The Local News by Miriam Gershow

I quit the P.D. James book.  I loved her beautiful sentences, and I truly believe she is some kind of a genius, but the timing was off between the book and me.  The book was like a nice-looking, smart boy I once dated too soon after a messy break up, and I ended up feeling tired and sarcastic whenever he opened his mouth to speak, even though I knew I was the one with the problem.  The real issue is that I was too dim to keep up with the characters/plot without constantly flipping back to previous chapters, and I was reading the book on my Kindle iPhone app, of all crappy, impractical mediums.  So I quit.  Basta.  Done.  The book is good, though.  It'll find someone who treats it right.

But I quickly cuddled up with Miriam Gershow's The Local News, inconstant thing that I am, and proceeded to blow off my life until I finished the last page.  In The Local News, fifteen-year-old Lydia Pasternak struggles to survive the aftermath of her brother's mysterious disappearance.  As her parents and community grieve, Lydia wrestles with ambivalent feelings about life without her indomitably popular, sometimes cruel, older brother.  Lydia is an over-achiever, and she throws her energy into organizing any clues that might lead to her brother's recovery.  Her hunt for information causes her to tunnel into her own mind and heart, leading her to confront and make sense of a crumbled family dynamic that--if she's honest--predates her brother's disappearance. 

This books was top notch.  Emotionally taut, painfully and deliciously pitch perfect, sharp, focused, darkly funny.  Not a word wasted--I did not happen upon a single skim-worthy paragraph.  At one point, Lydia  watches her grieving father and describes the things he mutters to his missing son when he thinks no one is listening, and I'm telling you:  the scene is grip-your-sides-and-rock-sad.  And yet, Lydia's highschooler-y musings are also so earthy and devastatingly true that I laughed quite a bit (and read out loud to myself) as well.  Why can't every book be this engaging?  I was convinced that Gershow had a brother who went missing, and that this book was a quasi-true tale, but nay.  I googled it.  I'm definitely looking forward to Gershow's next thing.

I know many of you reviewed this book a few months ago, and I wondered if you might link up those reviews below so that I can read through them and mentally muse with you, book-club-style.  Please and thank you.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

I'm sorry to report that I accidentally chose a "four books in one" monster of a P.D. James novel to kick off the year, and it is taking me forever to finish it.  I didn't realize the heft of the book because I bought it on my Kindle, and I didn't pay attention to the number of pages.  I did, however, manage to read 1971 Newbery Medal Winner Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien to my kids last week. 

The story is about a widowed mouse named Mrs. Frisby who must find a way to move her house (a cinder block) from one corner of the garden to a safer one. Her frail, thoughtful son, Timothy, has recently recovered from a bout of pneumonia and will not survive if he is exposed to the cold, early-summer nights.  She seeks help from a colony of elusive rats who harbor a secret that involves her late husband, Jonathon. She learns that the rats have undergone chemical experiments at the National Institute of Mental Health, resulting in their being over a thousand times more intelligent than natural rats.  With the help of Nicodemus, the leader of the NIMH rat colony, she learns the truth about her husband's early life and uncovers a strange, cautionary tale about science and ethical limits. 

The book was everything quality children's literature should be:  funny, interesting, cozy, nerve-wracking, and thought-provoking.  And all of this without being a thinly-veiled Disturbing-Story-For-Grown-Ups told in a Kindergarten-Teacher-Voice.  I hate those kind of books. 

The book is 233 pages with the occasional pen-and-ink illustration.  The target age for the book was 8-12, but I read it to my 6, 7, and 9 year olds, and they were all rapt.  Oh--and if you've seen the movie, don't skip the book.  As usual, the book is densely packed with philosophical discussions and character development that the movie omits.  Also, the movie throws in a bunch of bite-your-knuckle plot twists that don't happen in the book. In the words of my nine-year-old, "How dare they change the plot?  After all Robert's hard work?"  (She and Robert are tight, it would appear).  The biggest offense in her mind?  That the movie changes Mrs. Frisby's name to Mrs. Brisby, and that Jenner is portrayed as a Stone-Cold-Killa, which he isn't in real life.  (Real Life=The Book.  But I don't have to tell you people that).

Q for you:  What other children's books-turned-movies have you read?  Tell me in the comment section, and if you've reviewed any children's books-turned-movies, Mr. Linky-it-up!