Things that cheer me up

1. This avocado-and-sushi-rice Very Hungry Caterpillar

2. Getting a shout-out by Brian Kenney in the latest School Library Journal (about half-way through his editorial on reader's advisory)

3. Knowing that a copy of Mockingjay is waiting for me, whenever I have the time to get to it

4. Platelet levels are up! Take that, Big Bad Wolf!

Learning history from anime?

I've been hearing a lot of buzz about the anime series Hetalia: Axis Powers, which has been available online as a webcomic and anime series but will be released as a DVD on September 14th and as a manga series on September 21.

Turns out my 15-year-old has been obsessing about the series all summer. She came bursting into my room one evening, asking "Is Sealand a real country?" Strangely, this odd series has sparked in her an interest in WWI and WWII. She'll tell you a bit about Hetalia here:



And here is a tiny taste of the series - the ending theme song (Italy):

Wolves at the door

While I was able, a couple weeks ago, to be intrigued by the name of a loved one's newly diagnosed disease, I find that I am not able to be tolerant of even the tiniest aspect of lupus. Many days, complications, and odious medical procedures later, lupus evokes not quaint fairy tale wolves but rather a ring of slavering beasts encircling my worried but defiant family.

Our vocabulary has increased along with our stress level. A month ago, I couldn't tell you with any confidence what a rheumatologist, hemotologist, or nephrologist was, and now I speak with representatives of these medical specialties daily. Lupus nephritis, plasmapheresis, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, and creatinine are just a few of the terms we sprinkle into our conversations.

Oddly, most of the doctors who visit the hospital room daily are astonishingly good-looking. Or perhaps we are just seeing them through a golden haze of hope. I imagine that the woodcutter who chopped open that hungry wolf looked pretty darn handsome to Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.

Naturally, I've been plunging into books whenever possible. Although I've finished an enormous adult fantasy tome (Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven) and two YA novels (Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead and Emma Clayton's The Roar), the two books I'm reading now have been most successful at distracting me. They are Ian McEwan's Solar and Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Although these books couldn't be more different, they both feature 60-something modern-day Englishmen whose trials and tribulations provide a fine escape from my own.

One book I'll be avoiding for a while is Neil Gaiman's The Wolves in the Walls. Too close to reality right now.

Review of Stuck on Earth by David Klass

Klass, David. Stuck on Earth. Frances Foster Books/Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010.

Most teens feel alienated at least some of the time, especially if they happen to be a bit odd or different, so when a highly intelligent snail-like being from another planet crawls up 14-year-old Tom's nose and takes over his body, no one notices much of a change. Ketchvar, the alien, has been charged with conducting a bit of research to ascertain whether humans are at all worthy of their own planet, or whether they should be exterminated so that a more evolved species in need of a new world can live on Earth instead.

Needless to say, Ketchvar finds much to horrify and dismay him, from the way humans have destroyed much of their planet, to the nasty way they treat each other (it happens that Tom is a frequent victim of the local bullies), to the depressing and dysfunctional nature of Tom's own unhappy family. Luckily, in the end Ketchvar finds reason to "believe there is hope for this benighted species."

While masquerading as Tom, Ketchvar never makes any attempt to adopt the vocabulary and speech patterns of a typical American teen, and so sounds quite a bit like Mr. Spock on a particularly pedantic day. Charmingly, no one seems to think this is very odd - apparently Tom, whom the bullies had nicknamed Alien long before Ketchvar crawled up his nostril, is one of those awkward nerdy types who can't help talking a bit like a computer. What folks do notice is that Ketchvar is quite a bit more mature and insightful than Tom ever was, which helps some situations and relationships while hindering others.

In one delightful twist, Tom is sent to the school counselor due, in part, to his stated belief that he is in fact an alien named Ketchvar. (Ketchvar sees no reason not to be honest about his mission, so long as he doesn't endanger it). After the counselor suggests that this belief is an "empowerment fantasy" used as a refuge to escape from constant bullying and abuse, Ketchvar begins to suffer an intense, teen-like identity crisis. What if he really IS a human teen who just THINKS he is an alien named Ketchvar? The reader, who has no similar doubts, will be relieved when in fact Ketchvar's alien identity is affirmed.

Both deliciously funny and rather touching, this view of a tiny, seething corner of Earth by an outsider who turns out to be anything but objective will resonate with most teens. Highly recommended for ages 12 to 15.

Hungry like the Wolf

A family member has very recently been diagnosed with lupus, and amid all the questions, uncertainty, worry, and discombobulation, part of my brain has been mulling over the fascinating matter of the disease's name.

Lupus is Latin for "wolf," casting a dangerously exotic aura over its victims. Wolves have been maligned and feared throughout human history, but also revered as symbols of freedom, strength and courage. As entrancingly complicated icons, wolves are an intriguing namesake for this disease. I was hoping to discover some arcane and super-cool explanation for this (lupus sufferers get hairy during the full moon?), but the reality is pretty mundane. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, a 13th century physician named Rogerius thought that the skin lesions of some lupus patients looked like wolf bites.

Skin rashes aside, the word "lupus" conjures up all those hungry wolves in folklore and children's stories. There's that lurking wolf who menaces Little Red Riding Hood and her granny, the wolf with impressive lung power who manages to blow down two houses before meeting his match in the third little pig, the wolf who dabbles his paws in flour to impersonate a nanny goat in order to eat her kids, the Gunniwolf who is so lulled by a little girl's song that he can't stay awake long enough to eat her, and many, many more.

Hungry like the wolf, indeed!

Curiously, these wolves are all solitary. We talk about "lone wolves" but aren't they pack animals? Isn't that why wolves are so terrifying to humans - they work together to bring down their prey?

Of course, wolves aren't necessarily solitary by choice, and certainly werewolves are often forced into secretive and lonely lifestyles by their inconvenient syndrome. Professor Remus Lupin of Hogwarts comes immediately to mind. Luckily, Jacob Black of the Twilight series demonstrates that werewolves can be happily social in packs of their own kind.

Folks with lupus don't have to go it alone, either - there are plenty of support groups. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, about 1.5 million Americans have some form of lupus - which I can well believe, as just about everyone to whom I've mentioned lupus knows someone with the disease. Even my dentist has lupus, as it turns out.

It's a tricky and complicated disease, as are most autoimmune disorders. Still, I prefer the name "lupus" to that of another autoimmune disease - Crohn's disease. I know how it's spelled and what it is - but still, every time I hear that name spoken aloud, I think of the old and wicked witches in fairy tales, the ones whose warted noses and whiskery chins almost touch each other. Both diseases are nasty - but let's face it, lupus has the cooler name.

Review of Happyface by Stephen Emond

Emond, Stephen. Happyface. Little, Brown, 2010.

Have you ever wished that you could just re-invent yourself? Perhaps, if you started over with people who didn't know the old you, you could be the sort of person you always knew you could be.

After Happyface and his mother move into a crummy apartment in another part of town, forcing Happyface to change schools, he has the chance to do just that - reinvent himself. And being unhappy with his previous situation, he decides to become a happy-go-lucky guy with an ever-present smile. It's better than being the guy that all that bad stuff happened to.

Hence his new nickname - Happyface. In fact, we never do get to find out his real name. And though he fills his journal with sketches of all his new friends, and includes himself in the drawings and cartoons, he draws himself with a huge happyface head.

Needless to say, his big smile and absolute refusal to ever talk about anything serious or give away anything of importance about his own life or thoughts keeps his new friends at a distance. Happyface sees himself as being an excellent friend, the kind that is always upbeat - and he's dismayed when he can't get close to anyone.

My two teen daughters, ages 15 and 19, liked this book more than I did, but that's probably testimony to its extremely authentic feel. While I thought the interminable and repetitive dwelling on trivial conversations and small slights was annoying, my teens were fascinated. This is how teens are - stuff like that is what the very fabric of life is made of.

Happyface does, of course, finally realize that his approach to friendship has had the effect of keeping everyone at arm's length, and his friends' reaction to him after he lets his guard down is gratifying while also quite realistic. I understood completely how pissed off his friends were, because I found that constant smile and stupid jokiness supremely off-putting. It was hard for me to really like Happyface, despite being privy to his private thoughts. He reminds me a little of the heroes in John Green's books, always pining after the most awesome, complicated, gorgeous girl. Puh-leeze.

But that's just my own bias. Two real live teen girls, both well-read and with great taste, really liked this book, and so it's a sure bet other teens will, too. And, this being a fine book, you might, too - so give it a try!

Recommended for ages 13 and up.

Review of Num8ers by Rachel Ward

Ward, Rachel. Num8ers. Chicken House/Scholastic, 2010.

This book practically booktalks itself. All you have to say is, "If Jem looks into someone's eyes, she can see the date they'll die. Sound cool? Maybe not so much. Imagine looking into a baby's eyes and seeing she'll only live to age 31. Or looking at a kid's eyes and seeing he'll die in three years. Or knowing that the only boy you've ever gotten really close to will die in just a few days. You don't know how. You don't know why. You only know when."

If that doesn't get a teen to whip out her library card and take this book home, I don't know what will. Try throwing in the fact that Jem is something of a lost cause (drug-addicted mom who died of an overdose, a series of foster families, behavioral problems) who no sooner lets her guard down with a super tall, lovable, fellow lost cause named Spider than they are both on the run, accused of blowing up the London Eye. Gritty urban teens sleeping rough in the countryside while chased by England's entire Anti-Terrorism unit - this is a very bad situation, but kind of romantic, too.

Until you remember that Spider only has days to live. Doomed love, indeed.

Funny, surprising, touching, and absolutely, intensely gripping. Jem's voice is authentic and immediate, and Spider is one of the best characters to be found in YA fiction. And the ending is a chiller. This is one of my favorite books of the year.

Highly recommended for ages 13 and up.