Lower East Side Librarian

Comix with footnotes--hubba hubba! But of course one's enjoyment is tempered by the fact that the facts presented about the prison industry are infuriating.

I was really happy with the first say 4/5ths of this YA novel--until it turned into a teen romance. What's up with that? I've got too much work to do right now to right a better description or review. With a 14-year-old narrator, the book is listed as grade 7 and up, but I think it's perfectly suitable to older readers. It doesn't feel at all "tween."

Coincidentally, like the last book I read, this one is by an author who left (escaped from?) an insular community in England and then returned to it. The Killing Jar took place in crime-ridden Nottingham, and Disobedience in Orthodox Jewish Hendon. I say "coincidentally" because I found Disobedience browsing in my new branch of the NYPL, Hamilton Fish. Moving is traumatic; I'm going to miss Tompkins Square.

Moving was not traumatic for Ronit Krushka, who left the Orthodox community over which her father presided as Rabbi.

Per my post on LCSH Watch 2009, Week 51, I discovered this book via its subject heading, FEMALE JUVENILE DELINQUENTS—FICTION. If I were assigning subject headings, I wouldn't necessarily have picked that one, though. I might have gone with one of the cataloger's other choices PROBLEM FAMILIES -- ENGLAND -- NOTTINGHAM -- FICTION, but more to the point, CHILDREN OF DRUG ADDICTS. Essentially, I would have been more loving to the book's protagonist, Kerrie-Ann (Kez) Hill, whom we follow from the age of five to eighteen. She does a lot of illegal things and more than her share of drugs, but I don't see her as a delinquent, and neither does author Nicola Monaghan.

The more I read Lynda Barry, the more I wonder what kind of a crazy childhood she must have had. Boys and Girls is comics depicting painfully familiar incidents from childhood, adolescence, and also adult life. A section on finding your perfect love mate cracked me up, especially the Success Begins at Home quiz...

I was a little creeped out by Harris's dedication, "For all those readers who want every last sip of Sookie." I wonder if she really thinks of her fans as vampires? Let me be clear that I like Sookie, but I'm not a fanatic about it. What I am a fanatic about is reading. I like to be thorough, so when I learned of this collection of short stories that complements or fills in the Sookie Stackhouse series, I requested it from the library right away.