Grateful Wed

Well, it's Grateful Wed again, and I have a grateful list for you.
I'm grateful for
1. the extra sleep provided by fog delays--for myself and especially for my children
2. my childrens' love of reading
3. a FIRST PLACE win for our Odyssey of the Mind team last week-end
4. an awesome Odyssey of the Mind team
5. the beauty of a foggy morning
Of course, there are many more I could name, but I'm dying to move on to a book review today. I know, it's been WAY TOO LONG. Please don't think I haven't been reading, I just haven't made it to the review phase, but today I'm got a ringer for you.

I just completed PAPER TOWNS by John Green, the man who brought you LOOKING FOR ALASKA and AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES. In PAPER TOWNS, our protag's 'beautiful girl next door' awakens him from his sleep one night and begs him to drive her on an adventure of her choosing. There's nothing cliche about this girl next door or our protagonist who, against his better judgment and fear, accompanies her on a wild night of revenge against enemies of both their choosing.

The next day, she disappears and for the rest of the book, our endearing protag spends searching for Margo Roth Spiegelman with the help of Woody Guthrie, Walt Whitman and the study of cartography. His friends are alternately supportive and annoyed with his obsession, but every scene with them is laugh out loud reading. At one point his band geek friend, Ben, says about the 'cool guy' Jase (who turns out to be not so cool), "By the way, did you notice that Jase says 'bro? I've totally brought bro back. Just with the sheer force of my own awesomeness." His psychiatrist parents provided additional humor while giving me some parenting lessons, "My parents always liked it when I cursed in front of them. I could see the pleasure of it in their faces. It signified that I trusted them, that I was myslef in front of them." I laughed out loud so much while reading in bed that I thought my husband (who was trying to sleep) was going to kill me.

The book is full of one liners you want to write on your hand, but you can't stop reading long enough to do any such thing. I LOVED the way poetry intermingled in the plot and the protag's appreciation of it. This book is a beautiful masterpiece of YA fiction in its language and layered characters. It's structurally unexpected, but somehow totally works. I highly recommend this book to YOU! Again, it's YA, so don't give it to your ten-year-old niece for her birthday, but your 16 year-old nephew will LOVE it.

So Grateful Wed, I am grateful for this fabulous book, PAPER TOWNS, that inspires me to be a better writer.