Between The Lines

by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer

Review by Brenna B. (demiducky25)

Although she’s been a past recipient of the Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association for an adult book with teenage appeal (My Sister’s Keeper), this latest endeavor by Jodi Picoult is her first young adult novel.  Written in conjunction with her teenage daughter, Samantha Van Leer, Picoult delves into the realm of fairy tale and fantasy in order to tell a modern love story (Picoult notes in the intro that Samantha came up with the story and they decided to write it together).

Briefly summarized, a high school student named Delilah is a social outcast (in part due to accidentally breaking the leg of the head cheerleader during gym class the year before the events in the story) and although she has a best friend named Jules who is an outsider by choice, Delilah prefers to spend her time in the company of books.  One day she comes across the children’s fairy tale Between the Lines and finds herself drawn to this story for reasons she can’t initially explain.  She believes it’s because she can identify with the main character, Oliver, a prince who also grew up without a father just like Delilah, but she’ll soon find out it’s more than that.

It’s not once upon a time. It’s not even twice upon a time. It’s hundreds of times, over and over, every time someone opens up the pages of this dusty old book.

The above quote is noted by Oliver, the main character in the fairy tale Between the Lines.  He lives in a world where he is forced to perform the same story over and over again every time, falling in “love” with the princess he really can’t stand and his best friend secretly loves, and he doesn’t understand why no one else in the story feels the way that he feels.  Although he is “unscripted” when the book is closed, he wants to find a way to escape the story so that he can live the life he witnesses through glimpses of the Readers.  He just needs to find the right Reader willing to listen and realize that he doesn’t belong in this story anymore.  When Delilah discovers that she can hear Oliver she wants to help him escape, though they soon learn that it’s not going to be an easy task.  They start getting to know each other and fall in love, but what kind of life could they have together if they are stuck in different worlds?

Although this book is marketed to young adults, it really could be enjoyed by younger readers and is even suitable to read aloud much in the way that Harry Potter books have been read aloud.  There’s no sex, only “cartoon” violence, and if there was any bad language I can’t recall it.  The illustrations that go with the book, both the silhouettes that are scattered throughout the pages and the full page paintings that tell Oliver’s fairy tale really add to the enjoyment of this book.  I enjoyed learning about Oliver’s world when the book is closed and the characters aren’t forced to perform (think Toy Story when Andy’s not in the room).  Each character has interests and personalities far different from what their stage personas are.  I think I enjoyed that aspect of the story the most.  Overall this is a cute book, though a bit predictable since as you go along you can easily figure out what’s going to happen- though that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth the read.  I’m also not the target audience, so someone younger will probably enjoy this book a bit more since it is a very sweet and innocent tale.  This was a solid effort by Jodi Picoult and a great start to her daughter Samantha Van Leer’s writing career.

My rating- 3 ½ out of 5 stars

Bare Naked at the Reality Dance: Journal One by Suzanne Selby Grenager

Review by McGuffyAnn M. (nightprose)

This book has a unique energy, both invigorating and calming. In her search for herself, Suzanne Grenager teaches us how to find ourselves.

This journal is reflective, inspiring one to reflect on one’s own life and purpose. It is personal yet universal. We all wonder what the meaning of life really is, and where our place in it may be.

Suzanne guides you with her own intimate experiences. She encourages you to find your own way, offering courage to do so. Not only is the journal a tool in finding peace and calm, but it is a celebration of joy and positive energy within and around us.

Awareness of self is something that should be easy, yet it is often elusive. In youth we all seek to “find ourselves”, though it seems not all of us do. Some people are never able to find the courage to be who they are meant to be.

This book not only is inspires us, but encourages us to seek and be all that we are meant to be. Through her own experiences and journey, Suzanne Grenager shows you how to reach inside, to be and celebrate yourself. She makes you feel good about who you are.

The common sense and practical approach to life and living it will make you feel it was written for you. Perhaps this is because we are all basically the same at heart. We all want to be happy in ourselves and in life.

The Laughing Fox by Frank Gruber

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

In 1940, Gruber wrote this mystery full of pulp elements that pulp fans expected. The hero is a gambling man with a gift of gab. His sidekick has the loyalty of a canine and the strength of steel.  Gruber valued variety and action so every two or three chapters some unexpected development occurs. Furthermore, unlike the usual urban setting of pulps, most of the action takes place at a Cattle Convention in Cedar City, Iowa. The theme is silver foxes, which exhibitors display with an eye on big profits at the climactic fox fur auction. All of these elements add up to an enjoyable read.

Smart and glib Johnny Fletcher and his sidekick Sam Cragg attend a Cattle Congress. Their day job is selling a body-building book for which Johnny makes the pitch and Sam’s pecs and lats break a chain wound round his chest. The night job is playing craps and poker games, in the subculture of ramblin’ gamblin’ men that didn’t fade in the US until the late 1960s.

Gruber liked writing about men who rambled, living in hotel rooms, making the most of free lunches in saloons, and enduring the endless hot dogs at diners on the road. Written in the late 1930s, the book is an artifact of the time when the US was coming back after the Depression, even though some people of promise have somehow missed the gravy train.

The background touches give us a confident feeling that the author is writing about people, places, and things that he knows like the back of his hand.  The antique slang and turns of phrase, the etiquette of gambling, the mug’s chivalry toward the ladies, and authentic local settings and plain people feel very old-school American – plain, warm, outgoing, confident, resourceful — to me.

It’s still a mystery though. To clear himself of the two killings in the story, Johnny helps the local Sheriff – an import from rough and tough Kansas City so he’s nobody’s hick. Johnny and Sam travel to Chicago – Gruber is careful to appeal to local patriotism by calling lots of streets by name – to interview people about the 20-year-old disappearance of a rich kid that may have a connection to the fox exhibition slayings.

This is well-worth reading, both as a solid puzzle mystery and a wonderful piece of Americana. It was the second of fourteen Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg mysteries by Frank Gruber.