Sunday's News and Reviews

Nicolette Jones disagrees with Amanda Craig's reading of The Road of Bones (by Anne Fine) at the Times. The Road of Bones is the Times "Children's Book of the Week." Jones says of Fine's new novel, "evidently based on the Soviet Union under Stalin, although it never names either the leader or the regime":

• "The shocking ending shows how tyranny is born, and that nothing is learnt from brutality except how to be brutal. This book is subtle, stimulating and morally complex, but it is also evocative and convincing: we feel keenly the chill of both soulless hegemony and its frozen wastes. "

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Donna Novak covers how one librarian want to add some cool factor to her library for teens (The Boston Globe).

• Gaye Kulvete follows the lead of a Michigan librarian (Bill Harmer), who organized a 35-stop library tour for the bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre Band and The High Strung. Kulvete hired the bands for her library in MA, The Groton Public Library .

The question is, then, do teens go into the library after the concerts?

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Chris d'Lacey's Icefire is the Washington Post "Book of the Week."

I saw this one in the bookstore yesterday, and thought I should pick it up. You see, my five year old's favorite book is Cornelia Funke's Dragonrider. He still can't read, but I've read it to him and he's listened to the audio book too many times to count. Icefire ("This magical tale involves a powerful clay dragon that belongs to a boy named David. Add some mystical polar bears, and you've got a dragon story unlike any you have ever read") sounds perfect!