Do Not Open This Book (Michaela Muntean)

Do Not Open This Book
Michaela Muntean, illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre
Scholastic Press
Fiction, YA Picture Book
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Wait! Stop! Don't open this book - it hasn't even been written yet! A writer struggles to finish the story while a persistent reader insists on turning the pages.

REVIEW: Another quick read during a slowdown at work, I found this one amusing. The would-be writer struggles to come up with an idea (with a number of how-to-write books lying in the background) and put words in order, but every time the page turns something gets messed up. Eventually, the writer must learn to cooperate with the stubborn reader, in the process discovering that, without readers, a story wouldn't exist. The pictures are simple and fun.

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What Do You Do With an Idea (Kobi Yamada)

What Do You With an Idea?
Kobi Yamada, illustrations by Mae Besom
Compendium Inc
Fiction, YA Picture Book
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: A child discovers an idea. Where did it come from? What to do with it? And what will it become?

REVIEW: Another read during down time at work, this is a great title for anyone, young and old, who finds themselves both delighted and bedeviled by ideas. From surprise to bewilderment, from fear to pride, the nameless child learns how to nurture an idea that nobody else seems to understand. The odd concept is interestingly and imaginatively illustrated by Besom, flowing pictures full of hidden meanings that reveal something new each time you look at them. A fun and inspiring book!

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Imagine a Night (Robert Gonsalvez) - My Review
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The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (Dan Santat)

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
Dan Santat
Little, Brown Books
Fiction, YA Picture Book
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: After waiting and waiting for his human child to claim him from the island of imaginary friends, Beekle decides to take matters into his own hands. He sets sail for the real world. But finding his child isn't easy in such a strange place...

REVIEW: We had more down time at work, so I scrounged this one up while looking for something to read. A story about friendship, imagination, and courage, it features colorful artwork with some crazy creature designs; each imaginary friend is a unique creation. Beekle finds himself understandably confused by the real world, where only grown-ups get to eat cake and everyone needs naps. I gave it an extra half-star for overall imagination.

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Carmilla (Joseph Sheridan le Fanu)

Carmilla
Joseph Sheridan le Fanu
Open Roads Media
Fiction, Fantasy/Horror
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Living alone with her father and servants at a castle deep in the Styrian hinterlands, a young English woman longs for company. As if delivered by Providence, a girl just about her age literally tumbles into their lives, thrown from a runaway carriage. Deemed too sickly to continue her journey, the girl's mother leaves Carmilla in the castle's care, promising to return for her in three months. There's something both charming and inscrutable about the frail young lady and the way she constantly evades questions about her origins... not to mention her peculiar bond, bordering on obsession, with the castle girl. Soon, a strange plague darkens the countryside, peasant girls falling deathly ill after ghostly encounters - sicknesses recalling the long tradition of the vampire. Is Carmilla another victim, or something more sinister?

REVIEW: Originally published in 1871, this short tale of obsession and horror is considered a major influence on Bram Stoker's later, yet far more famous, novel, Dracula. Carmilla, too, is both charming and terrifying by turns, a monster who toys with her victims in a most diabolical manner. She also displays the traditional vampiric sex appeal, this time directed toward her own gender (which I'm sure raised some turn-of-the-century eyebrows, and may explain why it remains relatively obscure today while Dracula can't get rewritten, revisited, or re-filmed enough.) The story establishes a suitably Gothic atmosphere, and though it drags now and again, I couldn't help thinking Bram Stoker drug things out worse. The wrap-up feels a little anti-climactic and rushed, costing it a full fourth star. Otherwise, this is a nicely chilling exploration of vampire lore.

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Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury) - My Review
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Time Travel Dinosaur (Matt Youngmark)

Time Travel Dinosaur
(A Chooseomatic book, Book 3)
Matt Youngmark
Atherton Haight
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***** (Great)

DESCRIPTION: In the movies, time travel's chock full of awesome adventures, fun futuristic gizmos, amazing (or cheesy) special effects, and hot encounters with denizens of the past or future. In reality, it's a mind-numbing job that pays eleven bucks an hour, and you don't even get to take your own body. The timestream, apparently, can't actually be altered or broken in Bakulan time travel theory, so mostly you peek in on madmen (or madwomen) meddling with formulas they have no business meddling with. Boring, but it pays better than flipping burgers... even if you sometimes get stuck in a dog's body.
Then the insane professor you're watching via his Labrador Retriever, Betsy, gets murdered by his own doppelganger, and everything goes to heck.
Somehow, despite all known laws of quantum mechanics, someone's actually fractured the space-time continuum. A madman has set up camp in the Cretaceous Era, building a nefarious tower for who-knows-what reason (though, knowing madmen, it's bound to be bad.) Futuristic tech infiltrates 1880's Chicago, leading to the rise of a Steampunk Mafia. A cult worships a peculiar manifestation of the self-aware Universe from a moon base. Interdimensional time goblins threaten to destroy everything, everywhere, and everywhen. And that's just for starters.
You're about to embark on a time travel adventure like no other, filled with more thrills, danger, and outright absurdity than you can possibly imagine. Just remember your true mission, as you're zipping through time rifts and beating up alternate versions of yourself: to preserve the one true space-time continuum, the one where people evolved from dinosaurs.
Maybe that job at the burger joint wouldn't have been so bad, after all...

REVIEW: I picked this up on a whim at a sci-fi convention. Time travel? Dinosaurs? An homage to the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series, with 76 possible outcomes? Sold!
I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, given the title and premise, but this book quickly exceeded it. Not only is it a treat to read, frequently and gleefully breaking the fourth wall to talk to the reader, but all the choice-paths ultimately fit together. In one, you might encounter a man who evolved from a Labrador, or a T-Rex robot. In other paths, you learn where each came from. Items that turn up missing in one adventure are found in another. And, of course, there are many ways to get yourself killed... some more embarrassing than others. It's been a long time since I read a book that made me laugh out loud, and this one pulled it off more than once. It's also been a long time since I read a book that just plain had this much fun with itself, and with the reader. With so many choice-paths, it can be reread numerous times before exhausting all possibilities... and I confess that, as I write this, I'm still not sure I hit them all, despite a small forest worth of bookmarks and over a week of trying. The illustrations, by the author, add a nice extra touch of whimsy. Add in a hint of nostalgia, as someone who was practically raised on the old CYOA books, and this one rockets to the top of the ratings. If the rest of the Chooseomatic books are anywhere near this enjoyable, I'll have to track them down as soon as possible... or as soon as my budget allows. If not sooner.

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The Abominable Snowman/Journey Under the Sea/Space and Beyond/The Lost Jewels of Nabooti (Choose Your Own Adventure 1-4)- Amazon book link