24 Hours of Less: 8 Books I Read in 1 sitting

A friend of mine on Facebook shared an article with me this morning, where a woman wrote about the books that she read in less than 24 hours because they were just that darn good.  I thought about all the times my butt hurt from sitting in a chair so long simply to do the exact same thing, so I thought I’d share my own list.  I started with a list of 12, but after starting to write about them I realized that nobody would read that long of a flipping article, so I’ve shortened it down to just 8.  7 are Young Adult novels and the last one is an adult book of poetry.  I should mention that most of them are those depressing, never going to feel okay again, kind of books.  I guess I really like to get my depression over in one sitting.

First up is a double-whammy (and they’re actually HAPPY books).  Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door, both by Stephanie Perkins.  I avoided these books forever because they sounded cheesy, I thought the titles were silly, and the covers did nothing for me.  Oh how wrong I was.  I started with Lola and the Boy Next Door, about Lola falling in love with her next-door neighbor Cricket Bell.  Yall, I fell hard for this book.  I lied to my then-boyfriend about when I was coming over because I had to finish the book.  When it came time for me to read Anna and the French Kiss, about Anna falling in love with Etienne, who already has a girlfriend (don’t worry, here’s actually a really decent guy), I didn’t even bother to make plans because I knew there was no way I was putting it down.  Both Anna and Lola are companion books with a third one, Isla and the Happily Ever After.  All the characters kind of show up in each other’s books in very minor ways.  If you want a romance that makes you feel mushy gushy, pick up Anna and I’ll see you tomorrow when you haven’t gotten enough sleep because you had to finish.

I just need to say that I HATE when they change cover themes midway through a series.

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson is one of those rare books that I feel is just perfect.  I really liked The Sky is Everywhere by Nelson, but I’ll Give You the Sun is in a class of its own.  It centers around twins, Jude and Noah, and is told from both of their perspectives.  Noah tells the story when he is 13, and Jude’s perspective is from 3 years later, when their families lives have essentially fallen apart.  The different perspectives from different time periods come together to make this book a whole.  You learn from Noah the things that lead to the situation 3 years later, and your heart just bleeds all over the place for everyone in the story.  I don’t want to give away much, because you really just need to experience it.

Let’s continue on the teary track with A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.  (Side note:  I desperately want to see the movie.  Felicity Jones has been one of my favorite actresses since “Like Crazy.”)  The entire premise of this novel is tear-jerking.  It was an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, but she died of cancer before she could write it.  I recently listened to a podcast with Patrick Ness, and he talked about how all of the books Siobhan Dowd published were published with her knowing she had cancer and knowing her time was limited.  He said that he wanted people to ugly cry with this book, and good lord did I ever.   In this story, Conor’s mom is dying of cancer.  A monster that has plagued him with nightmares comes to life, and ultimately helps Conor come to terms with having to lose his mother.  The illustrations are dark and add to the deep depression you feel when reading the book.  In the end, though, it’s a beautiful book about love, loss, and how to move on when we don’t know if we can.

And the tears continue with The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what it’s about, it’s the story of Hazel and Gus, two teenagers with cancer who fall in love.  It’s told in the way that only John Green can tell it, with humor and sadness and a feeling of reality in this fiction book.  I’ll never forget when I read this book.  I preordered it and started it the day it came in the mail.  When I finished it at 3:00 in the morning, I walked over to my sister’s house and knocked on the door.  When she answered it, I was crying my eyes out and told her I just needed to be with people right now.

Just so you don’t think I only read depressing books about people sick and dying, let’s talk about The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb.  This book chronicles the search for Adolf Eichmann, who was in charge of Jewish affairs under Hitler’s regime and was personally responsible for thousands, if not millions of deaths during WWII.  This book is nonfiction, but it reads just like a thriller.  The accompanying pictures add to the story.  Very rarely can I say I was so fascinated by a nonfiction book that I finished in one day, but this is definitely an exception.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart is one of my favorite books that I never hear people talking about.  E. Lockhart is more well-known for We Were Liars, and this book couldn’t be farther away from that.  Frankie is in her sophomore year at Alabaster Academy, and she soon begins to date senior Matthew.  Matthew is a member of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, a secret society that plays pranks at the academy.  Frankie’s own father was a member, but Frankie herself is not allowed to join because she is a girl.  So, she devises her own ways to infiltrate the group.  The best thing about this is how strong Frankie is.  She’s hilarious, smart, and able to get crap done in this still male-dominated society.  I think middle and high school girls would love this!

 

I’m going to end with one more sad book, and it’s an adult book of poems, not young adult novels like all the previous books.  It is October Mourning:  A Song for Matthew Shepherd, by Leslea Newman (of Heather Has Two Mommies fame.)   The poems that Newman writes in this Stonewall Honor book craft us a story.  Going in chronological order, the poems are meant to be read from front to back, at least on the first time through.  The poems are told from different perspectives, everything from the fence that he laid upon; the girlfriends of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson; the biker who first found Matthew; and even a deer that was in the field.  There is no real mercy for Henderson and McKinney—this is not the book that expunges them of any guilt.  Indeed, Newman says that, “the poems are not an objective reporting of Matthew Shepard’s murder and its aftermath; rather they are my own personal interpretation of them”(p.xi).  I love the lack of objectivity as poem after poem gives us how angry and hunt this woman was by what happened to this poor boy.  She gives more feeling to a fence post that she does McKinney and Henderson.  I can’t say I blame her for that.  It’s a beautiful, beautiful story, and deserves a place on everyone’s shelf.

Good Crooks: Missing Monkey

       

     I have an embarrassing teacher confession to make: I haven’t always read a book before I chose it as a read-aloud.  I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW.  You never know how your kids are going to react to a book anyway, and when you throw in the fact that you don’t know what is going to happen, you’re kinda just waiting to fail.  Anytime I don’t read a book beforehand, I’m waiting for an F bomb that I need to skate over, or some long dialogue about farting that I won’t be able to get my kids back from, or any other of the thousands of things that could be disastrous in a read-aloud (or amazing.  It can really go either way, folks).  We are currently finishing up the last book that I didn’t bother to read before reading it to my kiddos, The Chocolate Touch.  Thankfully, they have loved it, but I’ve been on the lookout for what we are going to read next.  I struck gold (and even read the book) in Good Crooks: Missing Monkey by Mary Amato.

            Billy and Jillian are twins being raised by their crook mother and father.  They spend fun afternoons together as a family doing things like learning how to pick locks or pickpocket at the local mall.  Growing up, Billy and Jillian thought this was normal, but Billy can’t help but feel the urge to do something good.  When he sees an advertisement for a cleanup day at the local zoo, Billy decides to go.  Dressed up in one of his crook disguises, he goes to the zoo.  There, he runs into his sister, who has always been a better crook than him.  It turns out, she has been wanting to do good, too.  Before they can plan anything, however, their parents show up, dressed as two male construction workers of course.  In the minutes that follow, Billy and Jillian’s parents steal a monkey from the zoo, and the book continues with the twins trying to set right their parents’ wrongs.

            This book is hilarious.  I found myself sitting on my couch, laughing to myself over a book written for people half my age.  I was worried about the whole aspect of the parents being criminals.  Would it glamorize law-breaking?  Would it be too preachy about not stealing?  What about my kiddos who might be raised in homes where stealing isn’t perceived as negative?  I shouldn’t have worried, though, because Mary Amato did a masterful job.  Even though Billy and Jillian love their parents, they come to realize that what they are doing is not right.  The parents aren’t mean, but are instead these kind of loveable buffoons, like when the mom sports a full mustache or when they dress the monkey up as a baby to teach it pickpocketing at the mall.  The pictures really added to the silly nature.  Billy spends about half the book dressed up as an old grandma, and I think my kids are going to go bananas (get it) over that aspect.  There’s also some pretty hilarious scenes at the zoo, including monster elephant “pies.”  The parents don’t stop being crooks at the end, but there are more books in the series, so maybe their children will bring them about in the end.

 

            Bottom Line:  I LOVED IT!  This is a perfect read-aloud for 1^st and 2^nd graders, and could be enjoyed independently by 3^rd and 4^th graders.  It is written on a level P (late 3^rd grade), and the illustrations add hilarity and some scaffolding.  Nothing inappropriate, surprisingly, just good ole bad guy humor.  Highly recommend as a younger middle-grade novel.

Title:  Good Crooks: Missing Monkey

Author: Mary Amato

Illustrator:  Ward Jenkins

Publisher/Publishing Date:  Scholastic 2014