I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS-Holidayland (2001).

This was one of the first Christmas albums I bought, and i would have bought it regardless because it is They Might Be Giants.  As far as Christmas records goes, it’s pretty short: 5 songs in 11 minutes.

“Santa Claus” has a funky bass line and a snotty attitude. There’s loud guitars, a honking horn and plenty of NOTHING!  “Santa’s Beard” is an old super fun song, classic TMBG.
“Feast of Lights” is a simple song on toy piano and real piano, a Hanukkah-based kinda sad song with a bit of hope in the end.  “Careless Santa” is an upbeat song about Santa spoiling Christmas for him (cops are involved!). It has some loopy synth sounds and wild drumming at the end.

“O Tannenbaum” The only traditional song, this is a slow version.  It opens with horns in the vocal melody for the first minute and then John F’ sings in German for the final minute.

I’ve always enjoyed this admittedly slight holiday record.

[READ: December 18, 2014] Anya’s Ghost

Sarah was surprised to see that I’d brought this home because she read it for her YA contest this year.  She also liked it quite a lot.

Brosgol wrote and drew the book and I love her illustration style.  It is simple but very effective.  She draws a normal looking girl quite effectively (and the embarrassing underwear shot is quite funny).  But she also knows how to draw the skinny, “hot” girl and make her look sweet as well.  And lets not forget how well she conveys the ghost in the story, too.

Anya is in a private high school (which her mother can barely afford).  Anya’s family moved to America (from Russia) when she was little.  She learned to speak English and does not have an accent.  But she is nervous about being seen as a FOB (fresh off the boat).  And as such she avoids Dima, a new to America Russian boy who studies hard and is a real dork (and suffers accordingly).

As the book opens, Anya’s mother is making Сырники (Syrniki–fried quark (a dairy product) pancakes, garnished with sour cream, jam, honey, or apple sauce–YUM!).  But Anya is upset that she’s making yet another fattening food.  Now that she’s in America she’s not interested in her mother’s claims that “in Russia being fat meant you were a rich man.”

She takes a bag but throws it out on her way to school (travesty).  Then she meets her (only) friend Siobhan.  Siobhan is kind of bitter and a little nasty (but funny).  She is drawn very angrily though–she’s the one character I don’t like the look of.  When Anya doesn’t let Siobhan bum a cigarette, Siobhan gets mad and stomps off.  Anya goes off in the other direction and…falls into a hole.

At the bottom of this hole is a skeleton and, as the title lets you know there is a ghost attached to it.  The ghost is of a small girl She is not permitted to leave the hole because she has to stay fairly close to her skeleton.  Anya is freaked out (understandably) and starts screaming.  But no one is around.  She has no idea how long she’ll be there (who is sad she threw out her Сырники now?).

The ghost starts talking to her–she’s very friendly and tells of how she was chased and fell into this hole and died of dehydration (ack).  Anya isn’t really interested.  She just wants out.  She has some snacks that she packed and tries to make the best of it.

Soon enough a guy walks past and Anya is rescued (no idea how long she was lost but no one seemed concerned about her being missing).

When Anya returns to school a few days later (she sprained her wrist), she discovers that the ghost has tagged along (somehow the skeleton’s finger wound up in her bag which means the ghost stays with her).

Anya is understandably freaked and starts yelling at the ghost–to the surprise of everyone wondering what the hell she’s doing.  But she soon learns that the ghost can do some pretty useful things–cheat on her tests for her and, more importantly, help her to talk to the guy she has a major crush on–Sean the star basketball player.  Sean is dating Elizabeth, a super pretty but irritatingly super nice girl (she is very nice to Anya).  Sean is also nice to Anya and this gives her hope..

Eventually Anya starts really communicating with the ghost.  She learns that her name was Emily and that she was in a love.  But that a stranger killed her family and her love and then chased her through the woods until she fell in the hole. Anya vows to avenge her murder and Emily vows to secure her true love.

Emily gets Anya to ask Sean for a ride to a party.  But at the party, she sees a side of Sean (and Elizabeth) that she doesn’t really like.  She decides to not be involve with them.  But when Emily realized that Anya is not pursuing him any more, she gets really mad at Anya,  And, strangely, she starts changing physically, too.  Just what is going on with this ghost.  And why does she suddenly not want Anya to solve her murder?

This story was really great.  I especially liked how useful Dima proved to be and that the bond of friendship proved stronger than any fickle feelings could.  There could possibly have been some better resolution to the subplots but overall, I enjoyed this book very much.  It’s another success from First Second books.