Something New: Review in Two: Headlong

Just a short three posts ago, before setting aside the computer for a few days to celebrate Christmas, I plotted out my reading list, in which I planned to dedicate my free time to the likely contenders for the Printz award. In my mad dash to checkout books as I left the library for a two-week hiatus, however, I decided that it might do me some good to read Kath Koja's Headlong, the book that inspired the New Yorker Article that offended me so dearly in its characterization of YA. It was not on my "to-read" list, but I felt it deserved a read nonetheless. Also, quite frankly, I was beginning to OD on the science fiction and fantasy that fills the list.

Noticing that all blogs worth anything seem to have recurring features, I thought it might be a good idea to start something like that on this blog, the benefit coming to me in the form of having something to fall back on when I lack creative inspiration/material and to you in the form of something to look forward to with semi-regularity.

And so, I bring to you Review in Two. The premise is simple: a two sentence book review in which the first sentence is typically dedicated to a plot summary and the second sentence to evaluation and assessment of the work. It's a first attempt, so judge not, lest ye be judged, and look forward to more/better in the future.

Headlong by Kathe Koja
Lily searches for something more to life at her elite high school, boarding for the first time and befriending the non-conformist new girl. Uniquely complex dialogue and narrative structure and mature content make this a choice for the uniquely complex and searching high schooler.

If I Could Turn Back Time

Ever since I met a cute boarding school boy on my trip to Paris the summer after my junior year in high school I wished that I could have gone to boarding school. I'd have settled for a private school where I could wear a plaid skirt and knee highs every day. Instead I went to public school and played field hockey. In college I visited the Lawrenceville School on a trip for a Sociology class and decided that I'd live out my dream by becoming a teacher/housemistress. Instead I became a librarian and read books set at boarding school.

With their high school dorms, secret societies, general hijinx, and amount of living that goes on without adults to interrupt or interfere, it just seems like the coolest place for a teenager. To this day, whenever I read a book or watch a movie where the characters attend boarding school - Dead Poet's Society, Outside Providence, Rushmore, School Ties, Harry Potter, Looking for Alaska, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - it brings me back to that longing.

Or maybe I'm just really loving The Disreputable History for the witty, intelligent writing style that brings the reader lines like "So when Matthew wore that shirt, it was like he was still Clark Kent, only Clark Kent wearing the Superman insignia, which was very meta. And hot."

Yeah, it's that.

And the boarding school thing.