35 Going on 13: Books for the Bleak Midwinter
Angelina Benedetti -- Library Journal, 12/15/2008 7:26:00 AM
As I write this, I am looking out over a snowy and icy landscape in the Pacific Northwest. The wind outside beats against the windows, in the oven is a gooey dessert for the holiday potluck tomorrow, and my cats are enjoying a long winter’s nap.
It is a perfect day for a cold weather story.
For this blustery season, I offer you eight books just right for staying inside with your cozy blanket. They are either seasonally appropriate or feature snow and cold. Included are three fantasy worlds, two frozen adventures, and a contemporary nightmare. No pear trees in sight, although one of the fantasies is set in an orchard. Filled with hope, humor, and compassion, these books are guaranteed to get you in the spirit of the season.
Calhoun, Dia. White Midnight. Farrar. 2003. 289p. ISBN 978-0-374-38389-3. $18.Rose Chandler is one frightened bondgirl—frightened of her family’s wicked overlord, Mr. Brae; frightened of the barbarians who threaten their land; and, most especially, frightened of the "Thing" in the big house attic. When her parents make a deal with Brae, she must draw on unexpected courage to face all three.
Cold Weather Appeal: This prequel to Calhoun’s Firegold may be set in another world, but it is more gothic novel than fantasy. The interplay of dark and light imagery is perfect for short winter days.
Why It Is for Us: Fans of Jane Eyre will find much to like here. Turns out, the "Thing" in the attic is Brae’s grandson, Raymont. Rose is forced to marry him and deliver an heir. Their relationship is deliciously intimate and sensual while not conventionally romantic.
Cashore, Kristin. Graceling. Harcourt Children’s. 2008. 471p. ISBN 978-0-15-206396-2. $17.Lady Katsa killed her first man, a would-be groper, at the tender age of eight. In her world, those who are so "graced" with talent are visible to all, recognized by their differently colored eyes. By day, Lady Katsa is her noble uncle’s enforcer; by night, she leads a secret SWAT team dedicated to righting wrongs. On one of its mercy missions, she meets Po, a noble from another kingdom who is every bit the match for her talent and her heart.
Cold Weather Appeal: At one point, Katsa risks a treacherous mountain pass to deliver a threatened noble to her family.
Why It Is for Us: This debut fantasy features a troubled heroine, a sexy romance, and a complex political world. Adult fans of the genre cannot ask for more.
Green, John & others. Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances. Speak: Puffin. 2008. 352p. ISBN: 978-0-14-241214-5. pap. $9.99.Three teens—Jubilee, Tobin, and Addie—each experience some Christmas magic during a North Carolina snowstorm.
Cold Weather Appeal: Leave it to these teen authors—Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle—to use the convention of the three-in-one romance package both to honor and to make light of our modern holiday traditions.
Why It Is for Us: The romantic relationships are secondary to all the cleverness. In the first story, Jubilee’s parents are part of the "Flobie five," arrested for rioting over a Flobie collectible Christmas village. In Green’s offering, a Waffle House becomes an unlikely destination for weary travelers and local teens in search of a miracle. And in the third story, Myracle re-creates It’s a Wonderful Life, as the book’s assorted revelers gather for the final scene not in George Bailey’s living room but in a suburban Starbucks. Even the Grinchiest readers will surrender to the seasonal mayhem.
McCaughrean, Geraldine. The White Darkness. HarperTeen: HarperCollins. 2007. 373p. ISBN 978-0-06-089035-3. $16.99. [paperback available January 2009: ISBN 978-0-06-089037-7. $8.99.]A lifelong love of Antarctica puts a sheltered 14-year-old in grave danger in this 2008 Printz Award winner. Symone’s hearing disability and disinterest in boys alienate her from her peer group. Her only friend is Capt. Laurence "Titus" Oates, a long-dead victim of Robert Falcon Scott’s 1912 expedition to the South Pole. She will need his expertise when her Uncle Victor invites her along on his own polar exploration.
Cold Weather Appeal: Be sure to crank up the furnace. Between the freezing temperatures and the vast white landscape, frostbite is a real reading hazard.
Why It Is for Us: Fans of Paul Theroux’s The Mosquito Coast will recognize Uncle Victor’s particular form of madness long before our heroine does. At the 2008 ALA Conference, Printz committee members sported buttons featuring an image of the real Captain Oates declaring "Titus is a hottie." The imaginary relationship between Symone and Titus is so very sweet that you may think so, too.
Pattou, Edith. East. Magic Carpet: Harcourt. 2005. 507p. ISBN 978-0-15-205221-8. pap. $8.95.In this elegant retelling of East of the Sun and West of the Moon, Rose’s family is given a proposal by a mysterious White Bear. He will give them a fortune and make her sick sister well if Rose will come and live with him in his faraway lair.
Cold Weather Appeal: As the folktale goes, Rose is visited nightly by a strange bedfellow until her curiosity gets the best of her. I ask, on a cold December night, wouldn’t you want a princely polar bear on your side, and in your bed?
Why It Is for Us: The story is told in many voices, from the points of view of Rose, Bear, and the Troll Queen, among others. The result is a rich and resonant revision, far beyond the usual fairy tale redux. [First published as a hardcover in 2003.]
Plummer, Louise. The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman. Laurel Leaf. 2003. 183p. ISBN 978-0-440-22704-5. pap. $5.99. An oldie but a goodie (it was first published in 1997). Socially awkward Kate hates romances, but she nevertheless takes advice from the Romance Writer’s Phrase Book when her older brother’s friend, Richard, comes to visit over winter break.
Cold Weather Appeal: This book will take you back to the time when a long school break meant a world of possibilities.
Why It Is for Us: With her keen intellect, six-foot frame, and Coke-bottle lenses, Kate is a heroine tailor-made for our profession. Romance readers will especially appreciate this tongue-in-cheek impression of the writing process.
Rapp, Adam. 33 Snowfish. Candlewick. 2006. 179p. ISBN 978-0-7636-2917-5. pap. $6.99.Custis, Curl, and Boobie have bad pasts and worse futures. Now they are on the run, hoping to sell Boobie’s baby brother to fund a way out of their desperate circumstances.
Cold Weather Appeal: Most of the action takes place in a frozen landscape. Only one of these three lost souls finds some redemption. An elderly black man named Seldom offers Custis kindness without cost and a warm home for Christmas.
Why It Is for Us: From the first line—"On top of everything else, Boobie’s got the clap"—the reader knows that the world is a very ugly place for these children. The youngest, Custis, has escaped an abusive pedophile, Boobie killed his parents, and Curl is a 15-year-old, drug-addicted prostitute. Rapp’s spare text and multiple points of view (Boobie speaking only through drawings) elevate what could have been a preachy sob story to a literary achievement.
Smith, Roland. Peak. Harcourt. 2008. 246p. ISBN 978-0-15-206268-2. pap. $6.95.Though he’s only 14 years old, Peak Marcello has climbing in his blood. With two famous climbers for parents, it could have been worse, he says—he might have been named Crampon. When he is caught scaling skyscrapers in New York City, he is sent to live with his father. Turns out, Dad is leading an expedition to Everest and wants Peak to be the youngest climber ever to make the top.
Cold Weather Appeal: Brrrrr, but it is cold at the top of the world. The frozen corpses and empty oxygen bottles will be familiar to readers of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air.
Why It Is for Us: Peak combines alpine adventure with a bit of "Free Tibet" commentary, focusing on the plight of the Sherpas who bring the climbers to the top and the border dispute with the Chinese government. Peak himself is a winning protagonist with the sense to know when to step aside for the greater good.
Next month: Nonfiction
