Weeks, Sarah. So B. It

And so at last I finish the 2005 ALA best books for young adults. I sincerely hope that those aren't really the best the YA field has to offer in a given year. I expect a little bit more.

So B. It is a case in point. I wouldn't say it's a bad book. It's fine in every respect. But it feels like it was stamped out according to the Standard YA Fiction Template, and it's never revelatory, surprising, vivid, truthful, in the way that I want books to be.

Heidi lives with her extremely mentally challenged mother, who calls herself "So be it"; she can say 23 words, and use an electric can opener, and not much else. The neighbor next door, Bernadette, takes care of them, except that Bernadette's agoraphobic and hasn't set foot outside her apartment in years. Heidi's mother says "soof" and Heidi doesn't know what it means; she finds some old photographs of her mother. Desperate to find clues to her past, Heidi ends up taking a bus across the country to the home for the developmentally disabled where she believes her mother grew up.

This is the Standard YA Fiction Template:
1) Each character has more problems than average.
2) The main character has to reconcile herself to unpleasant things.
3) In the end, the main character learns some things which are supposed to be profound but really kind of aren't.

Points off for magical-realist plot device used for no apparent purpose except to ensure that the main character has sufficient money to get through the plot.

Decent book, but not particularly memorable.

I suppose I should start in on the 2006 BBYA list, but the library only has 3 of those books in so far. I'm really looking forward to Peeps and Twilight (I'm all about the genre fiction. But you knew that). At least I'm making a dent in the extensive to-be-read list...