I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora
My rating: 3/5 cats
…I realize that even though West Glover is not a very big place, there’s an enormous amount of activity going on around me pretty much all the time. There’s Little League games, literary terrorists, crazy families, cancer patients… and that’s just at my house. The thought makes me laugh out loud.
this is a cute MG book about booknerds. i don’t read a lot of MG, but i will when there are booknerds involved, like Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. in that book, the kids are trying to solve a mystery/several mysteries using literature and library skills. in this book, it is the kids themselves creating the mystery using social media, the law of supply and demand, and a love of harper lee.
i never thought i would ever read a book in which “shrinkage” (that’s bookstore-shrinkage, not the other kind) would be a factor in plotting literary terrorism. for those of you who have never been in the trenches:
“Shelving books incorrectly is as good as stealing them. It’s almost worse. Our computers will show that we have a title in stock, but nobody will be able to find it. Not only that, it’s very difficult to convince our corporate headquarters to send us a book if our computer insists that it’s somewhere in the store.” He lowers his voice. “Shelving badly leads to shrinkage.”
“Shrinkage?” I say.
“Loss of profit due to loss of product,” he explains. “Shrinkage is very, very bad.”
and it’s true. now, a superior bookseller develops a robot-sense where they can just glance at their shelves and instantly see what doesn’t belong, what has been left by a customer, what has been hidden, what has been misshelved, but these kids hear “shrinkage,” and ideas begin to grow in their minds.
you see, we have three fourteen year old kids: lucy, elena, and michael who about to enter high school, and who are passionate about reading. frustrated that not enough students are excited by their school’s summer reading list, particularly lucy’s beloved To Kill a Mockingbird, they decide to honor both the book and the memory of their favorite, recently-passed teacher, by hiding all copies of the book in bookstores and libraries, leaving fliers in their place, and starting a website, twitter account, etc, to get the word out that SOMETHING is happening with this book and DON’T YOU WANT TO READ IT TO SEE WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT? which plot takes off like wildfire, in part due to wil wheaton, and in part because this takes place in connecticut, and preventing someone in connecticut from having something they want is one of the most serious crimes in the state, after “using the wrong fork for salad” and “neglecting to buy your daughter a pony.”
and of course, the plot begins to spread well beyond connecticut and transcends their wildest imaginings and as in all good MG books, characters will eventually be given an opportunity to make the difficult decision and prove their… ermm character.
it is a cute little story about the power of literature (and social media) with winning characters that has a little romance and some more serious themes like illness and death. this is a perfect stepping-stone book for young readers who will become john green fans when they are a little older – it isn’t as dark as his books, but it has those smart, articulate kids that make his books so rewarding to young booknerds. (and old booknerds like me)
it also touches on the nobility of the book trade, including the joys and perils of readers’ advisory. when a nine-year-old comes into elena’s uncle mort’s bookstore looking for dog books, they all rally together to give her a stack of appropriate titles, and after she leaves, elena realizes they haven’t given her a copy of tkam
“We forgot to give Ginny one of these.”
“That’s not a dog book,” says Michael.
“There’s a dog in it,” says Elena.
“A dead dog with rabies doesn’t count.”
Elena shrugs. “A sale is a sale.”
“That little girl does not want a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird,” Mort tells us.
“She doesn’t know what she wants,” says Elena. “That’s why she needs us.”
“Yes,” says Mort, “but we must use our power for good.”
“What power?” I ask.
…..“It’s the books that have power,…but a good bookstore will influence what a person chooses to read.”
I think for a moment. “Does it have to be a good bookstore?” I ask
More considers the question. “Probably not,” he finally admits.
and that’s the truth of it – many people don’t know what they are looking for, and a good bookseller or librarian is instrumental in that process – providing the right book to the right reader, not “to make a sale,” but to build a relationship with a reader in order to foster their love of reading and help them understand what they enjoy in order to make more successful reading choices; to influence them in their selections, selflessly. readers’ advisory rocks.
and one quick aside about a tiny little scene i loved: the discard dumpster at the back of this town’s library contains both Fancy Coffins to Make Yourself (which i own and love) and Knitting With Dog Hair: Better A Sweater From A Dog You Know and Love Than From A Sheep You’ll Never Meet (which i do not own, because of lack-of-materials, although i do have the cat companion volume, Crafting with Cat Hair: Cute Handicrafts to Make with Your Cat.) if i could be assured that this part was based on real-world fact, i would be at the back of that dumpster every single day, scoring these treasures.
and also this, which made my clarity-loving heart swell:
Saying what you mean is hard enough, Lucy. Then you go and add seven or twelve or fourteen extra syllables for no good reason. Pretty soon, we’re back to the Tower of Babel.”
as much as i love language and the surprisingly poetic and luminous words that exist in the world, i also love efficiency and simplicity and recognizing the time and place for showcasing those “fancy” words. high-five for sliding that sentence in there, sir!
and i am all ears if anyone knows any more MG booknerd books!
