Justice by Jim Krueger Art by Alex Ross and Doug Braithwaite YP FIC KRUEGER

The bad guys have won.  In one fell swoop the world’s most powerful heroes, the Justice League has been picked apart by their most powerful enemies and led by the super-computer Braniac.  He’s used all the forces of evil in the DC universe in a all out attack to rule the world.  Now the fractured and beaten League has to regroup, fight their own brainwashed friends and family, and stop the most dangerous plot they have ever faced.

This is a near perfect super hero comic.  It has loads of action, suspense, wall to wall superheroes and villains and the gorgeous painted art of Alex Ross.  Alex Ross’s lifelike superhero comics always look beautiful, but I’ve found that his action scenes are usually kind of stiff and lifeless.  However, Justice has brilliant action scenes, because they turned the penciling over to Doug Braithwaite.  Together, they have drawn some of the best super hero art I have ever seen.  This book starts with the heroes being picked off one by one and remaining the underdogs for the rest of the adventure.  This keeps things exciting and fresh and the suspense high.   

Best yet, the book is completely understandable to comics laypeople.  It is FILLED with characters that hardcore DC fans will go gaga over, but they are used in a way that doesn’t alienate readers that don’t know the entire history of the DC universe.  This is especially useful, because the book is set in the 70s and while that makes for some pretty awesome fashions, most people don’t have an encyclopedic memory of the 1970s DC canon.  You won’t learn great truths, there isn’t any soul searching or angst, none of the heroes or villains are metaphors for War it’s just a great good vs. evil tale!

Have you read a banned book lately? Most likely yes.

You may have already seen our Banned Books Week display in the library. It's hard to miss, what with the crime scene tape and the (book) body outlines on the floor. The display was put together by a couple intrepid teen patrons of ours along with Young Adult Librarian Luke. The week, which from runs this year Sept. 24 to Oct. 1, challenges censorship by celebrating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

If your memory's hazy about what the First Amendment says, exactly, here's a reminder:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The First Amendment also speaks to intellectual freedom: "the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular." Banned Books Week is devoted to precisely that idea of freedom of choice. The annual event started in 1982 in reaction to a deluge of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. The American Library Association (ALA) explains that a challenge is when a person or group tries to restrict or remove access to materials. A ban is when a challenge is successful, and the material is actually removed from the shelves.

There were at least 348 books challenged in schools and libraries in 2010, but the ALA thinks that figure's low, and that an estimated 70 to 80 percent of book challenges are most likely never reported. For the record, the library association has logged more than 11,000 book challenges since 1982.

Geographically, here's a look at where book challenges happened between 2007 and 2011:

View Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2011 in a larger map

That's right, book challenges happen everywhere. In fact, odds are, you've probably already read a challenged book. They're often popular titles or classics you have to read for school. Here's a list of the most frequently challenged books in 2010 along with their call numbers here at Moore Memorial Public Library:

And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
E RICHARDS

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sex education, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group
YP FIC ALEXIE and the bookbook YP AD FIC ALEXIE

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit
FIC HUXLEY

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit
YP FIC HOPKINS and the audiobook YP AD FIC HOPKINS

The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group
YP FIC COLLINS

Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group
YP FIC FRIEND

What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
YP FIC SONES

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint
305.569 EHRENREI and the audiobook AD 305.569 EHRENREI

Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit
(The library doesn't have this one.)

Twilight (series), by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unsuited to age group
YP FIC MEYER, the audiobook YP AD FIC MEYER and the movie DVD T

Source: BannedBooksWeek.org

So what are you waiting for? Go out and exercise your First Amendment rights — check out these books today!

Back to school by the numbers

Here's an interesting infographic on some back-to-school statistics from High-Schools.com:

The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines YP FIC HAINES

Iris Anderson is learning to lie.  It’s 1942 and her mother has committed suicide, her father lost a leg at Pearl Harbor, and they have to move to a poor area of the lower East side of New York just to make ends meet.  Pop can’t keep up with his job anymore but forbids Iris form helping, but when a case involves someone at Iris’s new school she decides to break it herself.  That means lying to all her friends, navigating the wrong crowds, anc uncovering secrets that will hit way too close to home.

Iris Anderson may just be my second favorite breakout character of the year! She is smart, funny, daring, loyal, and in waaaay over her head.  She’s an above average teenage girl in her drive, ambition, pluck, and determination, but a realistic teen girl in her limitations, short sightedness, and occasional naivete. the real breakout star of the book is 1940s New York City.  The author has recreated the sensation of living in the bustling city and filling it with life.  However, she doesn’t sugar coat or white wash the class and race issues of the time period and actually ahs Iris face them head on.  I respect when historical fiction deal with the glamour and the grime of history, otherwise they are betraying the truth and people that suffered injustice. The mystery is sometimes slow to build, but with a wonderful main character and fascinating setting it’s still a great journey.  Best of all, this is the first young adult mystery (historical or otherwise) that had an ending that actually surprised me!  The ending does leave a few loose ends for Iris and I hope she gets to tackle them in a sequel. Fans of historical fiction, mysteries, historical mysteries, or just good stories and great character and settings should grab this one. 

Nickel Plated by Arc Davis YP FIC DAVIS

Nickel lives life like a coin flip.  At 12 he is a survivor of horrid abuse and a runaway.  He lives by drug dealing, blackmailing online predators, and working as a private detective (but the first two are really to pay for the PI gig).  He takes on a case of a missing sister of a pretty girl named Arrow.  When he starts investigating the safe suburban streets she lived on he finds dark secrets hidden there and grown men more than willing to kill a 12 year old private eye to keep them.

Finally! A young adult noir that is actually true to noir.  Too many pretenders have come and gone copying the dialogue style of noir but forgetting how to put the hard in hard boiled. Nickel Plated is a dark edgy book that doesn’t flinch from showing that sometimes the most horrible things happen to the most vulnerable people: kids.  Nickel survived all that and learned how to navigate a world of crime to achieve a higher justice.  He is an original anti-hero that needs a series of his own. He isn’t just a street smart gumshoe that noir has had far too many of, he has a genuine warmth and heart that comes from never wanting to see anyone else hurt the way he was.  Besides having my favorite breakout new character of the year, the plot is fast paced and suspenseful, the characters appropriately scummy and menacing, and the dialogue is fresh and snappy without ever seeming like a send up of classic noir.  This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea due to the violence, criminality, and a good deal of darkness, but I think readers should give it a chance. 

Illegal by Bettina Restrepo YP FIC RESTREPO

She was promised they would be together for her quinceañera, but her father stopped sending letters and money months ago.  Nora sets out with her mother to find him by taking a dangerous trek across the border and trying to live on the streets of Houston. Nora struggles to get by and not get caught while trying to make a new life.

This is a incredibly well written book on most every front.  The story is told from Nora’s viewpoint and I immediately believed her as a real person and was invested in her journey.  This can put a face for readers that only read about the debate over immigration without knowing anyone involved.  The chapters are short and seem to be stripped entirely of excess, so that only the most affecting moments are conveyed. I loved how accurate the setting of Houston’s immigrant community was.  The only complaint I have is that Restrepo makes Nora’s journey sort of sanitized.  In crafting a tale that younger teens could enjoy it seems like she may have self censored.  Nora has a great deal of hardship yes, but the book avoids showing many of the worst horrors that often face women crossing into America illegally.  It does allude to them, but by not tackling those head one it almost felt as if Restrepo sugarcoats the reality to reach a larger audience.  However, for what it is and does try to achieve it is very successful.  Anyone that enjoys realistic fiction should give Illegal a chance.

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore YP FIC CLEMENTM

Amy Goodnight is the normal one in a most abnormal family.  And not even normally abnormal, witches with special powers abnormal. She stays away form magic as best she can by ranch sitting at her Aunt’s West Texas ranch.  she thinks her biggest problem is the incredibly annoying and annoyingly attractive cowboy, Ben, but  bodies start turning up near the ranch and a persistent ghost convinces her to solve the crimes she steps in the middle of the worlds of magic and murder.

This is a nice mix of spookiness with a light touch.  Our heroine isn’t a waifish lost soul with a tortured past and is actually quite witty and relatable.  Even better is the VERY tired cowboy romance actually works quite well hear due to Clement-Moore having a great ear for witty dialogue.  I actually found myself rooting for this couple (something that almost never happens for me in a paranormal romance). I love that the author invests as much effort in accurately capturing ranch life as well as telling a unique and often quite spooky ghost story.  It makes for s surprising good mash-up.  Texas Gothic has enough humor, creepiness, romance, and interesting characters to please almost any paranormal romance fans and may make some new ones.