Librarian's Pick of the Week: Going Bovine

Title: Going Bovine
Author: Libba Bray
Published: 2009
Age: 12+

This book was the 2010 winner of The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. This is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association. The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association.For more information about this non-fiction award and other book awards, visit the ALA website.

 Synopsis: "Can Cameron find what he's looking for? All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school - and life in general - with a minimum of effort. It's not a lot to ask. But that's before he's given some bad news: he's sick and he's going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure - if he's willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most."

Review: "It sucks to be Cameron. He has no idea why he sees things that no one else sees or why, at the most inappropriate times, his hands shake uncontrollably. Then the results of his MRI come back. Cameron has a rare case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob (mad cow) disease. Sent on a quest by the angel Dulcie, he and his dwarf roommate break out of the hospital to save the world from dark energy and Dr. X. Why It Is for Us: When fate deals you a one-in-five-billion blow, do you go out living or dying? You are advised to keep a Cliff's Notes edition of Don Quixote handy as you read-though instead of windmills, Cameron tilts at Disney's Tomorrowland. Bray has not written a teen problem novel about mad cow disease. She swims in deeper water, defending the importance of friendship, family, and life purpose in the face of mediocrity." - Library Journal Review


If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!