I am currently reading the book Going Bovine, by Libba Bray. This book is in my classroom library and I had never read it before. Since it won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, I had high expectations. Are these being met? Not really, and I'm not sure I understand why the book won this award.
For starters, this book is just bizarre. The summary on the back cover of the book about sums up the absolute strangeness of this story line: "Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel / possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit...with the help of Gonzo, a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf, and a yard gnome who just might be the Viking god Balder,...". Huh. Just a little too far out there for me.
Libba Bray does have a distinct writing style and sense of humor, which carries over into her characters. My favorite character is actually Balder, the yard gnome, who comes to life and is immortal. He gets very angry when people steal him and take pictures of / with him in strange places. When Cameron first meets Balder, Balder tells him, "You and your friends are not to take any unauthorized pictures of me. I do not wish to show up on your Internet page posed in front of any national monuments or next to dubious signage with some obnoxious caption underneath. I've had quite enough of that" (Bray 259). HA. A yard gnome with elevated diction makes me laugh.
Would I recommend this book? Honestly, I'm not sure. There is definitely some "mature" content and language, so that's certainly not for everyone. Here is a book review published in The New York Times that may help you make your own decision.
Have any of you read this? What was your opinion? Do you have any other good recommendations for me to explore this year? Leave them in the comments below!
