Potty Mouth Powerhouse is a Four-wheel Force of Nature

Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw
New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2014.
250 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

What's not to like about this rollicking, bawdy and well-written memoir by 21-year old Shane Burcaw who has SMA - Spinal Muscular Atrophy - a degenerative muscular disease which is likely to kill him?

Burcaw's book has been positively reviewed, and rightfully so.  Publisher's Weekly states: "His honesty, tempered by mordant humor and a defiant acceptance, is refreshing, even as he thumbs his nose at the disease that is slowly stripping him of the basics." Booklist notes, "Burcaw's smart, gracious, and funny take on his life is an object lesson in positivity, and this eloquently written and moving memoir would easily find a home in both adult and youth collections."

The thing I love about Burcaw's book is his ability to be both positive and life affirming, but also angry, cynical and unsparingly honest.  He also is really funny and at times raunchy in describing many situations he has found himself in.  He is not afraid to be blunt about his fears, his dislikes, and the painful and humiliating ways his disease has affected his life.

I would definitely recommend this book to students.  There is a lot to admire in this book and so much to learn.  

A Ghastly Gift Worth Opening

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
New York, NY : Orbit, 2015.
438 p. ; 21 cm.

Maybe I'll become a fan of zombie novels yet, after reading this one.  It's a darn good read - creative, exciting, moving, well-plotted, and thoughtful - a real gift of a book.

I love a sci-fi book where the premise is somewhat believable - be it the moon getting pushed into a new orbit or a supervolcano blasting away out in Wyoming - there is something very unsettling about terrifying science fiction that has one foot in reality.  In The Girl with All the Gifts the zombie plague that is the setting for this novel was unleashed by a fungus that really does exist, and really does turn its victims into zombies (fortunately the victims currently are only ants).   So this novel has human zombies that are compelled to eat living humans, but - and here is where the author gets creative - some of the zombies are not full zombies; in fact, these semi-zombies are children who retain the full suite of human emotions, abilities and more (they just happen to also be compelled to eat living humans).

And so the novel opens by dropping the reader into a militarized research outpost where the pitiless Dr. Caldwell searches for a cure at the expense of the inmates of the outpost - the semi-zombie children who are being taught classes and kept more or less as prisoners.  Of course the novel would not be much of a thriller if things stayed at this stage, so inevitably the outpost is attacked, overrun, and only a handful of survivors tries to make their way back to one of the few cities where humans are safe from the zombies because of military protection and rule.  The trip back is an adventure.

However, what puts this novel above the usual zombie, survival, dystopian thriller story are the intense and deep relationships that develop between the survivors on the run - one of who happens to be the potentially dangerous little half-zombie girl, the one with "all the gifts."

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in an exciting thriller (especially a zombie thriller), but who also wants a layered, satisfying, and thought-provoking read.

Ghostly Thrills

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender
New York, NY : Point, 2014.
312 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm usually no fan of books about serial killers - but I decided to read this one since it got many positive reviews, including being chosen for YALSA's 2015 Top Ten Quick Picks for reluctant readers.

I found Famous Last Words an entertaining read.  I liked that its focus is not so much on the details of the murders that are happening in the world of the main character, but instead on the life of teen protagonist, Willa, as she has wrestles with grief over her deceased father and her radically new life in Hollywood where her new step-father is a well-known and very wealthy movie director.

To complicate matters, there is a ghost in the new house where Willa and her mother now live.  Willa also has to navigate life as a new student in a new high school where she makes one new friend, Marnie, and comes to have a reluctant friendship with Wyatt, her lab partner who has a creepy obsession with the murders. Throw a very cute and romantic young assistant to her new father into the mix and the plot just zooms along.

It's not a great read, but it's a fun read, and one I'd recommend to any student asking if we had a good thriller, or murder mystery, or ghost story, or romance - or all of the above!