Wendy Shang: Recommended Reads of 2011
Thought we were done with our recommended reads columns? Think again!
Today’s recommended reads come courtesy of Wendy Wan-Long Shang, author of “The Great Wall of Lucy Wu,” which Publishers Weekly called “a realistic and amusing portrait of family dynamics, heritage, and the challenge of feeling like an outsider–even in one’s own family.”
Wendy’s response: I like my characters in the real world. People who face life’s difficulties with extraordinary capacities for humor, courage, forgiveness and grace inspire me. Think Tess Hilmo’s “With a Name Like Love” or Kathy Erskine’s “Mockingbird.” Oh, and if I had my way, every high school student in America would read Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken,” the true story of an Olympian turned WWII Japanese prisoner-of-war.
In 2011, though, I put aside my biases and delved into a world a bit more fictitious. I was rewarded with rich, relatable characters, gorgeous writing and unbelievable settings.
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White. If you’re tired of passive girls and their vampire boyfriends, this is the one for you. Evie is sharp, funny, and one heck of an employee for International Paranormal Containment Agency, the agency charged with policing mythological creatures. Because she lives among such extraordinary creatures, Evie can be forgiven for thinking that she’s quite ordinary, possessing only the ability to see through the false appearances – glamours – of cthe reatures she tracks down. However, when a shapeshifter named Lend appears on the scene, along with a rash of strange murders, Evie is challenged to rethink assumptions about herself and the agency she works for. Grades 7-12.
“Liesl and Po” by Lauren Oliver. This book marries the poor-little-child-with-evil-stepmother idea with a marvelous, beckoning mythology about death and magic. Lena lives in the attic, banished there by her stepmother after the death of Lena’s father, and Will is a long-suffering magician’s apprentice in love with a girl he can see from the street. Their lives will intersect with the assistance of Po, a ghost who cannot remember if it was a boy or a girl, a mix-up over boxes, and a journey to return the ashes of Lena’s father to their rightful place. This book is by turns adventurous, sweet, luminous and strange. Grades 3-6.
“Scorpio Races” by Maggie Stiefvater. I couldn’t put this book down, and at the same time, I didn’t want it to end, ever. Kate, who prefers to be called Puck, lives on Thisby, a hard-bitten island whose main source of income is the yearly Scorpio Races, a wild race of men and boys riding capaill uisce, deadly, gorgeous horses that must be captured from the sea. To save their family home, Kate decides to enter the race, in spite of the fact that no woman or girl has ever entered the race and her mount is her beloved Corr, an ordinary horse. Add to that her reluctant but growing attraction to Sean Kendrick, the reigning champion, and you have a coming-of-age story that encircles sacrifice, love and family in a place you won’t soon forget. Grades 7-12.