What Would You Do If Your Friend Asked You to Help Him Die? God is in the Pancakes Review

“Here’s what I’ve come to realize about perfect happiness: It’s as fragile as the bubbles that form on the top of a pancake.”

This line of prophetic (and delicious!) wisdom comes from 15-year-old Grace Manning who uniquely compares her life to the making of pancakes throughout the novel. Grace is an average teenage girl: her father ran off, she lives with her mother and slightly older twin sister, she has a volunteer job at the local nursing home, she has a crush on her best friend, and she’s not sure what she believes in. What Grace is sure of is her love of volunteering at the nursing home, especially because of Mr. Sands, a sarcastic, intelligent, smart-mouth old man who has become a close friend. What Grace originally doesn’t know about Mr. Sands is that he has Lou Gehrig’s disease and his condition is worsening every day. To Mr. Sands, dignity is everything, and ending up like a potato with no ability to move or act on his thoughts certainly does not fall into that category.

Enter Grace. Mr. Sands asks Grace the one question she was never prepared for: “Grace, I need you to help me die.” No one would suspect young, innocent Grace of playing a part in old, sickly Mr. Sands’ death. The secret question, of which no one knows, stays in the back of Grace’s mind as she goes on her with her life until she finally makes her decision.

God is in the Pancakes by Robin Epstein is a tender and gripping novel about how we come to terms with the decisions we make in life. The pancake motif is creatively and effectively used throughout the novel, adding an extra layer to it. While there is a clear moralistic undertone to the book, Epstein does an unexpectedly great job of objectively addressing these important issues without being preachy.

What would you do?

Anime Tosho-con 2011

RVC Library is proud to announce that we now have a website for this year's Anime Tosho-con, which will be held on July 16, 2011. Last year, Rockville Centre was the first library in Nassau County to host an all day anime convention! Over 100 fans gathered for panels, screenings, candy sushi making, games and cosplay. This year, we hope to have even more people! Check out the website at http://rvcanimetosho-con.webs.com/.

Our two mascots were drawn by Diana (the first one) and Tiffany (the second one).

2011 Printz Award

Congratulations to Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi for winning the 2011 Printz Award! The Michael L. Printz Award is given to one book each year that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. We must have had a good feeling about this book because we picked it months ago for our Buzz Book Club Discussion to take place on Monday, January 24 @ 7pm. You can get a copy at the Circulation Desk and join us for our book club.

The Printz Honor books were awarded to:

Stolen by Lucy Christopher, the story of a sixteen-year-old British girl who is kidnapped and brought to Australia by her captor.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King, a dark comedy in which Vera's dead best friend will not leave her alone.

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick (my personal favorite!) is set in the Arctic Circle and is the chilling tale of a teen named Sig who finds his father's frozen body and then finds an armed stranger at his home demanding stolen gold.

Nothing by Janne Teller, the unsettling story of seventh grader searching for the meaning of life.

Other awards were given yesterday as well. For a complete list click here.

NPR's Best Teen Reads

We love NPR's picks for the best teen reads of '10. In fact, their first selection The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson was voted to be the Mock Printz award winner by the Nassau and Suffolk county librarians this past week. (The real winner of the Printz award will be announced January 10). What we also love is that author Gayle Forman made the book selections and wrote the article for NPR. Gayle is the author of If I Stay, another great YA book. See the best books here.

Bide Your Time and Hold Out Hope--Monte Cristo Book Review

"All human wisdom [is] contained in these words...'wait' and 'hope.'"

These are the words of Edmond Dantes, also known as the Count of Monte Cristo, a man wrongly accused of being a Bonaparte traitor by his shipmates. As a result of this false accusation by Fernand Montego, who later adopted the name Count Morcerf, the man who would marry Dantes' former finacee Mercedes, Gerard de Villefort, the Royal Prosecutor who imprisoned Dantes to save himself, and Baron Danglar, a man who benefited immensely from the ordeal, Dantes was sentenced to life in the highest security jail. During the time he spent there until his elaborate escape only one thought was imprinted on his mind: revenge.

Dantes' revenge is not quick and it's not easy, but Dantes knows that through patience comes reward. By befriending--and saving--the son of the infamous Morcerfs, the Count of Monte Cristo begins to manipulate the lives of everyone involved in the betrayal with his impeccable charm and unrivaled intelligence. This one action of saving Albert Morcerf sets the wheels in motion for Dantes' intricate and meticulously planned revenge--these three men and those closest to them will have their lives changed forever as the persistent ghost from their pasts comes to haunt them (and without their knowledge... until it's too late!).

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is filled with action, adventure, romance, friendship and the ultimate betrayal. The characters, though removed from our present time, are believable even today. Each character has a strong motivation and a reality that they desperately work to preserve; yet each is blinded in some way by this driving motivation.

The original and abridged versions are equally good. This is one classic you don't want to pass up!!

For even more Monte Cristo fun, check out the movie or the sci-fi anime series Gankutusou: Count of Monte Cristo from our library!