Always October

Jacob and Lily have been best friends forever. Jacob lives with his mom in his grandfather's old mansion right next to the cemetery, and Lily lives in a home at the cemetery with her grandfather. Both have had losses, and both hang out in the cemetery, which holds a portal to Always October. Lily has lost both her parents, and Jacob's father mysteriously disappeared. His grandfather, an author, also disappeared.<br />One night someone leaves a baby on Jacob's doorstep, and his mom takes the baby in as their own. Unfortunately the baby turns into a wee-green monster on the full moon. The two discover that monsters do exist, and they're the same monsters in Jacob's grandfather's books aptly named always October. <br />The children end up visiting this other world called Always October, where monsters exist in a sort of parallel universe. Adventures await.<br />I read this to my kids, and they enjoyed it. The names were nutty, and it reminded me a lot of the Harry Potter series, but shortened and without any characters with depth. Cute story, but strange descriptions. The monsters had no patterns, and didn't really have and rhyme or reason, basically it felt unorganized and cluttered.

Cute middle grade read, but it didn't really grab me. I liked the alternating viewpoints between a boy and girl who were best friends and not interested in each other romantically. There were hints that it could happen in the future, but that was all you got, hints. <br /><br />I kind of felt sorry for the cat. I would resent having to <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="f0e3a8b5-5e84-4ade-af66-30ea8b3ecfee" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="f0e3a8b5-5e84-4ade-af66-30ea8b3ecfee"> giving up my life to save someone who did something stupid/that they shouldn't have. I'm not referring to the ending, just something that happened about halfway into the book.<br /><br />Lil Dumpling was a cutie and I loved the poet monster. The adults I was rather ambivalent about because...."Harry Potter syndrome" ya'll. That's right, kids are kept in the dark about things because they'll be safer or it's none of their business or they'll find out when they're older. I HATE that.<br /><br />Not a bad book, but not one that kept me turning pages or up past a reasonable sleeping hour at night. <br /><br />It would most likely attract a higher middle reader, since it is larger than Coville's prior works. If you are a fan of his work, this might be up your ally. It just didn't do much for me. </label>

My Review: When Jake decided to check on his new little brother that was left on their doorstep, he was shocked to see that the pajamas that LD was wearing when he went to sleep now laid a creature with bright green fur, pointed ears and a huge mouth full of glistening fangs<br /><br />But Jake didn’t care that his new boy just turned into a monster. Jake and his friend Lily have to do all they can to keep LD safe from other monsters. Great book, if you love adventure you will like Always October. The ending seems to be left open for a second book. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book HarperCollins Publishing in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion in any way.<br /><br />

I really rather wanted to give this book 3.5 stars. I rounded up to 4 because 3 would have been too low. I've read Bruce Coville since I was in the fifth grade, and I've always enjoyed his books. After a long gap during which I graduated from college and finished growing up, I started reading some of his books that I had either missed or had been published in the interim. I was a little apprehensive. A lot of things you really enjoyed as a child, you realize are actually kind of dumb when you revisit them as an adult. But I was surprised and delighted to find myself enjoying his books perhaps even more than I did in my youth. So I started reading this book with high expectations. It's usually not a good idea to have high expectations for anything. You're only opening yourself up to disappointment.<br /><br />The book wasn't bad. It had some elements that I really enjoyed. But it also had some glaring problems that made me question whether Bruce Coville actually wrote this book. Normally he has amazing characters, funny and interesting prose, and a solid plot. Most of the problems were with the plot. I never like it when people do stupid things that go against their character just to add drama to the story. I also don't like it when the beginning of the story let's you know that everything is going to work out okay. It's a first person narrative, so obviously the narrator survived to tell the tale (unless they are now telling the story as a ghost). Also, the reading public pretty well demands a happy ending, and they usually get one, more so in children's books. But this book went a step further and mentioned some things that make it obvious once you get about halfway through the book that all is well and has gone according to plan. When this information is revealed, so is the remaining plot of the rest of the book. The reader is given a road map of everything that is about to happen and what the dangers along the way will be. And since this book would have been rather boring without it, I knew the characters were going to have to make all the dumb mistakes necessary to add drama to the tale despite knowing what the consequences of their actions would be. And to top things off, I think the entire journey was rather unnecessary. It made it less appealing to read when I was thinking about the simple solution that could have solved their main problem. I won't mention the solution in case those who read this review still want to read the book. Perhaps you won't see it and it won't spoil the fun for you, if you can't get past all the other irritations.<br /><br />The biggest problem the book has is apparent from the very beginning. The book has two first person narrators. They switch off chapters supposedly taking turns writing the story down. I've seen this done before by this very same author. His first attempt at it was much more successful. The key to pulling of this trick is that each narrator needs to have his/her own very distinct voice. If this tale is being "written" by two different people, they would likely have their own style of describing things and saying things. In his Sixth Grade Alien series, the two first person narratives were vastly different. One was a normal human boy and the other was an alien. They perceived things and described things so differently that it wasn't hard to tell who "I" was at any given time. Except for the difference between male and female, both narrators in this book are the same age and from the same place. They see the world pretty much the same and use the same narrative voice. Sometimes, it was hard making the transition after each chapter break as to who was telling this part of the story. And they both had grandpas who had major roles in the story, both of whom they called grandpa. That got especially confusing when both grandpas were in the scene and we switched from one narrator to the other.<br /><br />This book had many really good moments. The first half of the book is easily the best half. The problems with the plot really start showing up once they enter the world of Always October, a world that was created by human imagination and human fears. The book is creative and imaginative like all of Bruce Coville's work. While the prose is generally really good, I have a hard time believing this is supposedly being written by two 12-year-olds. I know the characters aren't actually writing the story. Bruce Coville is, but if you're going to have one (or two) of your 12-year-old characters tell the story, then you might want to scale back some of the beautiful writing and rather adult insight. And the book lets you know that they're writing this down about one month after the events occurred, so they're not just remembering back on something that happened when they were young. If that were the case, it wouldn't matter how mature the prose was. This book really called for a third person limited viewpoint.<br /><br />The book was compelling enough in the beginning that I used the momentum I'd gained to carry me through to the end once I started noticing problems. I read it a lot more quickly than I intended to. I was actually going to read this on the side as I read other books, but it grabbed my attention enough that I set those other books down. And I really did care about the characters. Even when they were doing stupid things to get themselves into trouble, I couldn't put the book down until they were back on track and out of immediate danger. The book is definitely open for a sequel. And now that the groundwork has been laid, I can see how the sequel might be a lot better. I don't know if Bruce Coville will write one, however. His writing has slowed down a lot in the last several years. He took forever finishing up the Unicorn Chronicles and wrote little else during that time. I would love to see some more Magic Shop books. Those are among my favorite.

Jake Doolittle is in the 6th grade, he lives with his mom. His dad left them a few years earlier, just like HIS dad had left when he was a kid. Jake's best friend Lily is the granddaughter of the town cemetery caretaker and their favorite hideout and "library" is one of the mausoleums on the cemetery grounds. One day, as they are hanging out in their "library" they hear some weird noises coming from behind it, but when they work up the courage to check, there's nothing there. That's when they notice that there's a huge storm coming and head home so they don't get in trouble for being out in the storm. That night, during the storm, there's a knock at Jake's door and when he goes to answer it, he finds no one there, but a baby in a basket has been left. There's a note too, asking them to care for her baby until she can come back for it. Jake's mom knows that she must help this desperate mother, she decides that they will keep the baby. This works out well for all three of them, because Jake and his mom immediately fall in love with Little Dumpling as they decide to call him, LD for short. LD also loves Jake and his mom and they quickly fall into a pattern of caring for him. One night during a full moon, Jake and LD are home alone while Jake's mom goes to a class, when something strange happens. LD turns into a small monster complete with fur, fangs and pointy ears! Scary!<br /><br />Things get even scarier the next full moon when real monsters come out of the closet. Jake and LD are able to get away from the monster coming out of the closet with the help of another monster, but Jake, LD, Lily and her Grandpa find themselves in "Always October" a place where it's perpetually October, autumn leaves, cool temperatures, and Halloween type monsters. They must keep LD safe, not die themselves, and finish a quest to find the object that will keep LD human in their world, all while escaping from the bad group of monsters that want to use LD to split the two worlds. But will a couple of kids be able to do that, basically on their own?<br /><br />This was a fun book! I loved the adventure of it. This book is written for kids ages 8-12, so it's fairly easy reading for an adult. I liked the story line, it kept me entertained, I liked the characters, I liked the idea that there's a separate place where the monsters do live. The one thing that kind of annoyed me was that there was one thing in the plot that never ended up wrapped up in the ending. I hope that there will be a second book, that tells us more about what happens to Jake, LD and Lily. This is a cute Halloween read for kids 8-12!<br />

“Weird Lily” is a sixth grader. She enjoys hanging out in the cemetery (for which her grandfather is the caretaker) with her friend Jake. Lily and Jake have had a bit of a strange relationship. When they were in second grade, Lily professed to the class that she was going to marry Jake. Jake avoided her like the plague after that, but recently they’ve become good friends. When Jake’s dad up and leaves his family (much like his grandfather did when Jake’s father was about the age Jake is now), the kids at school treat him a little differently and he found a friend in Lily. They spend a lot of their time creeping around the old mausoleum despite Lily’s grandfather’s insistence that they stay away from it.<br /><br />One particularly creepy afternoon, Lily and Jake hear a scratching noise coming from behind one of the mausoleum walls. Later that night, Lily believes she sees a large, lumbering shape escaping the mausoleum, and a few minutes later, Jake and his mother find a baby on their doorstep with a mysterious note asking them to care for the baby until the mother can return.<br /><br />When a full moon hits, Jake discovers that LD (short for “Little Dumpling”) has changed into a blue-haired, fanged monster. If that’s not weird enough, on the next full moon, LD transforms again and Lily, Jake and their families find themselves trapped in an alternate universe known as “Always October”, where it’s — you guessed it — always October. The universe is filled with strange monsters (some good, some bad) and the group must fulfill a quest that will keep LD human. But the bad monsters in Always October have a plan of their own. They want to use LD to bridge the two worlds, and it’s up to Lily and Jake to stop this from happening.<br /><br />This book was a whole lot of fun. I don’t read a lot of middle grade, but when I do, I always find myself transported back to when I was a ten-year-old. It’s nice to reconnect to my younger, more innocent self.<br /><br />This book is filled with magic and light scares that will thrill young readers. Mr. Coville has crafted a mysterious, whacky world perfect for Halloween. The characters are all a lot of fun. I liked both Jake and Lily, but Lily was definitely my fave. I loved her weirdness. The story is told from alternating viewpoints which gives the reader a well-rounded view into the story. My only complaint was that there were a few loose ends that were left open. Of course, that could mean that there will be a sequel, which I would love to read.<br /><br />This is the perfect read for middle graders looking for a light scare this Halloween.

Lily and Jake have been best friends since Jake's father disappeared and he became a little different. Lily understands weird. She lives in a cemetery with her cantankerous grandfather and loves all things dark and creepy. She and Jake have a clubhouse in a mausoleum. <br /><br />One night a baby appears on Jake's doorstep with a pleading note from the mother, asking them to take care of the little guy. He is named Little Dumpling, or LD for short. Jake is babysitting on the night of the full moon and is quite shocked when LD transforms into a cooing, drooling baby monster. <br /><br />Jake and Lily discover that LD is from the world of Always October - a place that is built on the fears of all humans. It is populated with monsters, some nice and some not so nice. LD was whisked away to their world because he is the key to either destroying the worlds, or holding them together. Now Jake, Lily and their new friends must risk everything to save LD. To do that, they must brave the dangers of Always October and get LD back to Humana - their world.<br /><br />I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Coville is brilliant at writing stories that are just the right amount of spooky for children. The narration alternates between Lily and Jake, who are both likable characters. <br /><br />The book was left open for a fun sequel - yay! :)<br /><br />

It was a great book, but now I need a sequel!<br /><br />The story gets to the heart of what I love about fantasy, with the focus on tikkun olam, healing the world. I also appreciate that, unlike many kids' fantasy novels, there are intelligent, competent adults. The children still have to face some challenges on their own, but it isn't because the adults in their lives are completely absent. The relationships between characters are complex, and the novel explores different responses to losing people you care about.

This story is about a boy and a girl who get an unexpected delivery at their door step. This little being would be last one you would want to be responsible for! I loved this book and I would take it everywhere I went. I did get a bit spooked in some parts because I usually read it at night. For anybody who is a horror or monster lover, I guarantee you will love this book!

With a touch of “Monsters, Inc.” and a dash of “Spiderwick Chronicles”, this book is a fun ride into the monster realm. I don’t always like the alternating narrators, but it helped the story and built the suspense in each chapter. Bit of an expository dump in the middle. You’ll forgive it though, as things pick back up in the last third of the book. Great treat for readers at Halloween.<br />