes me want to read more. There is just the right mix of dialogue, action, and exposition. The relationship between Tak and Lyssa is so refreshing with their easy friendship that allows them to be angry with one another one minute and laughing the next. The author perfectly captures the child-like play where kids move effortlessly from one game to the next. This is an exciting story that weaves an ancient setting and time with strong characters.

Like several other reviewers, I'm not a reader of young adult fiction but from the opening paragraph this story captured my imagination and attention.

I can see how the pace of the story will appeal to younger readers, but Gage uses more than "scene changes" to keep you connected to the characters. Gage's use of dialog, role playing, history and imagery made this a delight to read and it ended too soon for me.

The tag associated with Quikening Wind seems very appropriate to me..."living myth". The author blends old and new together with vivid symbolism that brings ancient Greece into the hands of the reader.

My 6 year has a ton of books and takes out a ton of books out of the libary. As a result, his bar is pretty high for books that wow him. After I bought this book, he asked me to read it to him every day for 2 weeks and it's still a favorite!

Big and small are fascinating themes for him and this book has an innovative approach to this concept.

Additionally, the actual size challenge is fabulous. Kids are fascinating by giant squids and tiny insects etc. It's wonderful to see some element of their size depicted in true size on the page. Very creative approach.

Has also inspired my son to think about biodiversity since so many \extra large or extra small outliers of species are depicted.

Great book.

My daughter loves this book and so do I!!!! I highly recommend it to anyone with kids, and you yourself wil love it!!

Holy cow, do my kids love this book. We bought it for our 3 year old son, thinking it would be too simplistic for our 5 year old, but both kids are fascinated with the pictures and love to compare their own body parts to the animals featured in the book. For example, they like to put their hands on the gorilla hand, measure their heads against the eye of the giant squid, put their toes on the elephant's toes...it's just a lot of fun to read this book to them because they get so engaged in the contents. Highly, highly recommended.

This is a wonderful book for any classroom (Pre-school to Middle School). It's a great tool to motivate students to investigate on their own and explore other animal facts. Awards this book has won: 2005 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book; 2004 The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (BCCB) Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Award. (Many of Steve Jenkins' books have won several awards and honors.) He's on my "author watch" list.

Between the paper-cut collage, the huge pages, the factual information done in a fun way and just the overall style of the book makes this one of my favorites I've reviewed so far. Children and adults will love to measure themselves up to the 3 foot giant gippsland earthworm and find out that the giant squid's eyeball is bigger than their head. There is even an open out middle page of the world's largest frog and a crocodile that can chew your arm off in one bite. Steve Jenkins, author and illustrator, did an amazing job with this book and I believe it is enjoyable for all ages.

If you love music and you love a good novel, this book is for you. From the first sentence you are drawn into the story and want to know more. Duet for Solo Piano--what an intriguing idea! The story is written with a depth of knowledge of classical music and of the music world. Romance, tragedy, redemption--this book has it all. And before you've even finished the first chapter, you'll want to run out and buy the Franck Sonata so you can listen to it while you read the rest of this outstanding novel!

What if you watched your mother pour out her love to your father, to friends--even to the people in the audience at her concerts--and there seemed to be none left for you? Through music and memory, Toll begins her riveting story of a talented musician who must wrestle with the dissonance of the mother he knew and the woman everyone else adored.

I loved this excerpt from Duet for Solo Piano, and wanted to read more. The characters and their world were immediately believable and compelling, the details convincing. Brava!

Even for those not musically inclined, this excerpt offers a comprehensible insight into the refined world of classical music. The character relationships are human, inspiring both sympathy and understanding in the reader. The thought-processes and reactions of the characters are poignantly established and engage the reader instantly. Excellent.

An engaging beginning to what is surely a magnificent novel! In the too-brief excerpt, we have both a strong sense of the tensions that will likely unfold in the rest of book and an expertly expressed limning of the personalities and motivations of its major characters. From the opening paragraphs, Ms. Toll sets up Time as a key element in the book, as the main characters, Laurence Kates and his only son, Adam, look backward at moments in their lives when they themselves were looking forward. This counterpoint between past and present, and the related changes in perspective from father to son, are as compelling as a metronome. They give an energy to the work, and feel organic to the story of the relationships among and between the accomplished musician members of the Kates family. It leaves the reader with a desire for more, with a (delicious) uncertainty about whether the outcome will be in a major or minor key. Brava!

In the vein of Dazed and Confused, HERE BE MONSTERS is a vivid ride around the block in the parts of adolescence that parents don't want to hear about. Eight pages in and I want more.

This is well written. I got through the 8 pages quickly and am looking forward to more. Bring it on Mr. Decker.

Francis knows how to take you on a wild ride right from the beginning. I loved the details he weaves into his narrative: can almost smell the spilled beer, feel the heat and the dripping sweat, feel Fleet's angst with his relationship with Marcus and especially, Vaughn. Give me more!!

"Here Be Monsters" launches itself at you and just doesn't let go, drawing you into the intense world of three prep school teammates. Marcus, the starting quarterback, is the focus of attention and gets all the girls. Vaughn is moody and full of anger. Fleet, the newest member of the group, is trying desperately to fit in.

Francis W. Decker starts fast with a late-night "fender bender" car crash. The boys are drinking and so is the other driver, a middle-aged woman in a nightgown. Though no names are exchanged, Vaughn feels a connection with the woman and I'm sure we'll see her again.

The story moves from Vaughn's to Fleet's point of view, and as noted by another reviewer, this tactic seems less than completely effective in the 5000 words we have to work with. Given the solid writing, however, I'd be willing to wait and see if the differentiation becomes clearer. The writing is tense, slightly elliptical, and attention-grabbing.

"Here Be Monsters" is a story of a world unknown to me. If my sons and their friends lived in this world, they did it completely outside my range of reference. To read this book would be, for me, like reading in a foreign language; and it's an effort I'd be willing to make.

In my mind I can't distance this excerpt from yesterday's headlines -- three boys died in a car, 75 miles down a road well known to me, just two nights ago. Icy road, young driver, their lives ahead of them, three families bereft. Too real. Art imitating life. My interest in Marcus, Vaughn and Fleet is tangled up in my mind with my feelings about those three boys from my part of the world.

I'll be wondering how Francis W. Decker finishes what he started in this fine beginning. Best of luck, Francis.

Linda Bulger, 2008

Oh, the sordid memories of high school...

Author Francis W. Decker's novel excerpt of Here Be Monsters opens strong and lets the reader know some good stuff is ahead. This is solidly written with a good hook. It is an R-rated high school tale that made me squirm through every word, though I mean that in a good way. It is fast paced, has great action and keeps moving.

My only suggestions are regarding point of view, in that I'm not totally feeling the change in POV from the first chapter to the second; I think Vaughn and Fleet's voices are a little too similar. Also, I like Vaughn in the first chapter, but not so much in the next.

This opening assures me that Here Be Monsters would be a fun and interesting read. I'm knocking off a half star only because of the issue with POV, so four and a half stars. Great job!

Sincerly,
Brent (B. Billy) Curtis
Secluded Parking - Official ABNA Entrant