Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, totally worn out and screaming,
"WOO HOO, what a ride!"

Friday, November 20, 2009

Review: Geektastic edited by Black & Castellucci



Stories from the Nerd Herd




geek \gek\ n : 1. a person often of an intellectual bent who is disapproved of 2. a person who is so passionate about a given subject or subjects as to occasionally cause annoyance among others

geek-tas-tic \gek-tas-tik\ adj : marked by fantastic geek qualities; a compliment of the highest regard

This is a collection of more than two dozen short stories from some of the best-selling and most promising young adult authors such as: M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, John Green, David Levithan, Scott Westerfield and more! There are stories fro every kind of geek, Jedi and Klingon enthusiasts, Science Fair participants, theater buffs, gaming nerds, lunch table status, band geeks, etc.

I never really considered myself much of a geek but I certainly enjoyed these stories. There’s quite a variety and something for everyone. I expect we’re all familiar with the importance of lunch table status. And I bet we can all identify with the illustrations about How to look cool and not drool in front of your favorite author. (#1 is Try not to throw up.)

One of my favorite features is a brief geek biography of each author at the end of their story. Wouldn’t you love to know who waited in line for 6 weeks for Star Wars? And which author met her future husband at a Star Trek convention while another met hers when they were rival Dungeon masters? There are also humorous illustrations from comic book artists Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O’Malley. While this is recommended for ages 12 & up there are some mature themes and words that may not be for the youngest readers.

Thank you to Hatchette Books for a review copy of this book.

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Release date: 8/09

Pages: 416

Price/format: $16.99/hardcover

Type: Children’s fiction

Ages: 12 & up

4 comments:

  1. The book sounds great! I bet there are a lot of kids out there who could take comfort from the geek biographies.

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  2. I am a definite geek and have been just about forever. My oldest son is definitely geek material too (breaks my heart because I know how hard adolescence is as a geek) so I think this book might be good for both of us to read to gain a little levity (and to reconfirm that geeks go on to grow up into wonderful people like the authors of the stories here).

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  3. This looks like so much fun! Geeks rule. :-)

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