It’s one of those weird things about being a bookseller. Timepiece by Myra McEntire, which just came out June 2012, was one of my favorite reads of last November 2011. Weird right? We booksellers often read so far in advance, and Timepiece was one of those books I could not wait to read. I so vividly remember huddling in my kitchen, cooking dinner and reading Timepiece, too engrossed in this second installment of the Hourglass series to even go turn the heat on in my house.

Hourglass, Myra’s debut book, grabbed my attention with its stunning cover and its rave reviews, one of which hailed it as “Doctor Who for the YA market” (yes, Joe, I know I’m a nerd). I was hooked. And while Hourglass is a great introduction to a fascinating world, it was Timepiece that made me fall in love with it. This is one of those series that you are not going to want to miss.

You can tell just by talking to Myra that she is passionate about what she does. I have already had a very intriguing twitter conversation about her series with her and it was so much fun! I cannot wait to have her here at Lemuria on Tuesday, September 18th at 4:00. I will definitely be grilling her on the next installment, which was just bought by Egmont earlier this year. Swing by, grab a couple of excellent books, and meet Myra McEntire!

Common in the parenting world are these discussions about boys and books. In fact Newbery Award winning author and this week’s OZ event author, Shannon Hale, weighs into the debate here, saying that she believes that boys don’t come by this attitude naturally. Still, it is true that our little guy, the dee man, was at first only interested in trucks and truck books. (I’m talking when he was two) but over the last year (he’s now four) he has branched out greatly into all kinds of books and interests.

So, a couple of weeks ago the great illustrator and author Peter Brown was here to talk about all of his books but specifically the new book that he illustrated Creepy Carrots! A great book about a little bunny who encounters these creepy little carrots. Dee, his sister Harper, and several buddies new and old came to here Peter talk Creepy Carrots! and they’ve been talking about it ever since. In fact a friend who was at the event sent a picture via Facebook of their homemade Creepy Carrots!  (I cropped the image for privacy sake)

Dee loves the inscription Peter wrote in his book, “Don’t be creepy!” every time we read it he laughs and laughs and says “that’s so funny”. On Friday he took it to school for show and tell and his teacher read the book to the class, including the inscription. He was so proud! How to say this gently… you’re missing out if you’re not getting keepsake books inscribed for your kids. It’s something they’ll never forget. And here’s a hint, these are the kinds of things that will make them love books. Girls and boys.

Ilana Huggins is an avid reader, writer, bass player, and ice hockey goalie. She is the daughter of Barbara and Tim Huggins (former Lemuria employee and founder of Newtonville Books, where Ilana discovered her passion for literature). She is an incoming freshman at Newton North High School and lives in Newton, Massachusetts, and she is here to tell us about a few of her favorite recent books.

His Fair Assassin: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers seems to show the perspective of a woman who was once poor and abused thrust into the limelight of court and acting as a man’s mistress. But of course, there’s always more to a story than that. The book follows Ismae, who carries out the will of Saint Mortain, the god of death, through instructions from her convent. In other words, she is a trained assassin. During one of her assignments she is taken deep into the difficult task of keeping her country’s young duchess safe from the French. Ismae finds herself tangled in several webs of deception, many of which are her own. The book is thrilling, mysterious, and also manages to work in elements of romance and desire.

A circus can be the most interesting place in the world, but nothing onstage can compare to what happens backstage, as shown in Erin Morgenstern’s novel The Night Circus. It follows two magicians who have been pitted against each other since they were young, knowing that they were in a game against someone but never knowing whom, never knowing how to play, only learning and trying to play their pieces right. It is a woman, Celia, and a man, Marco, and when they discover that they are opponents, the unreasonable happens: love. Celia and Marco must then juggle keeping the circus, the challenge between them, and their love going strong. The story is heart-touching as well as exciting and keeps your fingers turning every page.

When I heard Shannon Hale was coming to Lemuria, I hastily unearthed my copy of her Newbery Honor winning Princess Academy from my To Be Read stack…which is always actually several stacks, consisting of hundreds of unread books. Princess Academy had been on my radar for some time, and the book had been patiently waiting for me for well over a year.

My great passion in life is children’s books; however, I’m difficult to please. Even the Newbery seal is no longer a guarantee for me. Though Newbery books are almost always well written, in years of late several of the Medal and Honor winners have seemed to be lovely books written by adults who love kids’ books to impress other adults who love kids’ books–rather than for the kids themselves. My feelings on this are ambiguous and for another blog. However, I admit I always hope when I crack open an unread prize winner that it will be well written enough, exciting enough, interesting enough, the characters real enough, to please adult and child alike. Princess Academy is just such a book.

School Library Journal’s starred review sums it up nicely: “This is not a fluffy, predictable fairy tale…Instead, Hale weaves an intricate, multilayered story about families, relationships, education, and the place we call home.”

Princess Academy is about all of that and more. Hale’s fantasy world subtly challenges our own assumptions about the role girls are expected by society to fulfill. In her fairytale land, as in our own, daughters take their father’s name–but sons take their mother’s. This seemingly insignificant detail is a compass for the close reader, as we are drawn deeper into main character Miri’s experience at Princess Academy–a school expressly established to educate and finish the girls of her simple mountain village so that the kingdom’s prince might choose one of them as a bride.

The competition and cattiness among the young female students reads at times like a literary version of The Bachelor for the middle grade set. (It should be said that I am fascinated by the psychology and sociology of such reality shows, and don’t in any way mean that in a minimizing way.) Hale takes a timely look at the issues of female relationships, how they are affected by the pressure to compete over boys (and everything else), and the deeply rooted prejudices we all hold towards one another. (Read Hale’s thoughts on ‘girl books’ vs. ‘boy books’ in this article in the Salt Lake Tribune.)

The tension between the defensive mountain girls and the snooty “lowlanders” of their kingdom is noteworthy. There are no cardboard good guys and bad guys here–both lowlanders and mountain folk are guilty of making assumptions and seeing what they think they’ll see when they look at one another.

Princess Academy is rich with thought provoking fodder for discussion, without ever being preachy or heavy handed; it would be a fantastic pick for a Mother-Daughter book club. There’s still time to read it before Wednesday, August 29 at 4 PM, when Shannon Hale will be talking with us and signing copies of Palace of Stone, the brand new sequel to Princess Academy. Bring your kids (the boys too!) and join us for what is sure to be a stimulating evening with the brilliant and talented Ms. Hale.

by Mandy

I wasn’t always a fan of science fiction. I started watching Star Trek because it was one of my Sweetheart’s favorite shows. I didn’t like it at first. The costumes were so dated, the sets and special effects were far behind the entertainment industry’s current innovations. But then I began to like it.

I liked it because of the quiet. That soft hum of the space ship was calming. I also noticed that I was not overwhelmed with rapid sequences of flashing images. All I needed was to fall in love with the stories. And I did. I fell in love with the complex issues we still debate in modern society. Issues revolving around government, war, race, gender and what it means to be human.

A few days ago we were having trouble finding anything to watch on TV. We don’t have cable, a dish or subscribe to any TV service! I finally landed on a low budget channel airing an episode of The Twilight Zone and pretty soon I was mesmerized by the sparse sound and lighting. There was only one actor for the most of the episode yet I was hooked. It may have been sparse but it was all a beautiful strategy employed while the rest of television programming was basking in the glory of color technology.

This episode, entitled The Invaders, originally aired in 1961 and credits two actors: Agnus Moorehead, an older woman alone in a house and the second actor is only a voice coming from a mysterious spaceship which has landed on the woman’s house and is filled with tiny spacemen. So my Sweetheart and I began to discuss the simple beauty and strong effect of black and white, of limited dialogue, of light and shadow. Like Star Trek, this often futuristic show dealt with the same broad issues which, in addition to the show’s artistry, make it worthy of watching over 50 years later.

Switch gears to Peter Brown. Doesn’t he look like he’s up to something? He’s the children’s book illustrator coming to the bookstore on August 23rd.

I’m doing a little research on him and find a video of him explaining his inspiration for illustrating Creepy Carrots. Watch carefully and you’ll find the tiny invaders. They’re only six inches tall! But watch out for those Creepy Carrots, too . . .

Join us on Thursday the 23rd for a reading and signing with Peter Brown. Creepy Carrots is written by Aaron Reynolds published by Simon and Schuster and is available at Lemuria for $16.99. Read more about Peter here.