Ms. Yingling Reads

Popular Clone

2012-03-06T05:00:00.001-05:00

Castle, M.E. Popular Clone.
Fisher Bas ia a Geek Extraordinaire. His parents are both well-regarded scientists, and his mother is working on a supersecret growth hormone project. Fisher doesn't have much success at school and is mercilessly bullied by boys he refers to as "the Vikings". This only person who makes his life bearable is his science teacher, Mr. Granger, who saves him and feeds him lunch. Fisher's pet pig is his solace at home, since his parents are always working. Things improve when Fisher manages, after a series of experiments, to clone himself. He sends Two to school, but Two is not the rule follower that Fisher is, and starts to have a small modicum of popularity. Two is also really smart and more daring than Fisher. When Fisher's mother's project is endangered by the evil Dr. X, Fisher must find a way to save her withouth revealing that he made a clone. A rolicking romp, which includes a ninja suit for the pig, ensues, and a sequel may well be in the offing.
Strengths: This humorous tale also has a lot of action, and some nerd empowerment.
Weaknesses: While students like this kind of book, they drive me crazy. Again with the bullies putting people in toilets! The cloning makes this science fiction, but it still strains my credulity. I was also really bothered by the adult who betrayed Fisher. Still, will chant to self "Students will like. Students will like."

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

2012-03-04T10:00:00.011-05:00

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday was started by Shannon Whitney Messenger over at Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe. Head on over there TODAY to see a list of Middle Grade Reviews by a variety of awesome bloggers .

Jill at The O.W.L has a March of Middle Grade Books going on ALL MONTH!

O’Connor, Barbara. The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester.Owen doesn’t like living with his ill grandfather, his pushy housekeeper, and his out-of-work father in rural Georgia, but there are some advantages. There’s lots to do outside, and he has finally captured an enormous frog, whom he has named Tooley. He and his friend Travis, along with bossy neighbor Viola, build a large cage for Tooley, but the frog still does not look happy. Another summer project is locating a box that fell off a train, which turns out to contain a miniature submarine! It’s not easy to get the sub to the pond, but with Viola and Travis’ help, the children manage to get it there, read the instructions, and take it for a spin around the pond before being discovered. Owen realizes that Viola is right, and his frog would be happier in the wild, and that perhaps catching him accomplished what Owen really needed.

Strengths: This reminded me of things like Homer Price and Henry Reed-- a group of well-meaning kids getting into a little bit of trouble while having adventures. Fast-paced and written in an engaging way, this was a pleasantly quick read.
Weaknesses: A bit too young for my students. Hard to explain, but Owen concerns were really close to home, and middle school concerns encompass a little more.

This begs to be displayed with Silberberg's Pond Scum and Barry's Science Fair, doesn't it?

Nonfiction Monday-- The Philippines

2012-03-04T10:00:00.004-05:00

Nonfiction Monday was started by Anastasia Suen and is hosted this week at 100 Scope Notes. Make sure you hop over there to check out all of the links to nonfiction reviews!

Surly Teen Boy was accepted by Rotary International to be an exchange student and will spend the 2012-2013 school year in the Philippines! He is very excited and has been working on his Rotary research papers, so we've had several books about that country around. He also walked up to Half Price books one day and came home with a book on how to speak Tagalog. All on his own! That is, of course, a big part of what the year is about.

Sheen, Barbara. Foods of the Philippines.
Thomson Gale 2006
Surly Teen Boy is not much interested in food. He subsists mainly on peanut butter sandwiches and eight bananas a day, plus as many chocolate chip cookies as I can make. This book was very helpful in not only explaining what foods are commonly eaten in the Philippines, but in giving recipes that are adapted to cooking in the US. Luckily, STB will eat rice, so he may not starve while he is gone. His mission is to find out whether people actually eat something called "halo halo", which blends ice, macadamia nuts, sweet potato, coconut milk, and many other things into a kind of ice cream dessert. We did try a recipe for chicken adobo, which included, among other things 3/4 C of vinegar and 1/4 C or soy sauce. The fumes! STB bravely ingested a fair amount.

Tope, Lily Rose R. and Detch P. Nonan-Mercado. Cultures of the World: Philippines. Benchmark Books, 1990, 2002
I have weeded out most of my country books, because they become outdated so quickly. The other day, I had a girl whose family is from Ghana come looking for a book to show to a friend about that country. The one I had was from the early 1990s, and the girl said that Ghana didn't look anything like that. This title from the public library is also probably dated. I have an entire set of Gareth Stevens Festivals of the World books from the early 2000s that are probably not really accurate.

Philosophical Rant:

What is the answer to providing information about countries? For statistical data, of course, I tell students to check out the CIA World Factbook. But what about cultures, traditions, and pictures of the landscape? How many books do we need, and when do they become dated? I keep one about Greece from 1985 because it has a picture of the store in the Plaka where I brought my briefcase. It's so hard to tell if the information in these books has ever been accurate. Guess I'll just have to go visit all the countries!

Sunday Baking

2012-03-04T05:48:00.006-05:00

Every weekend I make about three batches of cookies to keep up with the demands of four teenagers who aren't particularly fond of food in general. Chocolate chip and peanut butter are essential (although in Iceland peanut butter is not as big a thing as it is here.), and there's usually another kind as well; this week it was cookie candy, but it's often oatmeal or Snickerdoodles. When an order from the library contained both of these titles, I knew they had to be reviewed together!

Stone, Phoebe. The Boy on Cinnamon Street.
Louise is living with her free spirited grandparents, but she’s not happy. She would rather be in her house on Cinnamon Street with her mother, but her mother has passed away, and her father is living in the city with a new family. She has given up on gymnastics, at which she was a star, and most of her old friends. When she gets a note from a secret admirer, she starts to connect more with some new friends, including Benny, whom she thinks is writing the notes, and Henderson, who is just a good, supportive friend. Joined by Reni, whose family is very supportive of Louise (who decides early on to call herself Thumbelina, since she is very small and no longer feels like Louise), she makes plans for the school dance, tries to figure out which boy likes her, and tries to come to terms with the awful incident in the past that changed her life.

Strengths: This is a quick, enjoyable middle school read by the author of The Romeo and Juliet Code. (But this cover reinforces my belief that the cover of that book was anachronistic!)
Weaknesses: A lot of cultural references doom this one to being dated (note to authors, do not mention Justin Bieber!). While it is clear that the author wrote this one trying to come to terms with her own similar experience, it’s too sad for readers who want a happy romance, which is what the cover makes it look like.

Weeks, Sarah. Pie.

Alice’s Aunt Polly is the very best pie maker in her small town, and has even won multiple Blueberry Awards from her pies, but she gives them away instead of making a huge amount of money. She is very supportive of Alice, so when she dies suddenly, Alice is crushed. The people of the town react in their own ways at the loss, many of them trying (and failing) to bake similar

pies. Alice’s mother is bitter that Polly had such a loyal following and such talent, and when it turns out that the only thing Polly left Alice was her cat Lardo, and she left Lardo the recipe for her pies, the mother is downright angry. When someone kidnaps Lardo, Alice and her friend Charlie try to figure out who is after the recipe.

Strengths: I adore Weeks’ Regular Guy series, and So B. It is one of the few quirky stories that I like. She is a great story teller, and even though I didn’t want to read about pie making in the 1950s, I found myself really enjoying the story. It is also mercifully free of weird names and situations that many authors would have included. (With the exception of the whole Blueberry Award thing, which was an obvious nod to the Newbery. And I can forgive that.)

Weaknesses: I didn’t care for the epilogue, but then I never do, and I wonder if children will find this interesting.Weeks, Sarah. Pie.

The Moon Over High Street

2012-03-03T05:11:00.003-05:00

Babbitt, Natalie. The Moon Over High Street.
In the 1960s, orphaned Joe is living with his grandmother. She is determined to keep him in contact with the rest of his meager family, so intends to go visit "Aunt" Myra for the summer, but falls and breaks her hip. Joe goes alone, and finds himself quite at home in Midville. He likes Myra and is comfortable with her, and especially likes the girl next door, Beatrice, with whom he explores the town. After Beatrice's dog runs off, they run into the rich Mr. Boulderwall at his home on High Street, and he is so impressed with Joe that he eventually decides to adopt him so that he can leave his business (which makes the swervit, a device indispensable on cars) to someone who will run it the way he does. Joe, however, would rather be a scientist studying the moon and not a businessman. Should he choose his pleasant but challenging life with his family, or the life of private schools and financial security? That is the choice... the moon, or High Street.
Strengths: This is a pleasant tale about family and opportunity by a well-regarded author. It is also set in Ohio.
Weaknesses: Very little happens in this book, and I fear that middle school students will not connect with Joe, since many of them would probably go for the easy life offered by Mr. Boulderwall. This struck me as a book teachers would like more than students.

Sad News

2012-03-02T11:54:00.008-05:00

Jan Berenstain, coauthor of The Berenstain Bears books, passed away this week. (Read the Washington Post obituary.) Stan Berenstain died in 2005. Their son, Mike, continues to work in the franchise.

The very first book that I read all by myself, in July of 1970, was The Bears' Picnic. I can remember sitting in the picture window of our split level house in Kent, Ohio, very early in the morning on a sunny summer morning. My mother, an elementary school teacher, must have taught me some of the basics, but I vividly remember that all of the words in the book made sense. And they made a story.

We had other Berenstain Bear books, and I Can Read books. My parents apparently loved joining book clubs where they mailed two books every month; we also had the Childcraft Annual books and Cricket Magazine. (This might explain why I have no memory of going to the public library or a bookstore!)

Oddly, I kept this news to myself. I didn't tell my kindergarten teacher in the fall, and when I came home from first day of FIRST grade with the exciting news that I had read the entire short basal reader On Our Way, my mother wrote it down in my baby book.
No wonder I was such a good reader in elementary school. I had a year more practice than anyone knew! In second grade, we had individualized reading, and I read a 6th grade text book. I had to reread it in 6th grade because the teacher didn't believe me. I read in middle and high school, and obviously still love to read.

I had a lovely secret for a year. And I have the Berenstains to thank.

Guy Friday- Spy Guys

2012-03-02T04:58:00.001-05:00

Cooper, Mark A. Jason Steed: Revenge

ARC provided by Sourcebooks.

Eleven-year-old Jason Steed inflitrates a young offenders' facility in order to befriend Andrew Cho, son of the Triad gang leader. At first he is harassed, but the he beats up the evil Watson and earns Cho's respect. When Andrew is released, Jason is sent into foster care near his house, and the two hang out. Jason starts to realize that the cereal being produced by Boudica, one of the Triad members, is highly addictive. Triad eventually finds out that Jason is a spy and blows up his foster home, killing everyone. Jason is sent to Spain with agent George Young's family and the daughter of a comissioner sympathetic to Chairman Mao, Joanna. The Triad is thorough and deadly, and attack the villa. Jason and Joanna manage to escape into the country, leaving such a path of devastation that the Spanish police accuse them of being mass murderers. They escape again, and Jason flies a plane to France, where they are picked up by MI6 agents-- who intend to kill them to end the wrath of Boudica and the Triad. Again, after a violent encounter, they escape, and go looking for Boudica to stop her. When will the madness end? Will Jason and Joanna ever return to their families? I expect there to be a sequel. The first book in this series is Jason Steed: Fledgling.

Strengths: Mr. Cooper has certainly listened to actual boys-- they are constantly asking for books with shooting and killing people. I actually had a boy search for the key word "violence" in the library catalog. The nonstop action and constant intrique and gore will make this popular.

Weaknesses: I was never able to locate a copy of the first book in this series, and they don't seem to be available in hardcover or even prebind, which makes them less than attractive for a school library. I found the fact that Jason was so young rather disturbing given the level of violence involved. Violent fifteen year olds seem more believable, especially when you add in the element of romance.

Happy Read Across America Day! I didn't make many plans, but next week I'll be reading aloud to the SSR classes.

Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip

2012-03-01T05:25:00.005-05:00

Sonnenblick, Jordan. Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip.
Scholastic Press, coming out TODAY!

Peter is a hotshot baseball pitcher who works well with his lunkhead friend AJ until a serious elbow injury makes it impossible for him to pitch or play ball ever again. Peter's grandfather is a wedding photographer who has always encouraged Peter to take pictures, so Peter starts out the year in 9th grade taking Intro to Photography, but soon gets moved to the advanced class. Moving with him is Angelika, a smart mouthed but cute girl who shares his interests. When Peter's grandfather suddenly gives him all of his photography equipment, Peter is grateful but also worried about the mental lapses that his grandfather has been having. He and Angelika are made the coeditors of the yearbook sports photo division, so spend a lot of time together. AJ still thinks that Peter will end up pitching and tries to get him to get ready for try outs. He and Angelika become closer but also face some challenges. The grandfather's condition continues to deteriorate. All of these threads draw together for a very satisfying ending. San Lee from Zen and the Art of Faking It makes a few cameo appearances!
Strengths: I cannot do justice to this book. It is truly an awesome piece of fiction. I laughed hysterically, but I also cried in the end. NO ONE writes like Sonnenblick, although I wish that I could. The characters are complex but likable, the relationships true-to-life and poignant, and the scene where Peter inadvertently ends up with a hangover-- so, so funny. But with a lesson! I need five copies. Seriously.
Weaknesses: Not only can I not adequately describe this, it made me go all fan girly. I actually looked to see if Mr. Sonnenblick happened to be appearing anywhere near me so I could go and shake his hand. I want to write half as well as he does.

On the upside, Anthony Horowitz might be safe from me stalking him for a while!

An interview with Charlie Joe Jackson!

2012-02-29T05:10:00.005-05:00

February is over! We can stop reading now!

Well, no. Admittedly, the "Boys Read Pink" initiative got buried under a lot of things, but there were a lot of boys that read "girl" books. A couple even went on to the second book in series (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging), and most admitted that the books were good.

Tommy Greenwald was kind enough to send an ARC of Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Extra Credit (out in August 2012), and I bribed on of my students with it. He submitted questions for Charlie Joe, and then he got to read the book. Well, Ja'waun doesn't read, he keeps telling me. He just keeps moving the bookmark. Here are his questions, and Charlie Joe's answers!

1. If your book is about not reading, then why are there so many pages?
TRUE, THERE ARE A LOT OF PAGES, BUT MOST HAVE VERY FEW WORDS ON THEM!

2. Why do you think reading won't help us succeed?
BECAUSE IT TAKES US AWAY FROM FAR MORE IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES LIKE EATING ICE CREAM AND PLAYING WITH THE DOG.

3. How does reading make you fat?
BECAUSE YOU JUST SIT THERE WHEN YOU'RE READING. YOU'RE NOT GETTING EXERCISE. JUST ANOTHER WAY THAT READING IS BAD FOR YOU!

4. Why does reading books about girls help you understand them?
BECAUSE THEY ARE INCREDIBLY MYSTERIOUS CREATURES, AND THE MORE INFORMATION YOU HAVE ABOUT THEM, THE BETTER.

5. Do you think you will be in any more books?
TOTALLY. MY NEXT BOOK IS CALLED CHARLIE JOE JACKSON'S GUIDE TO EXTRA CREDIT, AND IT COMES OUT THIS SUMMER. IT'S ALL ABOUT ME TRYING TO GET STRAIGHT A'S SO I DON'T HAVE TO GO TO READING CAMP FOR THE SUMMER! I KNOW, IT KIND OF SOUNDS LIKE A HORROR STORY, DOESN'T IT?

I enjoyed School Library Journal's review of the first book because it gave me the term I needed for Diary of a Wimpy Kid-type books. "Notebook novels". Perfect. Charlie Joe LOOKS like a notebook novel, but is so much more!

Characters from War Torn Countries

2012-02-29T04:47:00.004-05:00

Volponi, Paul. The Final Four.
The Michigan State Spartans and the Troy Trojans meet up at the Final Four tournament in New Orleans. Malcolm, a boy from the inner city whose sister was killed in a drive by shooting and who is only looking out for himself, and MJ (Michael Jordan, an unfortunate name for a boy who likes to play basketball!), who is trying to do well in school and make a better life for himself, play for MSU. Roko, a boy whose journalist uncle was killed in Croatia, and Crispin, who is from who is from Louisiana and engaged to a popular cheerleader, are on the Trojan side. Tempers flare as the competition heats up, and drama unfolds behind the scenes as well as on the court. Play-by-plays and basketball commentary abound, and the minutiae of player recruitment is well covered. There is a lot of discussion about the financial hardships placed on the families of players who are getting an education, but may not have a lot of money for living expenses, a concern that has had long ranging implications at The Ohio State University! In particular, Malcolm runs into problems that may impact the success of his entire team, even though his goal is to leave college without graduating and go pro.
Strengths: There is such a desperate shortage of basketball books that I will no doubt buy two copies of this titles. Thankfully, even though this involves college players, there is very little bad language, and no sex or drugs. Whew. Louisiana and engaged to a popular cheerleader, are on the Trojan side. Tempers flare as the competition heats up, and drama unfolds behind the scenes as well as on the court. Play-by-plays and basketball commentary abound, and the minutiae of player recruitment is well covered. There is a lot of discussion about the financial hardships placed on the families of players who are getting an education, but may not have a lot of money for living expenses, a concern that has had long ranging implications at The Ohio State University! In particular, Malcolm runs into problems that may impact the success of his entire team, even though his goal is to leave college without graduating and go pro.
Weaknesses: The narrative is a bit fragmented and hard to follow at times. My sports readers are sometimes ones who struggle, and this may prove a challenging title for them.

I've loaned the ARC to a couple of readers; one brought the book back unread, but two others read it very quickly. Think I'll buy two copies.

Farish, Terry. The Good Braider.
Publication date 1 May 2012
Viola and her mother are doing their best to survive in their small town of Juba in the Sudan, but food is scarce and the soldiers make life difficult for everyone. After Viola is raped, the family escapes to Cairo, where Viola's brother dies. Viola and her mother sleep in the courtyard of a church, clean houses, and try to contact relatives in the US to sponsor them. Viola makes a good friend who helps her to study English, knowing that the only way she can earn money will be to get an education. The two finally make it to Maine, where Catholic Charities helps them get an apartment and navigate life in the US. Viola goes to high school, but also works in a food factory. She makes friends, but her mother is unhappy when she shows an interest in Andrew, an American boy who teaches her how to drive a car. Her mother burns Viola's hand over her offense of dating the boy, and social services are called in. Through this all, Viola tries to remember the wisdom of her grandmother, and her cultural heritage, which she expresses in her ability to braid hair in intricate African designs.
Strengths: This is an important book to help people understand not only how difficult life is for people in the Sudan, but also how difficult it is for students who immigrate from countries where their life is in turmoil, and whose family and cultural background deal with situations differently than those who have lived in this country for a long time might. This was a very powerful book.
Weaknesses: While is is clear that Viola is raped, the scene where it happened was not graphic, and the conversation that discusses what happened is matter-of-fact, not detailed, and handled well. I was reading this title on an E Reader and did not even realize that it was "in verse", because the lines were not cut up in a verse-like way.

Dystopias-- Real and Fictional

2012-02-28T05:08:00.007-05:00

Lake, Nick. In Darkness.
From the Publisher: "In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, Shorty, a poor, fifteen-year-old gang member from the slums of Site Soleil, is trapped in the rubble of a hospital and as he grows weaker, he has visions and memories of his life of violence, his lost twin sister, and of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who liberated Haiti from French rule in 1804."

While this is certainly good coverage of how horrendous the results of this natural disaster were, and the extra historical perspective was interesting, this was not abook for the middle grades. The language is "gritty", and the narrative a bit confusing. A glossary of unfamiliar words would have helped.

Read a more complete review of this title at YA Books Central , The Happy Nappy Bookseller, The F ourth Musketeer, or Totally Bookalicious.

Walker, Brian F. Black Boy, White School.
From the Publisher: " When 14-year-old Anthony "Ant" Jones from the ghetto of East Cleveland, Ohio, gets a scholarship to a prep school in Maine, he finds that he must change his image and adapt to a world that never fully accepts him. But when he goes home he discovers that he no longer truly belongs there either. "

I had high hopes for this book, but the language and drug use make it one that I am not comfortable handing to students. I saw that one of my students was reading Ellen Hopkins' Crank, and when I asked her about it, she said that she really liked it, but SHE didn't think it was appropriate for a middle school library. She also admitted it would have been weird if I had handed it to her. More in-depth reviews at Bloggin' 'Bout Books, Good Books and Good Wine, Whatchamacallit Reviews, and A Book and a Hug.

Simmons, Kristen. Article 5.
Ember and her mother are just trying to survive in a futuristic society where the Bill of Rights is no longer and the law of the land is the Moral Statues. A terrible war has destroyed most of the major cities, and people are cramped together in the surviving areas, so to cut down on the fighting and lawlessness, the Federal Bureau of Reformation (known as the Moral Militia) has taken over, randomly arresting people, who never come back. When the Moral Militia shows up at Ember’s house, they haul her mother off because she had Ember without being married, and Ember is sent to a reform school as well. To make matters worse, one of the arresting officers is Chase, a former neighbor with a difficult past. Ember loved him. He eventually helps her break out of the school, after she is nearly killed for exposing guards’ misbehavior, and the two take off on an erratic cross country quest to find her mother. They hope that they can find someone to transport Ember to a safe house in an abandoned part of the country so that Chase can get back to his position before being considered AWOL, but they run into all sorts of problems. Chase has promised Ember’s mother that he will take care of her and get her to safety, so even when she runs from him, he finds her and helps her. Post apocalyptic problems constantly arise-- can the two get along well enough to save themselves? I feel a second book in the offing.
Strengths: For futuristic dystopia, this is very strong, plus has a touch of romance. Plausible reason for the change in government, reasonable portrayal of the groups and individuals Ember is fighting, enough bad things happening to people that students will be intrigued.
Weaknesses: All I could think was “Man, I’m too tired to live in a dystopia. Let me be killed in the first strike, because otherwise I’d just be hiding in my house/hovel/cardboard box.” All of the running just made me tired! Students will not have this problem.

Nonfiction Monday--Little Rock Girl

2012-02-27T05:00:00.009-05:00

Nonfiction Monday was started by Anastasia Suen and is hosted this week at The Children's War. Stop by to see a great list of nonfiction reviews.

Tougas, Shelley. Little Rock Girl 1957: How a Photograph Changed the Fight for Integration.
EARC from Netgalley.com
Elizabeth Eckford knew that starting Central High School would not be easy for her or the other eight black students who were enrolling in the fall of 1957, but she might not have realized the impact that one photograph taken of her would have on the people who saw it. Starting with the circumstances under which the picture on the cover was taken, this book explores various aspects of the Central High School integration, from media coverage (including the man who took the photograph) to the long range implications of the event on the people involved as well as the nation in general. Well illustrated with period photographs, this offers an easier to read overview of the Little Rock events than Magoon’s Today the World is Watching You, which was completely excellent but a little too long. Students who read this book might want to go on to read Magoon’s wonderful book.
Strengths: The pictures reveal so much about the world of this time, and will help students understand the events a little better. Having one small moment, such as this picture, to focus on helps make a little more sense of a complicated event.
Weaknesses: The chronology goes back and forth a little more than I would like, being a very linear thinker, but makes sense given the way the book is laid out.

I have a large order of nonfiction books in the works, since the language arts classes are going towards the common core and reading less fiction. I'm trying to balance between titles that coordinate with the curriculum and those that will circulate well.

Landau, Elaine. American Quarter Horses Are My Favorite!
EARC from Netgalley.com

I would love to have the entire series of My Favorite Horses from Lerner Publications. This one was well illustrated, had a great diagram with the parts of a horse labeled, and had realistic information about owning a horse and taking care of one. However, at $17 for 24 pages, I don't think I will be buying any of these. I also want The Best Dogs Ever series; I've already read the Yorkshire Terrier and Poodle ones to Sylvie. Capstone has a series on horses that come in at 32 page each, but I want at least 64 pages of information for that price. Oh, well. I think the public library has them. Need to encourage students to get cards.

Middle Grade Monday-- The Traitor and the Tunnel

2012-02-26T05:40:00.007-05:00

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday was started and is hosted by the (now wildly famous!) Shannon Whitney Messnger at her blog. Hop over there THIS WEEK to see a list of links to other bloggers posting on middle grade books.

Lee, Y.S. The Agency: The Traitor and the Tunnel
Publication date: 28 February 2012
Mary Quinn is still working with the Agency, and her newest assignment is to work as a parlor maid in Buckingham Palace, where Queen Victoria has been plagued with petty thefts of expensive ornaments. There are bigger problems, though-- Price Bertie and a friend are attacked in an opium den and the friend is killed. The opium fiend responsible for the death is a Lascar named Lang, whom Mary determines is her long lost father. Also in the works are sewage changes to the palace, and who is working on those but James Easton! Also around is reporter Octavius Jones, who is wooing one of Mary's coworkers to get information. Mary suspects the queen's lady in waiting of either the thievery or a bigger plot, but is caught up in trying to save her father. She is also a bit overwhelmed by the confidence of Bertie and the attentions of James. When all of the problems swirling around her finally make sense and come to a head, she is able to avert a national disaster with the help of James and a spunky Queen Victoria. What will the future hold for Mary? Maybe this series will go beyond the trilogy, or Ms. Lee will write some other appealing books!
Strengths: ***SWOON*** The more of these books I read, the more I lurve them! I'm becoming more fond of Victorian England, and like A Spy in the House and The Body in the Tower these are very well researched. The spying believable, the back stairs scenes illuminating to middle grade readers, and the romance brilliant.
Weaknesses: The sexual content of this one is approaching borderline-- Mary is attacked and her skirts fumbled with, Octavius Jones "beds" the maids, and the kisses between Mary and James are hot and heavy. While younger readers might not quite get what is going on, this one makes me a tiny bit nervous.

Scattergood, Augusta. Glory Be.

Glory is looking forward to enjoying the hot Mississippi summer at the pool and is not happy when the pool is closed down for "repairs", especially since the pool seems to be in good shape. When she meets Laura at the public library, Glory finds out that the pool is closed because civil rights workers from the north are trying to get the town to integrate the pool. Laura's mother is working in a clinic for black citizens who don't have better access to health care. Glory's father is a prominent minister in town, her sister Jessalyn is sympathetic to the civil rights workers, and the family's black cook, Emma, is trying not to comment too much on what is going on. While a good deal of the town is against integration, there are also a lot of citizens who are trying to do things like insure equal access to the library for everyone. Glory is caught in the middle and trying to do what she thinks is right.
Strengths: This short novel drew me in right away with Glory's concerns about her OWN summer. Once she figured out what was impacting her, she tried to make a larger change to society. This is how the middle grade mind often works, so I found this to be a more engaging book than I thought it would be.
Weaknesses: Again, the civil rights story is told from the point of view of a middle class, white girl. While engaging, this had even fewer characters of color than many such stories.

And remember, this voting is not really for any sort of prestigious award, it's just directing traffic to this web site so they can get more hits and do better on search engines. Still, the prize is a $250 restaurant gift card, and there are four teenagers in my house who have this nasty habit of eating. Just want people to be aware of what happens when they click through. Up to you. I already KNOW that I am fascinating.

http://www.accelerated-degree.com/2012-fascination-awards-librarian-blogs/

Sunday Brunch-- Romance

2012-02-26T04:43:00.006-05:00

Smith, Jennifer E. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

Hadley doesn't want to fly to London, but that's not why she missed her flight by four minutes. She was just running late-- but try explaining that to her father, for whose wedding she now might or might not be on time. She's struggling to stay awake and occupied in the airport when a boy helps her with her suitcase-- and the two strike up a conversation. When they end up next to each other on the plane, they spend most of the long trip talking. Hadley is upset that her father moved to the UK to take a teaching job, fell in love, and left her and her mother. Oliver is more tactiturn, but she does find out that he is studying at Yale. When the

Strengths: Any book that ends up in London with a romance with a cute boy named Oliver... well, have to buy this one! plane lands, the two get separated, and Hadley realizes they never exchanged contact information. After struggling through part of the wedding and reception, she feels a desperate need to hunt Oliver down, and does manage to find him. How deep is their connection? What is the statistical probability of love at first sight?

Weaknesses: A bit more family angst than I personally like in a romance, and, well, this wasn't Before Sunrise (1995). *Sigh* I didn't quite feel the connection between Hadley and Oliver, and the fact that she actually hunted him down was somehow... wrong. True to life, but not as romantic as just bumping into him a week later on the Tube. Won't matter to my students!

Resau, Laura. The Ruby Notebook.

Sequel to The Indigo Notebook. Zeeta and her mother have lived in a different country every year for as long as Zeeta can remember. After a year in Ecuador, they are settling into life in Aix-en-Provence, France. Zeeta is very excited that her American boyfriend, Wendell, is coming to spend the summer with her, but she is conflicted when she meets the appealing Jean-Claude, who is traveling and working with a performing group. Complicating matters is someone leaving small gifts for her that she thinks may be from the father that she has never met. When Wendell arrives, he is a bit distant, and Zeeta is concerned that she will be like her mother, who has never been able to maintain a relationship for very long. With the help of an elderly gentleman, her new friends in the performing group, some mystical friends of her mother's, and Wendell himself, Zeeta is able to make some sense of the relationships in her life.

Strengths: This was a great book for describing travel, and the romances will make this appealing to my girls who go through a book a day.

Weaknesses: This felt more like adult fiction, with a slow, languid narrative. I also found the mystical qualities in some of the characters confusing. (Wendell sees visions, etc.) Still, I think I will order the entire series, including the new The Jade Notebook for my girls who can't get enough of books like 13 Little Blue Envelopes.

Brody, Jessica. My Life Undecided.

Brooklyn is really good at making really bad decisions. The latest-- having a huge party at her mother's model home and managing to burn it down trying to make fajitas while drunk with plastic vegetables-- results in her best friend, Shayne, dumping her, as well as 200 hours of community service at a nursing home. Realizing that she is incapable of making good decisions, Brooklyn puts together a blog (http://mylifeundecided.com) and lets the readers of her blog decide what she will do. Grapes of Wrath or The Old Man and the Sea? Try out for rugby? Brooklyn manages to abide by the decisions for the most part, even though her readers think she should be more interested in Brian (her new debate partner) and less interested in Hunter (very hot new student). Things don't go smoothly, but Brooklyn tries to move beyond her shallow past, stay out of trouble, and decide if her friendship with Shayne is really they way to happiness.

Strengths: This was a very fun, light read that is about the vicissitudes of high school life and romance while still being appropriate for middle school. Whew. Enjoyed tremendously even though the plot is a tiny bit similar to Notes from the Midnight Driver. Brooklyn does mature.

Weaknesses: The cover will date very badly, but this is offset by actual web site at the addressed mentioned in the book. I didn't quite buy Brooklyn as someone who would have a party in a model home and hang out with Shayne, and she did take to debate a bit too quickly for me to believe. Still a fun read.

Double by Jenny Valentine

2012-02-25T12:41:00.002-05:00

Valentine, Jenny. Double.

Chap is brought into a homeless shelter in London where he is mistaken for Cassiel Roadnight, a boy who has been missing for two years. He knows that he doesn't belong with the over medicated mother, Helen, sister Edie or rich but disturbing brother Frank, but the appeal of being with a family to take care of him is so appealing that he goes along with the charade. He remembers being raised by a reclusive and alcoholic grandfather who loved him dearly but was not capable of going out into the real world. After Chap gets settled with his "family", he runs into an old friend, Floyd, who realizes that Chap isn't Cassiel... because he thinks that Frank killed Cassiel! The two try to unravel the mystery which includes embezzling, kidnapping, mistaken identities and murder.

Strengths: Once again, the British do murder mysteries like no one else. This was reminiscent of the Time Bowler Blade books, and Bedford's Flip, and was creepy and highly atmospheric. It took lots of twists and turns, all which seemed creepily believable. SO good! (And the cover is reminiscent of the new Todd Strasses mysteries.)

Weaknesses: Might be a bit of a stretch for students not used to reading British books.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

2012-02-25T04:59:00.002-05:00

Kirby, Stan. Captain Awesome to the Rescue.
Eugene would be a better Captain Awesome would be a better superhero if his mother hadn't packed his cape when he moved to a new town. Never fear! Once he finds it, he is out to save the world from villians like his baby sister, Queen Stinkypants, just like his hero Super Dude does. When the class hamster goes missing, Eugene and his new friends manage to figure out who the culprit is.

This is book one in a new series coming out soon from Little Simon. The next books are Captain Awesome vs. Nacho Cheese Man, Captain Awesome and the New Kid and Captain Awesome Takes a Dive.

Coven, Wanda. Heidi Heckelbeck has a Secret.

Heidi has been home schooled, but when her brother Henry starts kindergarten, her mother sends her off to the wilds of second grade. Heidi is apprehensive that she won't be able to do the things she wants, and it doesn't help when another student, Melanie, is very bratty to her, telling her that she smells, suggesting to the drama teacher that Heidi should be an apple tree in the Wizard of Oz production, and eventually ruining Heidi's self portrait in art class. Heidi is consoled by the fact that the teachers and other students are supportive of her... and by the fact that she is actually a witch. This is also the beginning of a new series that continues with Heidi Heckelbeck Casts a Spell, Heidi Heckelbeck and the Cookie Contest and Heidi Heckelbeck in Disguise.
Strengths: I can see younger students enjoying both of these series. The books are a bit longer than I Can Read Books but still include pictures and large text.
Weaknesses: Both of these seemed very negative about school, and both main characters were rather unhappy. This was a bit off putting for someone who spent first grde reading about empowered children like Haywood's Betsy or Encyclopedia Brown. I don't think that either of these would speak to middle school students, even though some series for younger readers, like Captain Underpants or Babymouse, sometimes do.

Guy Friday-- Guyographies

2012-02-24T04:54:00.000-05:00

Santiago, Wilfred. 21:The Story of Roberto Clemente.
Fantagraphics Books, 2011
This graphic novel follows Clemente’s life from poverty and tragedy as a young boy in Puerto Rico (his sister dies in a fire) to his many years playing baseball and being well-regarded for his skill as well as his philanthropy. His struggles with being a player of color in the 1950s and 60s is well covered, as well as his private life. There are some sidebars that discuss Puerto Rican history. The orange and brown color scheme fits with the time period.
Strengths: Students who liked the Satchel Paige graphic novel, or baseball in general, have been picking this up. It is much better than the mass produced graphic biographies widely available.
Weaknesses: The story was hard to follow at times, and the print was really, really tiny I’m getting older, but my vision isn’t that bad yet, and this was very hard to read.

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem and Raymond Obstfeld.
Illustrated by A.G. Ford
What Color Is My World?: The Lost History Of African American Inventors
Ella and Herbie move in to a run down house and aren't happy about it, but when they have to help the handyman, Mr. Mital, he teaches them that many of the items in the house were invented by African-Americans. The story of the home renovation is broken up by short biographies of various inventors, comic panels describing the inventions, and many other sidebars detailing a wide range of little known African-American inventors.
Strengths: This has a lot of good information, and is presented in a lively and colorful way. Students will learn a lot about inventors.
Weaknesses: While good for casual reading, this could have been formatted in a more effective way for research. The story distracted me, the inventors were not presented chronologically, and the fold out pages may come to grief in a school library.

Who's Who Among Fascinating Librarian Bloggers

2012-02-24T04:30:00.005-05:00

Hmmmm. Remember when you were a senior in high school and you got these letters that said you would be included in a gorgeous, leather bound copy of Who's Who in American High School Students... as long as you sent in $25?

I've been nominated for the "award" pictured at left. The prize is a $200 restaurant gift card, which seems highly suspect. As does the Accelerated-degree.com awarding body and the fact that I was nominated for a Happy Haul-idays post in 2010.

Voting starts on 27 February HERE and ends on 6 March.

If you have time to spare and feel I am worthy, go ahead and vote. With four teenagers in the house, money for food is always good.

I will say that I was able to print out the $25 restaurant gift certificate, although I haven't tried to use it.Still suspicious, And when I looked around, I found this article about search engine optimizations.
http://cazort.blogspot.com/2010/08/awards-and-search-engine-optimization.html

It seems likely that this organization is trying to get more visitors. Since they are, in fact, paying me for sending traffic their way, I am conflicted. I don't take money for posts. All I take is ARCs, because it's easier to review books if I can get a copy. So we'll see. Should we click on their links so I can get more free Mexican food? That's what it amounts to.

Wonders and Wanders

2012-02-23T05:00:00.003-05:00

Richards, Jasmine. The Book of Wonders.
Zardi enjoys her life in Arribithia with her grandmother, older sister Zubeyda and her friend Rhidan, a foreign orphan being raised by her family. Rhidan doesn't know his part, but when the two run into the sailor Sinbad in the port, he mentions that Rhidan looks like the people of the Black Isle. Zardi's father is an advisor for the sultan, who has banned magic from the kingdom, but not even this keeps the family safe-- Zubeyda is chosen to be the sultan's next "praisemaker" which will result in her being imprisoned and then hunted to the death. Zardi thinks that Sinbad would be able to help both with getting Rhidan back to his people and in overturning the sultan, so they hop a boat in search of him. They end up having many adventures, finding out about Rhidan's past, fighting magical creatures, and eventually getting back to the kingdom just as Zubeyda is being hunted. While things may be okay at home, Rhidan is still interested in the Black Isle, so the book ends with an elipsis...
Strengths: The setting and stories reminiscent of the Arabian Nights lends a fresh twist to this fantasy quest. Getting very weary of typical Celtic fantasy, but I can't think of anything with Sinbad, and this is quite well done.
Weaknesses: I felt that I was missing many of the Arabian Nights references.

Hubbard, Jenny. Wanderlove.
Publication date 13 March 2012. E ARC from Netgalley.com
Bria Sandoval has broken up with her boyfriend, her parents are constantly squabbling, and they don't want her to go to art school. She wants to travel, so books a trip to South America with a package tour that ends up being filled with uptight old people. She is jealous of the style of the backpackers she sees, and when one asks her to a party, she goes. There she meets the guy who invited her, Rowan, who travels around working as a dive instructor, and his half-sister, Starling, who does volunteer work. The two convince her to leave the tour, ditch half of her luggage in favor of one backpack, and follow them on their travels until it is time for her to fly home. When Starling is called away, she leaves Bria with Rowan so she can keep him out of trouble. Bria enjoys seeing the nontouristy side of South America but is concerned about Rowan's past (that might involve drugs), but not concerned enough that she can't be really attracted to him. In the end, Bria learns a lot about life, relationships, and herself.

From the Publicist: "Wanderlove is about celebrating favorite places, so Hubbard has turned the Wanderlove website (www.wanderlove.com) into a place to upload and chat about our own hidden destinations. There are already quite a few beautiful photos up there! She’ll be giving away three butterfly-doodled hardcovers of Wanderlove to participants. Anyone who submits an entry between now and March 5th, the day she gets back, will be eligible to win.

Strengths: This had really good travel features-- I'm half afraid to give this to my daughter who is a senior lest she think she can run off, not tell me where she is, and ignore my e mails. Of course, the other half of me wants to do the running off myself! Good for high school, if they don't mind a couple of f-bombs.
Weaknesses: Mainly personal. To me, all the characters had a fairly high slappage factor. Bria especially does a ton of whining, teeth gnashing, and handwringing over both the boyfriend and the art school. In the end, she decides that she HAS to be involved in art in some way even if she ends up teaching it, which given the current state of my school system made me want to shake her. (About 55 art, gym and music teachers are being considered for cuts. I've ranted about "following one's bliss" before. No bliss following. Employment first, then bliss following. Says the woman looking at starting her third career at 50.)

The Help, The Future of Us

2012-02-22T05:13:00.002-05:00

Stockett, Kathryn. The Help.
Skeeter has graduated from college and moved back to her family home in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. She is distraught that the family maid who helped raise her, Constantine, is no longer there and no one will tell her where she has gone, and also by her mother's insistence that she marry. Skeeter manages to get a job at the local newspaper writing a cleaning column. Since she knows nothing about cleaning, she enlists the help of a friend's black maid, Aibileen. Skeeter also writes to Harper and Row publishers about a job and gets a reply back from a woman who encourages her to write. After several unfortunate incidences with her friend Hilly, who is insisting that all of the black maids need their own separate bathrooms built outside the homes where they work, Skeeter decides to interview black maids about their experiences. Aibileen agrees, but it is difficult to find others who will help. Minny, who has trouble keeping jobs because of her mouth, agrees as well. As the South heats up with various civil rights activities, and local issues arise as well, more of "the help" agree to be part of the project, even though it means personal danger for them. The relationships between the employers and employees, whether good or bad, are the basis for this book that discusses the way things were at a pivotal time during the Civil Rights Movement.
Strengths: The points of view were especially interesting, and to me, this was almost as much about women's rights at the time as it was about Civil Rights. Skeeter's behavior is not the norm for well-raised women at the time, but she triumphs. I can see why this has been such a popular title. And yes, now I want to see the movie, if only for the fashions.
Weaknesses: I think I've been ruined for reading adult literary fiction. Since I had to buy a copy of this for Surly Teen Boy's sophomore English class, I figured I would evaluate it for appropriateness in the middle school. Aside from one scene where a woman has a miscarriage in her bathroom, and another where a crazy man exposes himself to a woman and her maid, this one is fine... but really boring! I forgot that in most adult fiction nothing happens! As far as Surly Teen Boy reading this... I just shake my head. No wonder teen boys stop reading if their limited time is taken up with perfectly fine books that really are not appropriate for THEM.

Asher, Jay and Carolyn Mackler. The Future of Us.

Emma gets a new computer as a guilt gift from her father who has moved away and now has a new family, and her friend Josh comes over with an America Online CD-ROM with 100 free hours. This is big stuff in 1996, so the two download it and log on. Emma sees a web site called Facebook, and sees a 30-something woman who looks a lot like her. The woman is not happy with her husband or her life, and Emma begins to realize that she is seeing her future. She consults Josh, who was her best friend until a misunderstanding where he thought she wanted to be more than friends-- now they are rather awkward with each other. In Josh's future, he is married to the hottest girl in their high school, so when Emma starts trying to change the future, he's not happy. Of course, while Emma is obsessed with her future, real life continues in her high school. Emma tries to change the future by getting to know a boy who looks hot when he's "old" (32!), and tries to change where she lives and even her job by deciding on different majors and making pronouncements about where she will and won't live. In the end, she begins to realize that there is no way to now what the future will bring, and no good way to influence it, so she might as well try to make the present as happy as she can.

Strengths: Wonderful premise, and the 1996 setting is clearly defined but not dwelt on overly much. My older daughter picked this up and was intrigued. I have needed more romance books, and this one will fit the bill. Love the digital cover!

Weaknesses: Some pointless vulgarity, but nothing too bad. Made me really sad, and could have been much better done. In the end, I didn't like Emma or Josh very much.

Of course, this freaked me out in a major way-- my daughter is heading off to college, and I made so many mistakes in majors and life choices when I was her age that I want her to have A Plan while also realizing that any plan she makes is going to change. Stress! The book hits this right on the head, but also makes it hugely sad for someone my age. As for my daughter-- majoring in nursing and wanting to live in Colorado seems a bit more promising than wanting to be a college professor of Latin. I wanted to live in Virginia. Or England. And being a school librarian appeared nowhere at all in my plans.

(Time Slip???) Tuesday (well, at least it IS Tuesday!)

2012-02-21T04:45:00.001-05:00

Hartley, A.J. Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact.
Darwen has moved from Manchester, UK to Atlanta, Georgia to live with his aunt who is very business oriented and not used to having a child around. After a strange encounter with Mr. Peregrine at an odd dusty shop in the local mall during which Mr. Peregrine gives Darwen a mirror, Darwen finds that he is able to travel into Silbilica, another world were there are fairies by also a powerful evil arising. Powerful evil might also be used to describe his new private school-- while he does find a few friends, he also runs afoul of some of the school bullies. The archaeology club interests him, and he feels that he can tell the friends he makes there about Sibilica. He and Alexandra go to the world together and have to face the scrobblers, who are managing to come into Atlanta more and more. Who is helping them to do this? Can Sibilicabe saved? While some of these questions are answered, there is room for a sequel.
Strengths: Magical realism and a strong school story ala Harry Potter will make this one appealing to my hard core fantasy fans. Surly Teen Boy read and enjoyed it, as did Charlotte.
Weaknesses: This has been sitting next to my chair since an early November book look. Just couldn't pick it up. Cover art seemed especially blah to me, and nothing about the story sucked me in. I'll put it in the library collection, since I have a copy.

Happy President's Day

2012-02-20T11:18:00.002-05:00

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday was started by Shannon Whitney Messenger over at Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe. Head on over there to see a list of Middle Grade Reviews by a variety of awesome bloggers (who are organized enough to remember to send in their links, unlike some people...)

Clark, Catherine. How Not To Run For President.
Aidan is playing in the middle school marching band when presidental hopeful Bettina Brandon comes to his Ohio town to campaign. He is interviewed, since his mother has just been laid off from local company FreezeStar, and manages to push Ms. Brandon out of the way of a falling sign. Both to thank him and to add some interest to her campaign, Aidan is asked to go on the trail with Ms. Brandon and her daughter, Emma, who is not only Aidan’s age but very bratty. For a while, Aidan’s heroism and his family’s plight (illustrative of the type of family situation Brandon is trying to rememdy with her campaign) gain supporters, but after a while, typical mudslinging starts to occur. Aidan’s dog is purebred rather than a mutt. His mother was fired, not laid off. Having gained a glimpse into the political world, Aidan returns home disillusioned but also more realistic in his understanding of people and situations.

Strengths: I liked that the candidate was a woman AND an independent. I thought that the Ohio settings were true to life. Good cover, and a rare funny, realistic book for boys.
Weaknesses: Never really felt connected to Aidan, and there wasn’t as much plot or action as I would have liked for this target audience.

There have been a fair number of "presidential" books for boys-- combine the books below with a selection of presidential biographies, and there's a ready made display. Just be careful if you have Joanna Hurwitz's Class President-- check out the Awful Library Books web site for the reason why (and a good laugh)! And, yes, that is Blendon Middle School's own copy of Sharon Draper's Sassy mentioned. I'm not quite sure how to fix it!

Nonfiction Monday

2012-02-20T05:30:00.001-05:00

Dau, John Bul and Akech, Martha Arual. Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping Civil War in the Sudan.
John and Martha were young children in Southern Sudan when civil war broke out. Told in alternating chapters, we find that John’s family ran from his village in the opposite way he did when it was attacked, and Martha’s family was at church. Thanks to members of their Dinka tribe, both were marginally cared for and made their way from refugee camp to refugee camp. Living conditions were abysmal, and there was always the threat of violence and attack, as well as frequent actual attacks. Due to perserverance and a bit of luck, both managed to survive, and Martha managed to stay with her younger sister Tabitha, who was only three when the two were separated from their family. John was older, and became one of the leaders of the Lost Boys, some of whom were
able to come to the United States after a filmmaker took interest in their plight. Martha argued that there were Lost Girls as well, and fought for a way to get her and Tabitha to the United States so that she would not be forced into a marriage, at 16, with a much older man. Martha and John knew each other in Sudan, and liked each other, but were separated in the US. They reconnected years later, married, and are trying to help their native country.
Strengths: I liked especially the way the book was structured—Peace, War, Refuge, War, Refuge, Peace. The details were horrific without being overly graphic, so this could be read even by elementary students. This is a very compelling book.
Weaknesses: The print is very small. Since this is a thin book, the print could have been a bit bigger.

Nonfiction Monday was started by Anastasia Suen and is hosted this week at Lori Calabrese Writes. Stop by to see a great list of nonfiction reviews.

Cute Dogs Make Everything Better

2012-02-19T05:09:00.004-05:00

Macomber, Debbie and Mary Lou Carney. Pictures by Sally Lambert.
The Yippy, Yappy Yorkie in the Green Doggy Sweater.

Yup. Checked it out of the library just so I could read it to Sylvie. She licked my face the whole time I was reading to her.

And really, I came across this title when looking up something that was actually related to my job as a middle school librarian. Sometimes the public library must wonder about me.

But a cute dog DOES make everything better. Happy Weekend!

Preston, Caroline. The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures

From the Publisher: "In her scrapbook full of typed notes and a variety of vintage ads, photos, postcards, fabric swatches, and much more, Frankie Pratt describes her life from her graduation in high school in 1920 through her education at Vassar College, her travels around the world, and her efforts to find love and to achieve her dream of becoming a novelist."

This was a very fun, light read, and the scrapbook art is very fun. I checked it out because it reminded me of Jennifer Holms' Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf, so the one thing that struck me is that there IS a lot of connecting text, albeit in typed bubbles. Middle School is more "A Year Told Through Stuff", and this relies more heavily on the text to get the story across. I still enjoyed the 1920s setting, the inclusion of Edna St. Vincent Millay, the expat story... very fun.

Saturday Cartoons

2012-02-18T12:24:00.004-05:00

Torres, J. and Elbert Or. Lola: A Ghost Story.

Jesse has to go to the Philippines for his grandmother's funeral. He doesn't like being there-- he's not used to the crowd of relatives, the heat, the bugs, or the horrible feeling that his cousin and former playmate is haunting him from beyond the grave. Jesse is afraid that he has inherited his grandmother's abilities to see ghosts, which is especially frightening when he thinks about all of the scary stories that she told him. His aunt and uncle are not doing well after the death of their son, and Jesse being there upsets them further until he is able to find a toy that his cousin lost before his death, and put his cousin's ghost to rest.

Strengths: This was an intriguing look at Philippine culture and folklore, and these elements were incorporated into the story of a family's loss very well. The illustrations complement the story in the graphic novel.
Weaknesses: There were some aspects of life in the Philippines that could have been explained a bit more.

Himaruya, Hidekaz. Hetalia: Axis Powers 1

My exchange student is a huge fan of manga and loaned me this one. She was pleased to have gotten a Hetalia bookmark of the Iceland character from this series. I tried valiantly to read this, but was so put off by the stereotypes of the characters that it was very hard to follow. This is a Japanese publication; I can't believe a US author would get away with this many ethnic slurs and jokes. Also, it's nice that TokyoPop rates these books by age, since manga frequently include bad language and naked women.

From the publisher:" During World War I, gruff Germany finds Italy hiding in a wooden box of tomatoes. Germany takes Italy as prisoner, but instead of war-like interrogation, Italy becomes more of the nuisance and unwanted guest. World War I quickly comes to an end, but World War II is right on its heels!"

Guy Friday-- Wild West Guys

2012-02-17T05:00:00.006-05:00

McKissack, Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack, Jr. Illustrated by Randay Duburke. Best Shot in the West: The Story of Nat Love.
ARC from Baker and Taylor: Pictures in black and white.

This graphic novel follows the rise of Nat Love, who was born into a life of slavery and poverty in 1954 but managed to become a well-regarded cowboy and sharpshooter better known as Deadwood Dick. After the Civil War, Nat’s family tried to farm until sickness took several family members and made it necessary for Nat to seek employment to support his nieces. He became a cowboy, breaking horses that others couldn’t and delivering horses and cattle across the plains. He braved stampedes, outlaws, and capture by an Native Americans, who were so impressed with his abilities that they wanted him to stay and marry one of their own. Eventually, Nat ended up as a train porter, but wrote his memoir in the early 1900s.
Strengths: The story and print were very clear and easy to follow. I didn’t know anything about Love but was able to follow the story. This is a very enjoyable book to use to introduce students to the Wild West.
Weaknesses: This is a dramatization of what Nat Love claimed his life was like; the McKissack’s point this out, but students may not understand that this is not necessarily what really happened. Doesn’t get in the way of a good story, though!

Lawrence, Caroline. The Case of the Deadly Desperado.
P.K. Pinkerton, who is half Native American, sees his foster parents killed in a small western town in 1862. The criminals are masquerading as Indians, but are in fact the deadly outlaw Whittlin’ Walt and his partners who are looking for a deed that P.K. got from his birth parents. P.K. manages to escape to the next town, where he encounters Belle, an “actress”, who helps him escape Walt but steals the deed. Assisted by a Chinese laundry boy, Ping, and two newspaper reporters, P.K. manages to elude Walt even though he keeps running into him. When he finds out that the deed may be to a huge holding that will get him a lot of money, P.K. tries to get the deed back from Belle and take it to the proper authorities… without getting himself killed by Walt or anyone else in the lawless country. Virginia City is a place where it’s every man… and boy… for himself, but P.K. manages to use his smarts to survive and prosper.
Strengths: Lots of action and adventure with a strong dash of humor makes this a book about the wild west that will be easy for students to pick up. I have a lot of older titles on this period of history but haven’t seen anything for a long time. Fans of Paulsen’s Mr. Tucket series will adore this one. Fans of Lawrence’s Thieves of Ostia should pick this up for a window into a completely different world.
Weaknesses: This felt politically incorrect from time to time, but the world was not politically correct in 1862! I also didn’t understand why P.K. was portrayed as being unable to read people’s moods and emotions, which came up multiple times.

Perhaps if these books introduce students to the Wild West, someone will pick up Jack Schaefer's Shane. I did weed the Louis L'Amour novel I had because it smelled bad and no one had read that, but I hold on to Shane for reasons I can't even explain.

The Lions of Little Rock

2012-02-16T05:00:00.001-05:00

Levine, Kristin. The Lions of Little Rock.Marlee is a bit shy, but exciting about starting a new year of junior high. Things are tense in Little Rock in the fall of 1958, and her older sister Judy is not starting high school because of the problems with school integration. Marlee’s father is a teacher in the district, and he thinks that Negroes should be allowed in the school; Marlee’s mother is less sure, and as time goes on, takes a job teaching in a new private school being set up to circumvent the integration law. Marlee is excited to make a good, new friend, Liz. They get along famously, working on a school project, but one day the teacher tells Marlee that Liz is ill and won’t be back. The obnoxious Sally tells Marlee that this is not the case; Liz is actually black and was caught trying to pass as white. Marlee confirms this with Betty Jean, the family’s new maid and the wife of the pastor of Liz’s church. Marlee is warned that trying to remain friends with Liz could put them both in peril, but she doesn’t listen. The two try to remain friends even as events in Little Rock escalate.
Strengths: This does a good job at portraying many different perspectives of this event-- Marlee’s brother is in college and thinking of working with the Civil Rights movement, but neighbors and friends are in the KKK. We have Liz, Betty Jean, and other black characters who come at the events from different view points, giving this a well-rounded feel.
Weaknesses: My very first book review was for Rodman’s Yankee Girl (2004)http://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/2006/02/yankee-girl.html, and I’m still wondering why so many Civil Rights books are from the point of view of white, middle class girls!

It's a low key celebration here. Little did I know back in 2006 how much time I would spend on reading and blogging! Definitely would have come up with a better blog name, but at least now I have a cool blog design.

Hopefully, I can continue reading and blogging far into the future!

Back Lists Gems

2012-02-15T05:00:00.006-05:00

Looking at the books I have arranged for Black History Month, I am a little frustrated by how many of them are historical, and mainly concerned with civil rights. While these books certainly are valuable, what I really want to find is contemporary books with main characters of color dealing with issues that go above and beyond their racial identities. I include the following previously reviewed books because they are ones that my students really like.

Allen, Crystal. How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy.
Reviewed 11 April 2011
Lamar loves to bowl, but his father only cares about his brother, who is a star basketball player. Things are tough in the household because Lamar's mother passed away when he was younger, and his father is having work cuts that limit the family's money. When the Billy Jenks, who is constantly in trouble, offers Lamar a chance to make a lot of money by playing with him in games people bet on, Lamar thinks he has something good going, until he realizes that his bowling idol, Bubba Sanders, would not approve.
Strengths: Fun language, snappy scenes, bowling, and an African American main character in the Heartland. I debated whether a picture of Lamar would be good-- could not decide. This cover is good. I also liked the realistic consequences and the supportive adults in this.
Weaknesses: While Lamar's funny style of speaking is appealing, I got a little tired of some of his catch phrases. ("Crackers and cream cheese")

Boles, Philiana Marie. Little Divas.
Reviewed 22 Feburary 2006
Little Divas is for a slightly younger crowd, with a great, bright cover, and a nice story about a girl adjusting to her parents' divorce and having a fun summer hanging out with her cousin. Okay, they spend a lot of time lying to a very strict aunt and uncle about where they are going, but since they are going to the mall with an older sister or to watch the boys play basketball in the park, I was okay with it.
My students seem to be especially drawn to the cover with the different complexions of the girls and have often remarked on it.

Rhuday-Perkovitch, Olugbemisola. 8th Grade Super Zero.
Reviewed 18 March 2010
Reginald has all kinds of problems. He's called Pukey by a former friend. His father is out of work. He has a crush on Ruthie and isn't sure what to do about it. Reggie also writes comic books and is a big buddy for a disadvantaged boy. To top it all off, he is volunteering with his church at a homeless shelter and starts to feel that his school isn't doing enough to give back to the community, so instead of helping the shallow Vicky win the election for class president, he decides to run himself.

This book was a refreshing change from inner-city, African American children with problems of drug abuse and gang wars, and the positive role models in Reggie's life, as well as his earnest volunteerism, will be good for students to read. My only problem-- this is long (324 pages) and does verge on the pedantic from time to time. Volunteerism can be portrayed in an interesting way (see Sonnenblick), but Reggie's involvement with the youth group and pastor, as well as his soul-searching, might not appeal to students as much.

Smith, Sherri L. Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet.
Reviewed 11 March 2008
I was a little leery of a book that takes place all in one somewhat ill-fated afternoon, but this turned out to be a very humorous story of a multicultural family event. Ana Shen's father is Chinese-American, and her mother is African-American. For her 8th grade graduation, both sets of grandparents show up, and circumstances find them all in the kitchen working to put together a meal. The personalities and cultural differences are explored in an amusing and yet thought-provoking way. I will look for more from this author.

And I am now officially old. Our new crop of student teachers/observers came in yesterday, and they look like they should be hanging out with my daughter. Which makes sense, since she is a high school senior, and they are college freshman. Still, this means I am very close to being able to tell the faculty to fix their hair and pull up their socks. I already have a cane waiting for me so I can shake it at people!

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T04:55:00.009-05:00

Whittenberg, Allison. Tutored.
Wendy's father is a well-to-do, educated black man who is vehemently opposed to black people who have not made something of themselves, so he is not happy that Wendy is volunteering with a tutoring center in an economically disadvantaged part of town. While there, she meets Hakiam, whose mother got tired of raising him and put him into foster care. Having had enough of that, he moves from Cincinnati to Philadelphia to help his cousin Leesa raise her premature baby, Malikia. He doesn't really have a plan. Wendy does-- it includes going to college at Howard University in order to reconnect with her ethnic heritage, a plan that her father does not embrace. Wendy and Hakiam are strangely drawn to each other, and start to date. Wendy helps Hakiam take care of little Malikia, and tries to get him to secure a job and continue his education, but when things go wrong with the baby, he's not sure if he can hang on.
Strengths:I don't know that I have read anything that covers black-on-black prejudice, so this was interesting and will be a good addition to my romance books.
Weaknesses: The pictures of Wendy and Hakiam appear only on the back cover! There are a
few instances where this verges into more high school territory-- Hakiam smokes marijuana, and there is a party or two-- but these events are not glamorized. I also didn't feel what attraction these two had to each other, but they apparently did.

Meyer, Marissa. Cinder.
Cinder is the best mechanic in New Beijing, so when Prince Kai brings her his android to repair, she is not overly surprise, but is very flattered. She knows that she will not get to the big ball because her stepmother Adri is putting all of her resources into sending Cinder's stepsisters, Peony and Pearl. When Peony is struck down with letumosis, the plague that is going around and which also kills the king, Adri volunteers Cinder to participate in research to try to find a cure for the disease. During this research, Cinder finds out that she is actually immune to the disease. In the meantime, the Lunar Queen Levana comes to earth to console Kai about the death of his father and to try to set up an alliance with Earth... by marrying Kai. Cinder realizes that she can see through Levana's glamor, and her continued work with the doctor in the research facility leads to some startling truths about herself. Can Cinder save Earth from Queen Levana, save her sister from the plague, believe that Kai likes her more than Levana, and make it to the ball?
Strengths: This is one of those books that didn't appeal to me but which everyone is reading, but I was drawn in from the first page and really enjoyed it. There are so many good twists on the Cinderella story, plus intergalactic intrigue. I also liked that it was science fiction without being completely dystopian. Really a "wow" of a book!
Weaknesses: There was a lot going on, and since this is a fairly long book (390 pages), a bit more tightening would have strengthened the story for me.

CYBILS!!!

2012-02-14T04:27:00.005-05:00

I know it says entire encyclopedia sets about how I need to get a life, but I sat bolt upright in bed at 11:50 p.m. last night and couldn't get back to sleep! I finally got up and checked the Cybils web site, only to find out they posted at 2:00 a.m. my time. I did go back to sleep but was up earlier than usual!

Here are the wonderful winners for middle grade divisions. See more over at Cybils.com.

Poetry
Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto by Paul B. Janeczko
Candlewick Press
Nominated by: Tricia Stohr-Hunt

Middle Grade Sci Fi/Fantasy
The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale
by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright; illustrations by Barry Moser
Peachtree
Nominated by: Monica Edinger

Middle Grade Fiction
Nerd Camp by Elissa Brent Weissman
Atheneum
Nominated by: Jennifer Donovan

Nonfiction
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming
Schwartz and Wade Books
Nominated by: Monica Edinger

And one Young Adult Fiction...
Young Adult Fiction
Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach
Sourcebooks Fire
Nominated by: Karen Yingling (me!)

Nonfiction Monday-- We've Got a Job

2012-02-13T06:04:00.002-05:00

Nonfiction Monday was started by Anastasia Suen and is hosted this week at Wrapped in Foil.

Levinson, Cynthia. We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March
March 28th 2012 by Peachtree Publishers
EARC provided by Netgalley.com

This is exactly why Black History Month was started; so much history involving the Civil Rights Movement never makes it to school curriculums. Certainly in the 1970s, we could have learned about school integration in the South, but I don’t think we even got as far as the Cold War! While I knew about Little Rock, and the bombings in Birmingham, I had never heard of the Children’s March that occurred in May of 1963. Children and teens learned about nonviolent protest, and even signed an agreement that they would remain nonviolent, then left school in order to march. They were arrested in droves and had fire hoses turned on them and dogs set on them. Some Civil Rights leaders, including Malcolm X, felt that this was an improper thing to do. This book is told from the points of view of four children from various backgrounds who were involved in the March, and so has good details about what it was like to live through this. Combined with the other activities at the time, this march helped to bring about the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Strengths: The set up of this book is great for middle school students—pictures are interspersed with text, and including the experiences of real people instead of just a general overview is something that will appeal to students.
Weaknesses: Before I purchase e books, nonfiction is going to have to be better formatted for this platform. I read an EARC of this, and had to reduce the print size to small so that the pictures would appear. Maybe my eye sight is getting worse than I imagine, because it was very difficult to read this way.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

2012-02-13T05:00:00.004-05:00

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday was started and is hosted by the (now wildly famous!) Shannon Whitney Messenger at her blog. Hop over there THIS WEEK to see a list of links to other bloggers posting this week on middle grade books!

Gephart, Donna. Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen
Publication Date 13 March 2012 , E ARC from Netgalley.com

Olivia and her little brother Charlie ADORE trivia, and grew up watching Jeopardy with their father. Things have changed for the worse in Olivia's world, though-- her father married her best friend Nikki's mother and moved to California, her mother has moved in Neil, and her best friend Tucker is being a jerk to her. When Olivia finds out that there are auditions for Jeopardy, she wants to take the online test and try out... but her mother loses her job as a newspaper reporter and is too depressed to register her, and her father is too busy keeping up with his gambling addiction to do it either. Luckily, Neil comes through, and Olivia does well enough on the test to go to try outs in D.C. The family situation worsens, however, and when she finally gets to visit her father in California, she finds out why her friend Nikki won't talk to her, and learns that Neil is more reliable than her own father.

Strengths: Gephart is a smooth writer who gets many things about middle grade fiction pitch perfect. Olivia's hopes are all too real, and while things work out for her, there is an undercurrent of painful reality.
Weaknesses: This was a rather sad book, and the cover made it look happy, so there was a cognitive disconnect for a bit. It still was very good, so I will buy it, even though I need more humorous than sad books.

Sunday Brunch

2012-02-12T11:30:00.005-05:00

Diggs, Taye and Shane W. Evans. Chocolate Me.

Johnny, Timmy and Mark make fun of young Taye because he does not look like them, nor does he have a similar name. His hair is curly, his skin is dark, and his nose is wide. These comments make Taye doubt his own worth, but his supportive mother points out to him that he has many fine qualities, and is the same color as chocolate. She makes him cupcakes to share with his friends, who also agree that chocolate can be a good thing.

My favorite part of this book was the t shirts that Taye is wearing, all of which bear supportive messages like "Number 1 Son" and "Be Super". The pictures are colorful and appealing.

Pinkwater, Daniel. Mrs. Noodlekugel.

ARC from Netgalley.com

Nick and Maxine move into a tall apartment building and accidentally get a glimpse of a small house with a garden in the center of their block. They are told not to go there, but once they find that they can get to the area through the boiler room of their building, they go and meet Mrs. Noodlekugel, her talking cat, and her four nearsighted mice. It turns out that she will be their babysitter, but their parents told them not to visit her so that they would be more intrigued and get to meet her. (Is this a good lesson? Hmmm.) They bake some magical cookies with her, and get to find out a little about her world.

Strengths: The pictures are adorable, even in rough draft, and the premise is an intriguing ones.

Weaknesses: I was expecting something like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and while the set up is there, the follow through is not. In fact, when I got to the end of the book, I strongly suspected that half the pages were missing. Maybe this will be a series, so the book ended abruptly to entice children to pick up the next one, but I did have the distinct feeling that this was unfinished.

Eight Days: A Story of Haiti

2012-02-11T05:23:00.002-05:00

Danticat, Edwidge. Eight Days: A Story of Haiti
The earthquake in Haiti in 2010 was devastating, and the country is still having immense problems. This picture book tries to recapture some of the beauty of life in Haiti that is hard to find. Junior is trapped under a building after the earthquake with his friend Oscar, and manages to survive for 8 days, thinking each day of activities he liked to do with his friends. While he survives, Oscar does not. There is a helpful afterword that explains more about the earthquake and Danticat's motivation for writing a book about Haiti so that her young daughters would be able to know something about the country as it was before the earthquake.

Danticat is also the author of Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490, one of the Scholastic Royal Diaries books, as well as many other books.

Guy Friday-- Baseball

2012-02-10T05:00:00.005-05:00

Smith, Charles. Stars in the Shadows: The Negro League All-Star Game

Well illustrated by Frank Morrison, this is an interesting combination of poetry and pictures, although not quite a graphic novel. The play by plays of the game are interspersed with advertisements that give a window into black culture at the time. The players in the game are described, and comments from fans in the stands add to the narrative with input from a woman just starting to work for the NAACP, a young boy who is following Jesse Owens’ career with interest, and others who just like the baseball. End notes tell a little more about how the All-Star game was put together, and the effect that it had on the black community.

Strengths: This will appeal to elementary students as well as struggling middle school readers who like baseball, and will sneak a bit of poetry into their reading!
Weaknesses: I’m not quite sure where to put this-- regular fiction? Baseball nonfiction? Graphic novels? It is an unusual piece of work.

Fitzmaurice, Kathryn. A Diamonds in the Desert.
Tetsu, his mother, and sister Kimi have been moved from their home in California to the Gila River Relocation camp in Arizona after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. His father is imprisioned because he was very active in the Japanese community and therefore considered a threat by the US government. Tetsu is worried about his dog, Lucky, who was given to a farmer but ran away, and might have been sighted back at his old house by a neighbor. Tetsu is also unhappy about having to give up baseball, but one of the other prisoners was a baseball coach, and he has the boys working on constructing a diamond. Tetsu’s mother gets a job in the kitchen, the wait to hear from his father, and do their best to survive the horrible conditions at the camp. His little sister gathers small animals to be her pets, but doesn’t like the open latrines-- she always brings a pillowcase to put over her head when using them. When Tetsu forgets the pillowcase and gets angry at his sister for being so needy, she runs away and gets lost in the desert overnight, and gets very ill. As she slowly improves, Tetsu works with the baseball coach and soon their team is playing other internment camps. Eventually, the war ends, they are reunited with their father, and the family prepares to go on with their life after the internment camp.
Strengths: Details of every day life in the camp are well presented, and the inclusion of baseball will add more readers.
Weaknesses: This seemed a little unfocused; I prefer Dean Hughes’ Missing in Action for similar coverage of both the Japanese camps and baseball.

Action Covers! Run!

2012-02-09T05:01:00.001-05:00

Wright, Barbara. Crow.
Moses has a good life in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898. His father is an alderman and a reporter for the African American newspaper, his mother does cleaning work to earn extra money for the family, and his grandmother, Boo Nanny, takes good care of him. He has friends, and enjoys his life of freedom, knowing that his mother was born into slavery but freed when she was very young. When the newspaper publishes an op ed piece stating that if it is okay for white men to father children with black women, it should be okay for black men to have white wives, the community is in an uproar. Wilmington had a large community of middle class black citizens, with representation in the local government, but an all white board of citizens decides that this should end and try to pressure Moses’ father to step down from his office and also try to shut down the newspaper. When the men refuse to give in, the newspaper first loses its offices, and then is torched by an angry mob. Things get worse and worse until there is widespread violence and destruction in the town, and Moses finds that while it is important to stick by one’s principles, it can be very hard to do so.
Strengths: Based on a historical event, this was a very vivid picture of what life was like during that time. I was drawn in my Moses’ concerns and attitudes toward his life and his father. The family dynamic was very interesting, and there was enough action that many readers will enjoy this.
Weaknesses: It might be hard to get readers to pick this one up, but I will definitely try.

Prineas, Sarah. Winterling.
Fer (short for Jennifer) is being raised her grandmother because her parents have both died. Grand-Jane is a homeopathic healer with a still room who is constantly afraid for Fer, who feels restless at the overseeing and just wants to be outside. One night, however, she is involved in a wolf attack and brings the boy who is attacked home to get help. Grand-Jane is very displeased, because the boy is really a puck, and the story of why Fer's parents were killed, and why Fer herself is a halfling is revealed. She tries to stay away, but Fer is drawn into the Way, and eventually leaves her grandmother to try to deal with the Lady of the Land, who is causing spring not to come... in both worlds. The lady has done something evil and has the creatures under her spell. Fer finds out that her mother was the true Lady, and feels it is up to her to find out what the Lady has done and restore both worlds to their proper states while figuring out where her own place is.
Strengths: Facile middle grade fantasy with enough adventure, a nice twist on the Ice Queen legend, present but not overbearing grandmother, competent world building.
Weaknesses: Seems to be rockin' everyone else's socks more than mine. I think it was Fer. Because she is a halfling, she didn't fit in, but my first impression of her was that she was kind of whiny. I finished the book quickly and enjoyed it, but didn't love Fer. Maybe the name bothered me, although it shouldn't, because my son calls himself Vid! (Short for David.)

Notes on Weeding: It went much better yesterday after I filled up a rounder I that I usually stock with Accelerated Reader recommendations with AR books I was considering pulling. This rounder is my most frequent stop, and as I looked at it again and again, and pulled books off it to show students, the number of nose wrinkles I got was enough to make me think "These are just past their prime."

The books I pulled weren't anything fabulous-- they were okay. But the also had appallingly bad cover art, they were dull and dusty, and very, very few students picked them up. When they did, they brought them back later in the day.

It's like the beautiful gray wool Talbot's slacks I paid an entire $5 for that were really comfortable and made me look slim(mer). They also were side buttoned and had very short, narrow ankles. Every time I pulled them out of the closet I put them back, and if I did wear them to school, I felt funny in them. Some things just don't work any longer. I'm not doing my students any favors if I keep books that aren't working for anyone cluttering up the shelves.

*Sigh*

Weeding, or things that make me very sad

2012-02-08T05:56:00.014-05:00

One of my parent volunteers was in yesterday and asked what she should do. I said "It's that time of year again. We need to look at weeding." "No, we don't," she scoffed. "There can't possibly be anything LEFT. I've been weeding here for six years!"

I turned and pulled a suspiciously faded book on Hinduism off the shelf. 1979. Is there anything that was published in 1979 that is still current?

Well, except for Cross Country Runner (1975). And My Robot Buddy (1977), which I just bought a copy of on Half.com because our library copy is always out and quickly being reduced to glue and tape.

The point being is that I am absolutely not opposed to old titles. Some old titles I adore. They circulate all the time. Students love them. That Cross Country Runner still has reserves on it.

What I had to look at yesterday was books that have NOT been circulating. Books that are taking up valuable room on the shelves. That are dusty. That smell. Yes, since we had a sculptor in the library (more later) and it was a weirdly busy-then-not-busy day, I spent a lot of the day SMELLING BOOKS. The ones that appear at the top of this post? Ponging. Or, as one of my students said "Not a bad smell exactly, just like my grandmother's house."

I love Up a Road Slowly, but no one has checked it out since 1997. Not only that, but the back cover is barely attached. It just looks sad. I tried to get children to check them out, but the only luck I had was with Alias Madame Doubtfire and the saddest copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang you have ever seen. I only got someone to check that out because I told them the book was older than I am!

If only for hygienic reasons, these books need to go. But it's hard. It's like ripping little bits off of my soul. I can weed nonfiction fairly easily, but fiction requires the help of understanding volunteers to hold my hand... after they have ripped books from it. It helps if they then hand me a tissue.

Do I need to get out more, or is this a fairly common reaction to weeding?

Quilting

2012-02-08T05:00:00.000-05:00

Latham, Irene. Leaving Gee’s Bend.
Gee’s Bend, Alabama was an impoverished place in 1932. When Ludelphia’s mother has a premature baby and becomes ill with pneumonia afterwards, there is not much to be done, especially since the family refuses the help of a neighbor, Etta Mae, because they fear she is a witch. Ludelphia decides that she will go to Camden, forty miles away, and get a doctor for her mother. She sets off, runs into trouble with the ferry, and is found in the barn of Mrs. Cobb, whose husband ran a general store and helped many of the black citizens. Unfortunately, Mrs. Cobb is a bit undone by her husband’s recent death, and has a grudge against the people of Gee’s Bend. When she finds out that Ludelphia’s family owed her husband money, she vows to go to their house and take everything of value. Ludelphia manages to get to the local doctor, and his wife is somewhat helpful, but tells her that the only cure for her mother is rest and good food. Mrs. Cobb’s raid on Gee’s Bend is awful, but luckily Ludelphia had written to the Red Cross, and supplies soon come to help out the community.
Strengths: Ludelphia is a spunky character who takes her fate into her own hands and does her best to help everyone around her despite her own disability. This is a vivid portrait of a community under stress.
Weaknesses: I love quilting, but didn’t feel that Ludelphia’s sewing fit in with the story.

Nolen, Jerdine. Eliza’s Freedom Road.
Eliza’s master in 1854 has some money problems, and ends up selling Eliza’s mother. When the mistress becomes very sick, she goes from Virginia to Maryland to stay with her sister, and takes several slaves, including Eliza, along. Eliza knows how to read, and tells a lot of stories using the quilt that her mother left her, but dreams of her freedom. When a group of slaves at the Maryland estate find out about Harriet Tubman’s plans to go north to freedom on the Underground Railroad, Eliza also makes her own plans. When the mistress dies, she runs away and manages to make her way to Canada.
Strengths: This would be a good book to read with an elementary class covering this topic. The inclusion of various stories of importance in African American slave culture, as well as explanations of them in the back of the book, are a nice touch.
Weaknesses: Other than the stories, this is not that much different from similar stories that I have read.

Mysteries!

2012-02-07T05:50:00.005-05:00

Bond, Victoria and T.R.Simon. Zora and Me.
Zora and her friends Carrie and Teddy get into all sorts of trouble in their small Florida community in the early 1900s. Zora has a flair for the dramatic and is always making up one story or another. After a local man is mauled to death trying to wrestle an alligator, Zora comes up with two stories-- one about Mr. Pendir having the snout of an alligator, and one about what might have happened to a man found murdered beside the railroad tracks. Her stories make it hard for anyone to believe her, but Zora is convinced that she knows what happened to the murdered man, and tries to make her parents believe her to make sure that justice is done.
Strengths: Many students would not know who Zora Neale Hurston is, and this is a good introduction to the author combined with a mystery.
Weaknesses: This is a small book with a somewhat cartoonish cover, but the contents are not necessarily for very young children. There is a lot of heavy duty coverage of prejudice and discrimination, as well as romantic intrigue. The language is also very rich, especially when Zora is spinning her yarns.

Margolis, Leslie. Vanishing Acts. (Maggie Brooklyn #2)

Maggie is still walking dogs, and this time the problem is that someone is hiding in the park and throwing eggs at the dogs. Not only that, but when Maggie spends some time being an extra in a film, she meets the star, Seth Ryan. He then goes missing, and Maggie thinks she can find out what happened to him. Maggie's friends and neighbors play a big part in this plot, as does the neighborhood itself. Maggie learns that stardom isn't all it seems to be, and in the end, solves both mysteries.

Strengths: While light on plot, the characters in this series are so fun that the book is very engaging. The small size and appealing cover art by Tuesday Mourning (as well as the inclusion of dogs!) will make this a bit hit with girls in 3rd through 7th grade.

Weaknesses: Again, light on plot, and somewhat transparent mystery.

Thanks for Erik over at This Kid Reviews Books for awarding me a Liebster Award. If you want book reviews from an actual middle grade boy, head over and check out his great blog. Since I posted the answers to all the questions back in the fall, I won't bore people again-- instead, spend your time visiting Erik!

Jewish Civil Rights Activists

2012-02-06T05:00:00.006-05:00

Greenberg, David T. A Tugging String.
Based on the real-life experiences of the author, whose father was a Civil Rights attorney who worked with Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King, this novel offered a different perspective to the Civil Rights movement. Duvy lives in New York City, but know that his father travels to the South to help the black citizens. When Dorothy Milton, a college educated woman living in Selma, Alabama in 1960 finds it impossible to register to vote, Jack Greenburg gets involved with the case. His life is in danger during several points in this process, and eventually the entire black community decides that something must be done, which results in a huge march from Selma to Montgomery to protest the hoops that blacks are made to jump through in order to be able to vote. There is a brief section of photographs in the middle, and plentiful footnotes describe real events and people and how the book has dealt with them for the purposes of the story.
Strengths: It was very interesting to read about David’s perceptions of his father’s work at the time, and helpful that he occasionally quotes from his father’s writing about the events. A different and intriguing perspective.
Weaknesses: This fell somewhere between fiction and nonfiction, and while at times I wanted it to be either one or the other, in the end this was probably an effective way to write the book. The title could have been a bit better-- this one is rather nondescript.

Brandeis, Gayle. My Life with the Lincolns.
Mina has a good life in Downer’s Grove, Illinois in 1966. Her parents run Honest ABE’s furniture store, and she and her two sisters attend a nice school, but Mina is convinces that her family all are members of Lincoln’s family reincarnated, and this gives her some worries. She doesn’t want to die (she’s Will), doesn’t want her mother to go crazy, and doesn’t want her father to be shot. There’s not much chance of that at the beginning, but as her father becomes more involved in the Civil Rights movement and starts attending rallies in Chicago. Things often become violent as people protest living conditions and differences in treatment. Her father, perhaps more motivated when he sees the synagogue he attended growing up converted into a Baptist church, starts to neglect the business a bit, and this causes stress in the family.
Strengths: Lots of vivid detail about life at the time-- Quisp cereal and medical encyclopedias at the grocery, family photos in prarie garb-- adds to the immediacy of the story.
Weaknesses: Could have done without Mina thinking she had angina because her breasts were growing-- she is so concerned about this that she takes someone else’s nitroglycerin tablets and ends up in the hospital! There are other descriptions that also made me uncomfortable and really didn’t add to the story.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is the brainchild of Shannon Whitney Messenger, who hosts it on her blog. There are always lots of good posts, so visit Shannon's post for a great list of blogs to visit today.

Nonfiction Monday-- You Need a Schoolhouse

2012-02-06T05:00:00.005-05:00

Deutsch, Stephanie. You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South

This book definitely comes under the heading of “Who knew?” Washington and Rosenwald, a well-to-do Jewish businessman who ran Sears, Roebuck for many years, built around 5,000 schools in the rural South for black students in the rural South. Their friendship in the early part of the 1900s was unusual for the time but extremely productive. Washington frequently approached businessmen who might help him with his various projects, and Rosenwald felt that black children were not being treated fairly and kept up with the school project even after Washington’s death in 1915.
Strengths: This book is incredibly well-researched and gives minute details on so many facets of this fascinating project. Pictures are included.
Weaknesses: This is a bit too much information for middle school. I would love to see a version done with more pictures, information on the times in general done in sidebars, and not quite as much detail. This would be excellent for high school collections where research projects are done on this topic.

Nonfiction Monday is administered by Anastasia Suen and is hosted today by Capstone Connect.

These Hands

2012-02-05T05:31:00.000-05:00

Mason, Margaret H. These Hands.
Illustrated by Floyd Cooper.
Joseph's grandfather tells him about all of the things that he can do with his hands, from shuffling cards to playing piano. One of the things his hands were not allowed to do was to touch the bread at a Wonder Bread factory. African-American workers were only allowed to do cleaning and maintenance, NOT touch the bread because then white customers wouldn't want to eat it. The book then details how people worked to change this and other rules and laws so that today Joseph's hands are allowed to do everything of which they are capable. Nicely illustrated and written, this showcases how unfair rules filter down to even the smallest tasks that children today might not consider.

Historical Picture Books

2012-02-04T05:00:00.003-05:00

Evans, Shane. Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom.
This picture book portrays an escape from slavery with extremely simple text and rough-hewn drawings. This would be something the most beginning readers could read, but they might need to talk through the pictures to make sense of the story, and have someone read the explanations at the back of the book to them. Not being a picture book aficionado, especially if there are few or no words, I didn't care much for this personally, but I could see it being used in the elementary school as an introduction to a unit on the Underground Railroad.

De La Pena, Matt. A Nation's Hope: The Story of boxing Legend Joe Louis.
Illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
The Joe Louis-Max Schmeling rivalry in 1938 was of huge concern to the African-American community, and to the US in general. Louis's triumph meant that somehow the Nazis and Nazi ideals were inferior, and Schmeling's triumph dejected the entire country. In easy-to-understand but elegant and descriptive language, this book describes both the fights and their impact on African- Americans during a time when Civil Rights issues were starting to come to the foreground. This would be useful even in a middle school. Perhaps because I had a dear friend who was forced to fight for the Wehrmacht or be killed, even though his views were as far from sympathetic to the Nazis as could be, I am curious to read about Max Schmeling's life-- in Sharenow's The Berlin Boxing Club, he is portrayed as a somewhat sympathetic character despite his vilification in the US.

Guy Friday-- Football

2012-02-03T05:00:00.001-05:00

Barber, Ronde and Tiki. Goal Line.
Primarily written, as pointed out by Mr. Winchell in comments, by Paul Mantell, who should be allowed to write books under his own name!

Twins Ronde and Tiki are starting 8th grade and are very excited to start playing football again, but Ronde is disconcerted to find that his identical twin is 3 inches and many pounds heavier than he is. Suddenly, the team is not rooting for “the Barber twins” but just Tiki. Tiki also writes an essay for a contest and wins, forcing him to read the essay at an assembly. He is approached by the school newspaper to write an advice column, and keeping up with football, class work, and the column prove stressful. Another set of twin players from Haiti help the team, but make the Barbers worry about their worth. The Eagles have a chance to have an undefeated season with the return of Coach Wheeler, and might have a chance to go to the playoffs again, but not unless Tiki can get his priorites in order.
Strengths: I wish there were more sports series for boys. These are the perfect length and have just the right mix of sports and school problems. They do need a little more romance, though!Weaknesses: For some reason, even though these are based off the Barbers’ real lives, there’s always something I can’t quite believe. In this one, it is Tiki having to read his essay at assembly, and the sudden popularity of his advice column. Are there any middle school that even have school newspapers?

Tunis, John. All American. (Nota Bene: Published in 1942)
E ARC from Netgalley.com from Open Road Media.

Ronald is a student at a the private Academy and a star on the football team when an attempt to stop Meyer Goldman from making a touchdown results in Goldman being in the hospital with severe back injuries. Wracked by guilt, and increasingly irritated by the attitudes of the students and staff at Academy, Ronald transfers to Abraham Lincoln High School. The transition is tough-- people call him a “pretty boy” and cause him problems until he gets in a fist fight with the nasty Stacey and ends up in the hospital himself. After this, everyone is nicer and Ron plays on both the baseball and football teams. When the football team is invited to an intersectional game in the South, one of the players will not be able to go because the school does not allow Negroes to play. Ronald wants the team to refuse to go, and he has the support of his fellow players, but local businesmen who will lose money if the team does not go put pressure on his father and the fathers of the other players to encourage the team to play. In the end, the team does not bow to this pressure, but end up being uninvited in the South but invited to an intersectional in the North, so everyone is happy.
Strengths: Tunis (1889-1975) always does excellent sports descriptions, and we get football and baseball in this one. The cover alone makes the book worth buying. This is also a good historical description of the plight of African-Americans during this time period. It was fun to read about the fathers talking about the “big game of ‘16” and about Ronald’s lunch: scrambled eggs, potato chips, a piece of pie, bottle of milk and bread and butter, all for 27 cents. Probably considered well balanced, too!
Weaknesses: It was jarring to read “Negro” again and again, and I worry that this will offend readers who don’t know the historical background. Also, since this is from Open Road Media, it is only available as an E Book.

It's funny how small print is an indicator that a book is meant for older audiences. I looked at Caludia Gray's new Fateful, and just couldn't get into it because the print was too small AND it was about werewolves on the Titanic. Lots of people out there need two copies for their libraries, but I don't have the audience for this book this year. Will get this author's Balthazar, however, which comes out March 6. Another one was Hautman's What Boys Really Want, which is usually the kind of realistic fiction I adore, but again, small font (along with more mature subject matter) doomed it.

Another one I really wanted to like was House and Vaswani's Same Sun Here. From the Publisher: " A twelve-year-old Indian immigrant in New York City and a Kentucky coal miner's son become pen pals, and eventually best friends, through a series of revealing letters exploring such topics as environmental activism, immigration, and racism." Again, libraries where Naylor's Faith, Hope and Ivy June is popular will want to have this, but the letter format seemed anachronistic, and I see this being a hard sell at my library. Marjoleine Book Blog and Middle Grade Reads both adored this.

For the past week, I've been longing to reread books. Cleary's Fifteen. Edwards' Mandy. Most recently, Paige Dixon's May I Cross Your Golden River (1975). Someone mentioned it, I remember reading it, and there is not a copy to be found anywhere. This made me think about all of the books I have in my library that are rather aged-- the copy of Mandy (1974) that I have is a first edition. How long will it last? When will all of my copies of Stormbreaker fall to pieces and be irreplacable? I need to teach for 25 more years, so I will not be able to recommend the same books forever.

Second morning this week that gently sobbing seems required.

For younger readers

2012-02-02T04:50:00.001-05:00

Patrick, Denise Lewis. Meet Cecile.
Cecile lives in New Orleans in 1853. Her father is a sculptor, her brother is off studying in France, and her aunt and cousin live with the family after the death of Cecile’s uncle. Cecile takes music lessons and enjoys her neighborhood, but it is slowly changing. Ceccile and her family are gens de coleur libres, free people of color, and are just starting to feel the influence of the Americans who are coming to New Orleans and think of people of color as slaves. She meets an American girl, Marie-Grace, who shares many of her interests, and the two become friends. The big social event of the season is the costumed Children’s Ball, and this takes Cecile’s mind off missing her brother.
Strengths: As with many American Girl titles, this covers a specific and little known period of American History and is easy to read. The characters are engaging, and the sense of place is strong.
Weaknesses: I took a class once on race relations, and the situation in New Orleans at this time was not portrayed as quite as idyllic as this. (Although some problems are definitely addressed in this book.)Now I am curious!

Read an interview today with author Denise Patrick Lewis at The Brown Bookshelf.

Goldberg, Whoopi and Marilyn Roos.
Perfectly Prima (Sugar Plum Ballerinas #3)

Jerzey Mae loves ballet, but taking lessons with her sisters Jessica and JoAnn doesn't work all that well. Jerzey is a perfectionist, and while she loves ballet, she isn't good at it and doesn't find it to be fun. When she and her sisters are chosen to do a dance about three princesses, she's very excited and does everything in her power to improve her dance skills-- lots of practice, taping the teacher's remarks, studying all the steps. Nothing helps. When she is playing basketball with her annoying younger brother Mason, she realizes that what she is lacking IS the fun of it all. It's helpful that she realizes this, because when her sister breaks her leg and isn't able to be in the ballet, Jerzey needs to use her newfound confidence to find a way that the dance can still be performed.
Strengths: This is an easy to read book that would be great for 1st through 3rd graders who are interested in dancing. Jerzey's lawyer mother and professor father are very supportive and the interactions between Jerzey and her family and friends are very realistic.
Weaknesses: Jerzey's severe perfectionism makes me want to have her identified as being on the Autisum spectrum-- in fact, most of the characters are so extreme that I wondered about many of them! The proliferation of one-note characters took away from an otherwise good story.

Black History Month-- The Mighty Miss Malone

2012-02-01T05:00:00.007-05:00

It’s Black History Month, so I’m going to try to post a book about a person of color every day. There are arguments back and forth about whether there should be a month that focuses on the achievement of black Americans, and even what term to use. I have decided to use black instead of African Americans, because not all black people come from Africa. It does feel a little funny using the term “black”, although using “people of color” doesn’t seem right either. As for the argument that there shouldn’t be a special month because all cultures in America should be given equal treatment all the time-- well, while this is true, we still have to deal with the problem of only 2% of the fiction books being published having people of color on the cover. My focus is to have all of my students be able to find people similar to themselves portrayed in books.

Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Mighty Miss Malone.
E ARC provided by Edelweiss’ Above The Treeline
What better way to start the month than to highlight a new book that features the bright and curious Deza Malone, who has this to say about the books that are given to her: “Some of the time I’d get snapped out of the book when I read things that I couldn’t pretend were about me, even if I had the imagination of Mr. William Shakespeare. Words like “her pale, luminescent skin: or her flowing mane of golden hair” or her lovely, cornflower-blue eyes” or “the maiden fair”. I would stop and think, No, Deza, none of these books are about you.” Deza is the best student in her school despite the fact that her family has fallen on hard times during the Great Depression. She keeps herself occupied by hanging out with her brother Jimmie, going to baseball games, and following the rise of Joe Louis. When her father is gravely injured in a fishing accident that kills several of their neighbors, times get even tougher for the family. After the father moves from Gary, Indiana to Flint, Michigan for a job, the family tries to follow him. Jimmie arranges a ride with a criminal type who runs a betting scheme, but the family decides it’s better to ride the rails and end up in a Hooverville type camp. When they are booted from that by the authorities, they manage to get settled in a small apartment. The mother works, Deza attends a school with white students where the teachers are prejudiced and black students are lucky to get C’s, and Jimmie starts to work in a speakeasy. After a while, they get letters and money from the father, but suspect that he is not the one writing them.
Strengths: Vivid picture of what it was like to live through the Great Depression, as well as what it was like to live with every day prejudice. Deza is a strong character, and her family tries their best to survive and prosper during a difficult time.
Weaknesses: Deza is a little full of herself at times, and the first few chapters of the book are anecdotal, which made me wonder if a plot would ever emerge. Once it did, the book picked up tremendously.
I was feeling uncharacteristically organized when I came across Doret's announcement at The Happy Nappy Bookseller for the Black History Blog Hop. There are all sorts of events going on, including Bookaholic's Africa Reading Challenge. The Brown Bookshelf is also showcasing African American authors. As I find more events and postings, I'll try to share them.

Now I'm going to go sob quietly into some nonfiction shelving. Or glue some books back together. I'm behind no matter how early I start!

ARCs, a Discussion

2012-02-01T04:35:00.003-05:00

I have a love-hate relationship with Advanced Readers' Copies. I love getting titles that I need to read; I hate getting random sequels to high school paranormal romances. Since I read any book I purchase before spending tax payer money on it, I rely heavily on the public library. Here's the beautiful thing about that-- the public library doesn't care if I review the book. They just want it back when I'm done.

Recently, my Baker and Taylor representative enrolled me in their ARC group. The students are SO excited when they see what I have. The problem is that the books I want to read-- sports books or humor for boys-- are not heavily promoted. Half the box consists of books with girls in fancy dresses spread languidly across the cover.

I love Netgalley. com. If I request a book and don't like it, no trees have died, and considerably less money has been spent to provide me with a copy.

The wonderful Gail Gauthier, who blogs at Original Content, addresses the issue of "What to DO with ARCs when the reviewer has read them". ARCs are meant to generate buzz for a book and help it sell. ARCs are NEVER to be included in library collections or, obviously, sold. One author on the list serve where Ms. Gauthier brought this up was worried about ARCs getting into students' hands, because frequently there are a lot of changes made, and there can be spelling and grammar errors that are later fixed. I thought about this a lot.

I would like to tell publishers and authors everywhere that ARCs ending up in students' hands is not going to impact their sales. I give away all of mine to students, and try to pick students who would otherwise not own any books of their own. Right now, I am stock piling ARCs to give away in May, when all of the library books are due but students will still have Sustained Silent Reading. We have a book fair, I push hard for students to get public library cards, and I have stocked classrooms with a variety of reading materials, but there are still some students who have NO books at all of their own.

When I got a copy of Heather Brewers' First Kill, I had a contest in the library. Fifty students entered letters explaining why they should win the copy, and the boy who did was thrilled. I would encourage bloggers, reviewers, authors and publicists to give ARCs to schools where there are a lot of economically disadvantaged students. Unfortunately, one needs not travel far to find one of these.

Time Slip Tuesday

2012-01-31T04:30:00.002-05:00

Time Slip Tuesday is a recurring feature at Charlotte's Library. This is also a good day to announce that my students and I have managed to figure out HOW to time travel. It involves an old date due stamp, but we have yet to find the right stamp pad to activate it, so we haven't managed to travel anywhere yet. And we can only travel between 1992 and 1997. Oh, well. Perhaps I should ask Verizon about the unlimited Time Travel Plan for my phone!

Bedard, Michael. The Green Man
ARC from Netgalley.com
Ophelia, who prefers to be called “O”, is sent to live with her ailing aunt Emily for the summer while her father is in Italy. In a small English town, Emily runs a dusty old bookshop that is in as bad a condition as she is. The books are dusty and outdated, the shop in disrepair, and the business not bringing in enough money. O tries to get her aunt to eat more healthy food, stop smoking, and make small changes to the bookstore. During this all, she is plagued by horrible dreams of a demonic magic show, and eventually finds out that it is an event from Emily’s memory, and Emily is afraid that something bad will occur on August 8, the anniversary of this event. When a descendant of a local artist offers to sell a rare collection of books about magic to Emily, the two hope that this will be the salvation of the book shop, but it might also be their undoing!
Strengths: Much like the book Flightsend, I enjoyed the English setting of this one. A bookshop! Poets! That part was fabulous. I enjoyed the book very much.
Weaknesses: The demonic magic show was a bit odd. Certainly, it gives more meat to the plot, but it also makes it hard to find an audience for the book. It’s not exactly scary, but readers who want a story about running a bookshop in England might not want the scary parts. It’s rather Gothic, and there’s not as much call for that.

Hood, Ann. Little Lion (The Treasure Chest #2)
Having traveled back and visited Clara Barton in the first book, Felix and Maisie find themselves living with their mother, who is divorcing their father. All the two want to do is go home, and they figure that if they can somehow go back in time again, maybe they can keep their family together. With the help of their great aunt Maisie, they locate a family artifact that helps them go back... to Saint Croix in 1772. There they meet a young Alexander Hamilton and determine that he is the one to whom they should give a silver coin dated 1794, but they need to pick their time wisely in order to be believed. This involves traveling on a ship back to New York. Only when they come to terms with what is going on in the present day are they able to return.
Strengths: This would be a nice introduction to time travel for younger readers. I missed a little by not reading the one about Clara Barton, and I may have to pick that one up, since I researched her in the 4th grade for a Wax Museum!
Weaknesses: A little young for middle school, and fundamentally at odds with my philosophy of time travel. I know, I know-- it doesn't really exist, but if it did, it would be caused by something as simple as a stamp pad! This book takes 47 pages for them to figure out how to go back again. And then they didn't have proper time traveling outfits! If it took that long, they could have cobbled something together.

Apparently, I am reading WAY too many time travel books! Still need to find a shawl for my outfit and post a picture of me ready to hurtle into the past. Or the future! (I can only go as far as 2015 with my current date due stamper!

Marvelous Middle Grade Nonfiction Guy Monday!

2012-01-29T11:30:00.000-05:00

Whew! February is going to be a busy month here! The most important event is the Third Annual Boys Read Pink month! This year, Charlie Joe Jackson, of Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading, is joining us because of his declaration on page 123: " If you have to read, read about girls. It helps you understand them better." This was my point when I set out to challenge boys to read books with girls on the covers. Most of the time, when I hand boys books with girls on the cover, they wrinkle their noses, but when I tell them that EVERYONE is reading them, they are okay with it. Even before the month has started, I've had about 15 boys check out "girl" books. Of course, Charlie Joe himself is so popular that I just ordered three more copies!

In addition to Boys Reading Pink , it's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, which is hosted over at Shannon Whitney Messenger's blog and The Nonfiction Monday round up is at Wendie's Wanderings this week. I encourage you to click through and visit some of these sites-- I always find great book suggestions and often other helpful blogs through both of these round ups.

Berk, Josh. Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator.
E ARC from Netgalley. Publication March 2012

When Guy's father dies and his best friend Anoop tries to get him to join the school Forensics Squad, he thinks "Why not?", especially when he realizes that Raquel, whom he rather likes, is joining. The teacher in charge, Mr. Zant, is not always amused by Guy's tomfoolery, but is very excited about forensic science, and the group learns about fingerprinting and lots of other ways to evaluate crimes scenes. This comes in handy when someone breaks into Guy's attic and steals valuable coins, and later, when the Forensics Squad finds an actual dead body on the golf course where they are having a competition with another school. Guy has recently found that he has a half brother whom he has never met, and gets it into his head that this is the person who stole the coins (he knew their value) and killed the teenager (who looks vaguely like Guy). Tracking his brother down in the city, Guy realizes that he was not the person responsible for either crime, and using his fingerprinting skills, he locates the perpetrator of the theft, even after the "murder" turns out to be a suicide. Along the way, Guy realizes that Raquel is not nearly as intriguing as Maureen, that his father was an interesting if flawed man, and that the world is a complicated but ultimately enjoyable place.

Strengths: Funny, funny writing! Berk has the same sort of knack that Jordan Sonnenblick has for taking an essentially sad story and making me laugh. My favorite line: "Nuttier than a squirrel turd."

Weaknesses: F-bomb on page 211. *Sigh* This was coming very close to the high school line with the sexual innuendo and general language, but it was a good murder mystery AND was funny, so I have to think about this one.

Sutherland, Adam. Police Forensics.
E ARC from Netgalley. Lerner Publications, 2012.

Forensic science is discussed in very short, almost Twitter-like snippets in this well illustrated nonfiction title. The books starts with a variety of forensic terms, then talks about gear, different types of tests investigators use, famous crimes, and has interviews with forensic scientists. This is a good book for browsing in order to get a few interesting facts, but might be difficult to use to do, say, a research project describing the job of a forensic investigator. This is certainly a topic of interest to my students, and the bright colors and brief information will make this a popular book.

The Guys Read Pink suggestions for today: Both Alane Ferguson's The Christopher Killer and Walter Sorrell's Fake ID have girls on the cover.

My Family for the War

2012-01-29T04:53:00.000-05:00

Voorhoeve Anne C. My Family for the War.
February 16th 2012 by Dial Books for Young Readers

Ziska is only ten when her family starts to realize they are not going to make it out of Berlin before Hitler manages to bring trouble to the Jews, so Ziska is sent on a kindertransport to England. There, she is lucky to run into Gary and his father, who are looking for a child to foster for the duration. The family is more observant of Jewish traditions than Ziska is, but she manages to settle in. Now called Frances, she experiences some trouble at school, tries to find sponsors for her parents, and comes to care for her English family. When London is in danger of being bombed, Frances is briefly evacuated, but comes back after a brief time. Gary goes off to fight in the war, and things become more difficult in London. Frances’ father dies, Gary is missing in action, and Frances feels guilty that she has come to care so much for her foster family. When the war winds down, she manages to find relatives who locate her mother, and she reconnects with her, but the war has changed everyone.
Strengths: This is a different facet of the Jewish experience during the war, and the London experience is one I don’t have much on.
Weaknesses: Our eighth grade unit tends to concentrate on the experience of people in the concentration camps, but this might be a good addition to our Holocaust collection.

Saturday Morning-- Dolls!

2012-01-28T04:25:00.003-05:00

McDonough, Yona Zeldis. The Doll Shop Downstairs.
Anna, Sophie and Trudie love living above their father's doll repair shop. While they are too poor to have china dolls of their own, sometimes people leave dolls for a very long time, and the girls get to play with those. The advent of World War I, however, makes it impossible for their father to get the parts he needs from Germany, and the business starts to suffer. The girls have the idea that the family can make dolls, and some that they create that are dressed as nurses get bought by FAO Schwartz. Soon, the family has a small factory going, and the new doll business keeps the family afloat. When the owner of Anna's favorite doll comes back to claim her, Anna is very sad, but the story has a happy ending. The author was inspired by the creators of the Madame Alexander dolls, although this is very loosely based on that.
Strengths: This combines the best elements of Sydney Taylor (All-of-a-Kind Family) with those of Rumer Godden, except the dolls don't speak. My girls were not very interested in dolls, but I loved Betty, my sad, plastic doll who was best friends with Teddy.
Weaknesses: Too young for middle school. It doesn't have the edge that Martin's The Doll People has, and it would be a really hard sell.

Does anyone read Godden anymore? I didn't have many books of my own growing up, but neighbor girls gave me an old copy of The Story of Holly and Ivy (1958)that I still have. I didn't realize that it had been reillustrated in full color in 1985 by Barbara Cooney, but I must say I prefer the original Adrienne Adams' illustrations. Since it is a Christmas story, I loved that it was predominately black and white, with touches of red and green. The color rather ruins that for me!

When looking for this title, I found the news that some of Godden's YA books will be reissued by Virago. I'll be looking forward to seeing these, if only for myself! From the linked site:

"Virago has acqiured 15 titles, including BLACK NARCISSUS, THE RIVER and THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER FIORITA – and four titles for younger readers – LISTEN TO THE NIGHTINGALE, THURSDAY’S CHILDREN (both ballet themed books), THE DARK HORSE and AN EPISODE OF SPARROWS – which will launch Virago Modern Classics Young Adult List.
The deal was done with Anna Davis of Curtis Brown for British Commonwealth Rights , including Canada. Virago will begin publishing in 2013. "

Guy Friday-- Interpersonal Problems

2012-01-27T04:30:00.003-05:00

Starkey, Scott. How to Beat the Bully Without Really Trying.

Rodney doesn’t have a lot of hope that life will improve when he moves from New York to Ohio. He and his friends had been bedeviled by the evil Rocco, who would give them wedgies, steal their lunch money, etc., and Rodney’s fears are immediately confirmed when Rishi, the first kid he meets, tells him that the local bully is Josh. Luckily, on their first encounter, a stray baseball breaks Josh’s nose, and Rodney is blamed for it. While this gets him in trouble with his teacher, Mrs. Lutzkraut, and his principal, Mr. Feebletop, it makes him a hero in the eyes of the students. Luck continues to follow Rodney, and every time Josh or his evil henchman Toby threaten Rodney or his new friends, something fortuitous occurs that inclines the bullies to leave him alone. This holds true even when Rocco arrives from New York. When he falls prey to Josh, Rocco warns his family to go back to New York. Rodney is even lucky enough to meet his principal’s baseball hero, Tom Seaver, on a visit to New York, so when his misbehavior catches up with him, his principal is willing to overlook it. The school year ends well, and Rodney hopes that he has put bullies behind him… but will this hold true at summer camp?
Strengths: As a humorous, realistic novel, this is pretty good. For some reason, it reminded me of older titles.
Weaknesses: BAD cover art (if this stays on the final version), and a rather unrealistic portrayal of bullying. The most prevalent form of bullying is not physical violence, but mean whispers and threats under the breath. The sort of bullying portrayed here is easier to stop because it is so overt. I was also bothered by the silly names and the ineffectual, unhelpful adult characters in the book.

Walton, K.M. Cracked.
Bull has a terrible home life. His mother got pregnant in a chance encounter, and his grandfather feels Bull’s birth killed his grandmother and ruined his own life. Both his mother and grandfather are sloppy, abusive drunks who don’t take care of Bull at all. The house is a filthy mess, and the inadequate food is often fouled with mouse turds. Bull takes out his frustration on children at school, including Victor. While Victor lives in a nice house with wealthy parents, his parents wish he was never born and quietly make his life unbearable. The only bright spot in his day (since school is awful thanks to Bull) is his elderly dog, Jazzer. When Jazzer dies and his parents take off to Europe without him to punish him for a poor test score, Victor tries to commit suicide by taking pills. This lands him in the same psych ward that Bull ends up in after an argument with his grandfather leads him to shoot himself. The two must work through not only their own problems, but their problems with each other as well.
Strengths: There are certainly students with this many problems, and it is helpful to understand that the behavior we see in school often has underlying causes that need to be addressed. Great cover.
Weaknesses: This is not suitable for middle school due to language (multiple f-bombs), and would have been, for me, a stronger novel if the abuse hadn’t been so bad. Both Victor and Bull have an offhanded tone about their abuse that made it seem somehow less serious. Hard to explain, but their tone made the suicide attempts seem out of place.

Palacio, R.J. Wonder
Alfred Knopf, 14 February 2012
August was born with severe facial deformities, and also enough health problems to lead to his home schooling. Now entering 5th grade, he has been well for some time, so his parents enroll him in Beecher Prep, near their NYC home. He is hesitant to go, because he knows all too well how people react to the way he looks, but he is somewhat comforted when the principal arranges a before school tour with several classmates. Once at the school, people are polite but occasionally surprised by Auggie’s visage, and he settles in fairly well. He makes friends with Summer, who sits with him at lunch to be nice at first, but grows to enjoy his company. The same is true of Jack, although Julian continues to be somewhat nasty. August has not only the struggles with his appearance, but with fitting in to middle school as well. The book is not all from August’s point of view- we also hear from his sister, Summer, Jack, Julian, and his sister’s boyfriend as well. While things don’t always go smoothly, especially on a class camping trip, August manages to survive his entry into public education.
Strengths: The thing I liked best about this was August’s struggles that were not related to his differences. He loves Star Wars, but doesn’t want that to be part of his persona, so he cuts off his Padawan braid and ditches his Star Wars duffle bag. This is what makes this more of a novel about a middle school student rather than a novel about a boy who is different.
Weaknesses: I would have preferred this to have been all from August’s point of view. Also, in the digital ARC, the boyfriend’s chapters lack capitalization and some punctuation. This was weird and vaguely annoying, since I couldn’t see any real reason for it.

Fantasy EVERYWHERE!

2012-01-26T04:30:00.010-05:00

Snyder, Laurel. Bigger Than a Breadbox.
Rebecca loves her life in Baltimore even though she realizes that her parents are fighting a lot now that her father is between jobs. After her father forgets her mother’s birthday, her mother packs Rebecca and her brother Lew up and moves them in with their grandmother in Atlanta. Hiding in the attic after she realizes that her mother means for this to be a long term visit, Rebecca finds a collection of breadboxes. One of them is not dusty like the others, and after wishing that she had something to read, and finding a book in the bread box, she decides to take it to her room. There, she discovers that the bread box will deliver most of what she asks for-- money, food from Baltimore, an iPod, etc. What it won’t do is provide her with a way to get her parents back together. After asking for a one-of-a-kind jacket like the meanest of the mean girls has at school, Rebecca starts to realize that all of the things must come from somewhere, and she has essentially stolen all of them. She attempts to get the things back, including a special and valuable spoon that she has asked for for her mother’s collection. The spoon belonged to an elderly lady, and returning it causes big problems. Rebecca’s parents attempt to work things out, and while Rebecca isn’t sure if they can do that, the family will at least go back home, without the aid of the bread box.
Strengths: More of my students are wanting magical realism, and this would certainly fit that bill. Snyder’s writing is very effective.
Weaknesses: So sad, and the episode with the elderly lady was rather disturbing. I’m not sure that this would help students whose parents are getting divorced. While beautifully written, I prefer Snyder's Any Which Wall.

Reyes, Laurisa White. The Rock of Ivanore.
Tanglewood Press, May 2012. ARC courtesy of the author.
Marcus, an orphan under the care of the master Zyll, participates in the quest that all boys of a certain age in the medieval kingdom of Quendel go on so that they can be considered men. This year, they are to find the Rock of Ivanore. Marcus takes Zyll's staff and a key that will help boost his magical powers, which are weak. Joining up with Clovis, Marcus heads to Noam to consult the library about the location of the Rock, but the two are attacked by first a talking snake and then Bryn, a Groc who is sometimes an innocent looking boy. Another boy from Quendel, Kelvin, helps them. Soon Jayson, a half human, half Agoran man joins them, and it turns out that he IS the Rock of Ivanore, Ivanore being his human wife whose father opposed their marriage. He agrees to return with them, but must first go to Dokur. The group follows him and eventually gets pulled into a war in that kingdom. Ivanore's father is still in power, but being attacked by his own son, Arik, who wants control of the valuable Celestine mines. Even though Marcus is attacked by Cyclopes and is heavily involved in the battle at Dokur, he manages to survive, save his friend Kelvin, and return home to find the truth about who he really is.
Strengths: Plenty of action and adventure, short chapters, and good alternation between the fighting and the explanation of why they are fighting.
Weaknesses: Reminded me a bit of The Book of Three; I don't get many students wanting medieval fantasies, and there are a lot already.

Williamson, Jill. Replication: The Jason Experiment.
Zondervan, January 2012
Martyr has lived his whole life in a colorless, windowless world, fulfilling her purpose by being used in experiments to keep the rest of the population safe. He and the other Jasons are educated and cared for, but often the target of horrible abuse by doctors and each other. When a new doctor arrives, Martyr finds a little hope that when he “expires” on his eighteenth birthday, someone may care for the “broken” boy he has been trying to protect. The new Dr. Goyer slowly starts to uncover the conditions on the Jason Farm after he moves his daughter to Alaska for this new job, but when Martyr escapes, Dr. Goyer’s daughter Abby meets him. Thinking at first that he is a boy from her school, J.D., Abby soon realizes that Martyr is a clone of J.D.’s father, who is using the clones for his own evil purposes. Can Dr. Goyer, Abby and Martyr expose the horrors of the Jason Farm and save the inhabitants?
Strengths: Fairly good action and adventure, and Martyr’s entry into the outside world is realistically portrayed.
Weaknesses: Not quite sure what the message on this was in this book. McKissack’s The Clone Codes was better on the coverage of clones’ rights. Like many Zondervan Press books, there is a lot of religion, and some of it seem just tossed in to have it there.

There are so many fantasy books out there, and I just don't have the readers in my library for it. Or the money to buy the books.
Lovric, Michelle. The Undrowned Child.
From the Publisher: "In 1899, eleven-year-old Teodora goes with her scientist parents from Naples to Venice, Italy, which is falling victim to a series of violent natural disasters, and once there she is drawn into a web of mysterious adventures involving mermaids, an ancient prophecy, and the possible destruction of the city itself. "

People who really liked this:
Madhouse Family Reviews
Inside a Dog
Book Grotto
The Diary of a Bookworm

Johnson-Shelton, Nils. The Invisible Tower.
ARC from Baker and Taylor; published in January 2012.
From the Publisher: "A twelve-year-old boy learns that he is actually King Arthur brought back to life in the twenty-first century--and that the fate of the universe rests in his hands. "

People who really liked this:
Once Upon a Twilight
Fresh Ink
Night Owl Reviews

No, really. Don't do drugs!

2012-01-25T04:30:00.005-05:00

Tillit, L.B. Unchained.
Saddleback Educational Publishing, 2012
TJ's mother is strung out on pot and meth; his father has died of a drug overdose. While his mother is getting clean, he is sent into foster care, where he does very well. He enjoys school and does well, learns to get along with his siblings, and is free of the concerns of having drug addled parents in a gang infested neighborhood. When his mother is released, however, he has to go back to her and gets sucked back into the gang. Determined not to follow his father's path, he tries to exist inside the gang but not do the drugs. When gang violence results in TJ being approached to run the gang, he decides instead to leave the neighborhood and resume his educaton.
Strengths: This is a great book for reluctant readers who are drawn to inner city stories about drugs. Bluford High fans will like this series, Gravel Road.
Weaknesses: There is some mention of sex but nothing graphic. This book does not glamorize either sex or drugs. Hooray! Several students have borrowed the ARC from my pile.

Woodson, Jacqueline. Beneath a Meth Moon.
Laurel's family was living in Pass Christian when a devastating hurricane kills her mother and grandmother who stay behind. After a few years with her aunt, Laurel, her father, and younger brother move to a small town in Iowa. For a while, she is happy. She makes the cheerleading squad and starts to date T-Boom, a basketball player. The sadness of her loss is always with her, so when T-Boom gives her a taste of meth, she quickly gets hooked. Soon, everything else fades into the background. She drops out of school, and starts to beg on the streets for money to feed her addiction while living in an abandon store. A local artist, Moses, tries to save her, since he has seen too many others die, but only Laurel can make the decision to wean herself from the meth.
Strengths: My students are forever askinf for books about drugs, but most of them (like the works of Ellen Hopkins) include far too much bad language and sexual situations for middle schoolers to check out of a school library. This was perfect. The drug abuse is evident but not glamorized. The best part was the rural, white, middle America setting!
Weaknesses: Flips back and forth in time in a slightly hard to follow way.

Sand-Eveland, Cyndi. Tinfoil Sky.E Arc from Netgalley.com
Melody's mother, Cecily,has never been the best mother. The most recent problem the two have is running from the latest boyfriend. Cecily decided to go "home", but her mother, Gladys, is not happy to see the pair, since Cecily's last visit resulted in many of Gladys' things being stolen. When Cecily ends up in jail for shop lifting, Mel's only resort is to live with Gladys, who grudgingly takes her in. Mel is happy that she can get a library card, and starts to spend much of her summer vacation at the library, where she ends up getting a job. She learns more about her grandfather, Tux, from the local grocery store owner, and assembles a support group for herself. She counts down the days until her mother can come back, but can her mother pull herself together to care for Mel?
Strengths: This was a compelling, quick read that has a Jacqueline Wilson/Cathy Cassidy vibe.
Weaknesses: Cover a bit weak and happy.

Nayeri, Daniel and Dina. Another Jekyl, Another Hyde.
From the Publisher:"Thomas struggles to accept his billionaire father's marriage to governess Nicola Vileroy and begins to spend less time with his friends and more time at clubs, where someone slips him a dangerous drug, but things get scarier after Thomas begins to suspect Vileroy is part of a sinister supernatural plan. "

This is the third in a series. The ARC came from Baker and Taylor. I will have to look at the books before this, Another Faustus and Another Pan. An interesting, evil, paranormal kind of book, but confusing without having read the others first.

Whew. Should I include Mull's The Candy Shop War? Really, kids, don't give drugs to your parents, even if they are disguised as candy. And no, no matter how many budget cuts there are, it's a bad idea for librarians, too.

Timeslip Tuesday

2012-01-24T05:00:00.001-05:00

Timeslip Tuesday is a recurring feature at Charlotte's Library. Charlotte also does a fabulous round up of middle grade and YA fantasy fiction on Sundays.

Malone, Malorie. Stealing Magic: A Sixty Eight Rooms Adventure
ARC from Netgalley.com, Random House 2012
Ruthie and Jack are still basking in the glow of having discovered an album of lost photographs from a famous artist, an album which turned up in the Thorne Rooms when they used a magic key to shrink down and get into them. When they meet Dora Pomeroy, a decorator who is studying the rooms, they realize that articles are missing, just as art is being stolen from famous collections around Chicago. While investigating, the two travel back to 1937 Paris and meet a Jewish girl. When they realize that her family will be in danger from the Nazis, they try to get back and warn her, only to find that their key has been stolen! They find another way in, and start to realize that the thief is someone they know-- and they may have helped the stealing begin! The two work to put things in the Thorne Rooms to rights, and once again emerge victorious.
Strengths: Love the inclusion of real miniature rooms, time travel, and a good mystery.
Weaknesses: Figured out too early who the thief was! The first book has been a steady but somewhat slow circulator.

Williams, Avery. The Alchemy of Forever.
January 3rd 2012 by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Sera has spent 600 years with Cyrus, and she's fed up. At first, she was glad that he saved her from death with his potion that allowed her to transplant her spirit into another body. She's gotten tired of killing (each new body only lasts about ten years), the Coven of Incarnates, and most of all, Cyrus. When she is due to get a new body, he throws an elaborate party, but she drugs him, runs away, and vows to finally die. However, she comes across a car accident and while trying to save Kailey (who is gravely injured), accidentally takes over her body. Adjusting to Kailey's life is difficult, but "Kailey" is able to say that the accident caused her some memory impairment. Sera is enjoying her new life and thinking that being away from Cyrus and the Coven makes life worth living... and then Cyrus shows up at her school as a substitute teacher! Sera/Kailey tries to elude detection, but then circumstances change... or do they. Another book is surely in the works!
Strengths: LOVED the idea that yes, after 600 years, Sera is sick of Cyrus! This was vastly amusing, drew me into the book, and when Sera took over Kailey's body, this reminded me a lot of Martyn Bedford's Flip. Very well done.
Weaknesses: The ending was very abrupt, but once I realized that there would be another book, that was okay.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

2012-01-10T05:10:00.045-05:00

It's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday! Hop over to Shannon Whitney Messenger's Blog for a full list of people this week who are posting; here is last week's list of MMGM postings.

Remember when cooking was exciting? In the 7th grade, we had home ec and spent a period every day learning about cooking. We made pancakes and syrup (maple flavoring and Karo!), lollipops, pie-- don't know that the school budget ran to actual food, but we learned how to keep our kitchens clean! I still think about Mrs. Mercer when I am wiping down all of the counters every time I do dishes. I loved home ec so much (8th grade was sewing) that I almost compounded my horrible idea of majoring in Latin with a minor in teaching home ec. Now they don't teach cooking in school, but it doesn't mean that students aren't interested. Appease your budding cooks with these books!

Simon, Coco. Emma on Thin Icing.
Emma's mother has lost her job as a librarian due to budget cuts and is working the 3-9pm shift at a local bookstore, which means that Emma and her three brothers have to pitch in more around the house. With Mia's mother's wedding coming up, Emma needs $250 to buy a junior bridesmaids dress, and she's stressing out. She tries to walk more dogs to make money, and even takes on some cupcake baking on her own. She has to watch her younger brother, keep up with her school work, and help make dinner. She tries very hard to keep everything together but might not be able to afford to buy the dress in time, and then an evil classmate will pick it up! Emma realizes in the end that she can't do everything on her own, and doesn't need to, since she does have supportive family and friends that will help her out if she just asks.
Strengths: Emma's mother gets her job back. Oh, the book? This was very reminiscent of the Beany Malone or Katie Rose stories, which I adore. Teen girl trying to handle things on her own? Apparently still my very favorite thing to read. I have the first two books, and they have been popular.
Weaknesses: I'm not a good judge. Does A New and Different Summer have weaknesses?Absolutely not!

Simon, Coco. Alexis and the Perfect Recipe.
Alexis' older sister Dylan is having a Sweet 16 birthday party and has turned in a monster over the plans. She doesn't want the Cupcake Club to make the cupcakes and gives them grief over every cupcake they pitch. Alexis has bigger probelms, though-- she has a huge crush on Emma's brother Matt, who will be at the party. Since she loves math and research, she tries to scientifically determine how to make boys like her-- soft clothes in soft colors, curly hair, vanilla perfume. It takes a while to get the formula right, but Alexis manages to get everything-- cupcakes and herself-- perfectly organized before the big party. Matt asks her to dance, but there's no chemistry at all. No matter! Her research will come in handy with her conquests down the road.
Strengths: Did like the twist at the end with Matt, and loved that Alexis had a head for numbers.
Weaknesses: The reinventing herself for a boy was disturbing, but so true to life!

Visit the Cupcake Diaries web site for all sorts of goodies!
Other books on cooking and baking!

Bauer, Joan. Close to Famous.
Conford, Ellen. What's Cooking, Jenny Archer?
Creech, Sharon. Granny Torelli Makes Soup (contributed by Caryl)
Davis, Tanita. Ala Carte.
Dunbar, Fiona. The Truth Cookie.
Fergus, Maureen. Recipe for Disaster
Ganeshram, Ramin. Stir it Up!
Greenwald, Lisa. Sweet Treats and Secret Crushes.
Hepler, Heather. The Cupcake Queen.
Hurwitz, Joanna.(1982) Tough-luck Karen
Jackson, Alison. Eggs Over Evie.
Mandelski, Christina. The Sweetest Thing
McClain, Lee. Sizzle.
Ostow, Michol. Crush du Jour
Schaefer, Laura. The Teashop Girls.
Schroeder, Lisa. It's Raining Cupcakes.
Smith, Sherri L. Hot Sour Salty Sweet.
Shaw, Tucker. Flavor of the Week.
Whytock, Cherry. My Cup Runneth Over (series)
Winston, Sherry. President of the Whole Fifth Grade

Let me know if I'm missing some good ones!

Nonfiction Monday-- Pets

2012-01-10T05:10:00.040-05:00

Middle school students love to read about cats and dogs. Either they have them, or they wish they had them. My Dorling-Kindersley and ASPCA god and cat care manuals are falling to pieces, so I was looking around for some other books about pets. And just so you know, I decided NOT to let my dog "write" the reviews. It may be January, but I'm not that many kinds of crazy. Yet.

Brownlee, Christen. Cute, Furry and Deadly: Diseases You Can Catch from Your Pet!
The Scholastic 24/7 books on war are very popular in my library, so I looked into the Science Behind the Scenes series. This volumn presents several real life cases where pets made their owners very sick-- prarie dogs with monkey pox, kittens with rabies, and baby chicks with salmonella. Medical terms are explained, all article are well-illustrated, and additional information is given about zoonotic diseases. Scientists who worked on the real life cases are also profiled. A glossary and resource pages are included at the end of the book.
Strengths: Rabid kitties-- what's not to like? The short chapters will appeal to nonfiction readers who like a little bit of text with their pictures.
Weaknesses: While this has really good information, I find the format hard to read. This will not be the book for my students wanting information about animal care, but will be great for the students who like grossology type books. I still like the Sheila Keenan Animals in the House for a good overview of the history of pets.

Klam, Julie. You Had Me At Woof: How Dogs Taught me the Secrets of Happiness.
This memoir is not really suitable for middle school students, but I treat myself to the occasional adult book on Friday evenings, because my life is just that exciting! Ms. Klam was trying to figure out her single life and her career when she decided that a dog was what she needed. Enter Otto, a Boston terrier, who so endeared himself to Ms. Klam that she got involved with a Boston terrier rescue group and started fostering dogs. She eventually got married and had a daughter, but continued to make the dogs a very big part of her life. I wouldn't say that this book, or the dogs, really taught me much about the secrets of happiness, but it was an amusing read, and it encouraged me to rub Sylvie's tummy while I read it. Warning: several dogs pass away in this book. Sad.

Lemke, Don. The Amazing Mini-Mutts.

Capstone Publishers, February 2012

E ARC from Netgalley.com

This is certainly fiction, and for grades 1-3, but it was so cute that I had to take a look, even though it is waaaay on the elementary side of the Pilkey side. The Mini-Mutts are tiny little fuzzy crime fighters who are going up against Brainicat, who is evil. The text is simple, the pictures bright, and my children would have loved these when they were emergent readers. This would also be a good book to, um, read to your dog!

Nonfiction Monday was created by Ms. Suen, and today's roundup is hosted at Shelf-Employed.

Saturday Cartoons

2012-01-10T05:08:00.008-05:00

Gownley, Jimmy. Amelia Rules: The Whole World's Crazy.
Amelia is not pleased to have been transplanted from New York City to live with her Aunt Tanner after her parents' divorce, but she does find some friends over the summer. When school starts, however, she finds that they are in the nerd statrum of the school hierarchy, and she's not pleased, especially since she doesn't much care for Rhonda. Still, the group hangs together, going trick or treating, surviving gym class, and discovering the real meaning of Christmas. The first in a fairly lengthy series of graphic novels.
Strengths: Has some clever moments that adults will get, even though Amelia is nine. Since my students would read graphic novels about bat guano, I will get this series as I can afford it.
Weaknesses: As always, am struck that struggling readers are attracted to these, and worry that they don't actually read the text. I struggle with separating the pictures from the text, and they are hard for me to read, so when a student turns the book back after one period, I do strongly suspect they have only looked at the pictures. Sigh. Not the fault of the book.

Holm, Jennifer and Matt Holm. A Very Babymouse Christmas.
Babymouse really, really wants a Whiz Bang, an electronic device that does everything including folding the laundry. She schemes and schemes to get one, but it's not looking good. One of her classmates even gets one in the class gift exchange, but Babymouse of course gets whisker conditioner! She dreams A Christmas Carol sort of dream, and can't concentrate on anything in the weeks leading up to Christmas. When she finally does get the gadget she desires, it has no batteries, so she ends up playing with a dollhouse and bonding with her family.
Strengths: Bought this one because I had children asking for holiday books and I had nothing. Of course, the order didn't come in until last week! It will get worn out very quickly!
Weaknesses: Guilty confession-- I don't like Babymouse. Love Boston Jane and Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf, but Babymouse character is high on my slappage meter. I do have the first Babymouse book, but it's not been that popular. Perhaps just too elementary for my tastes.

Ozma, Alice. The Reading Promise.
When Alice's librarian father was afraid that she, like her older sister, would stop wanting to be read to, he proposed that they start a "streak" and read every night for 100 nights. Or so. The beginning of the streat is lost to the mists of time, but every night for about 3,218 days, they read books aloud, ending when Alice went off to college. Through this time, Alice and her father struggled with the departure of Alice's mother, financial problems, and the teen years.
Strengths: It's great that Alice is championing reading, and was so greatly affected by this effort by her father to stay connected to her by sharing what he loved.
Weaknesses: I thought this would make me feel like the worst mother in the world. I HATE to read aloud. Hate to be read to, as well. This made my ineffective parenting look good. Not that the level of dysfunction in Alice's family was horrible, it was just sad, and really not all that interesting. I was hoping that she would tie in how the books they read affected their lives, but there wasn't much of that. Great concept for a book, but a little weak in the execution, which is surprising since Alice clearly read a lot of good books. I feel mean saying this, but I had higher expectations.

Guy Friday-- Skateboarding Guys

2012-01-10T05:07:00.031-05:00

That's it. I'm just going to order EVERY Orca Sports book on skateboarding that I can find, especially if they are by the following author:
Ross, Jeff. Powerslide.
Casey (aka "Head Case") is approached by actor Jack Coagen's agent to train Jack to skateboard for his next film, and then act as his stunt double. This is great news for Casey, because he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life after high school graduation. Unfortunately, rival skateboarder Goat declares that he is a much better candidate for this job, and challenges Casey to several ill-concieved challenges that end up in minor injuries for both. Goaded on by Jack, who is trying to understand skateboarding culture as well as the techniques of the sport, the pair try a very dangerous race down a mountain road that ends in even more severe injuries. Can Casey find a way to incorporate skateboarding into his future plans while ensuring that he still HAS a future.
Strengths: I didn't understand half of the skateboarding descriptions, which means that my boys who skate WILL. Nice, tight story line, action, adventure-- pure awesomeness. I know just the student to hand this two today.
Weaknesses: Was there a moral to the near death experience? I forget. Yeah, just enough to make the adults happy. Perfect.

Take a look at these other titles for good skateboarding/extreme sports books:

Let's Go to Paris!

2012-01-10T05:07:00.026-05:00

Nesbet, Anne. The Cabinet of Earths.
Maya and her family, including five-year-old brother James, move to Paris. Her mother has cancer and has always wanted to go, so when her father gets a fellowship from the Society of Philosophical Chemistry to study there, Maya can hardly complain. Shortly upon arrival, strange things start to occur-- odd relatives show up, Maya's face appears on a statue, a packet of pictures appears. Maya and James spend a lot of time with their colorless cousin Louise, who is helping with their French, and the very strange Henri de Fourcroy who tells them a little about their strange family history. The Cabinet of Earths turns out to be a way to make people immortal-- their "earths" are bottled and kept in the cabinet, and they are fed "anbar", the essence of lively children, to keep them happy and vibrant. Once Maya finds out about this, and finds that she is the keeper of this cabinet, she is torn-- she can keep her mother alive, but must then be a part of this evil process that could strip the livliness from her brother.
Strengths: My readers are trending away from medieval fantasy, and I know just the student to whom I would hand this. Even though the cover and the title on this one set me into defensive "I don't want to read anymore fantasy!" mode, I was drawn into the story very quickly.
Weaknesses: Maya's life in school was touched on much too briefly-- I think I would have left it out. Even the friend she makes there doesn't add much. The father's position was also rather vague, although the family needed a reason to be in France. This writer show a lot of promise, but I have a feeling that her next book will be much better. Don't mean to damn with faint praise, this one was oddly compelling and yet bothered me at the same time.

Levin, Mark and Jennifer Flackett. The Family Hitchcock.
Maddy, Benji and the entire Hitchcock family are traveling to Paris even though family finanaces are tight and the children would really rather stay at home. Swapping houses with a Parisian family, the Vadim's allows them to afford this, and luckily, the Vadim's home is much posher than their own. Opera tickets show up at the door, the family is able to borrow swanky clothes and go, and things seem to be looking up. However, a case of mistaken identity gets them involved with dangerous if attractive villians involved in an international crime plot.
Strengths: Lots of action and adventure, car chases, and a humorous tone make this a book that will intrigue elementary students.
Weaknesses: Every character was reduced to an annoying stereotype with irritating catch phrases. Also, if this is "written by Dan Elish", how can this be Levin and Flackett's first children's book? Coming up with an idea is very different from writing this, and the writing in this is definitely very much like Elish's The School for the Insanely Gifted.

Enclave, Fracture and Bunheads

2012-01-10T05:06:00.013-05:00

Aguirre, Ann. Enclave.

In a post apocalyptic world, children are so expendable that they are not even named until they reach 15. Up to then, they are called "brat" or "boy" or "girl". At their naming ceremony, they are also put into one of three groups: breeders, hunters or builders. Deuce has always felt she would be a hunter, and is pleased when she is. She is also paired with the malcontent fade, who has lived outside of the underground world and doesn't care for all of the rules that supposedly keep people safe. When the community is threatened by mutant "freaks", Deuce and Fade are kicked out for trying to
warn everyone, and try to survive on the Topside, assembling a band of others on their way to a settlement that Fade thinks exists.

Strengths: Seems to be a lot of research and thought into a post apocalyptic experience. I found the information on canned food especially interesting. As the cover says, fans of The Hunger Games will love this one, since it is pretty bloody. The reviews all said 8-12 grades, but there was nothing particularly objectionable except for the survival-type violence.

Weaknesses: This felt slightly derivative to me. Part Invitation to the Game, part City of Ember. I've never been a fan of dystopia, and I've had to read so much of it. Students who actually like dystopia will probably find the similarities to other books amusing.

Miranda, Megan. Fracture.

Delaney is out with friends, playing on the ice in Maine, when she falls through and is underwater for 11 minutes. The doctors don't think she will survive because of the brain damage, but she surprises them all and wakes up with little cognitive impairment. She does, however, occasionally get an "itch" in her brain that seems to draw her toward people who are dying. Her friend and neighbor(and also rescuer), Decker, is glad to have her back but alarmed by the changes in her and confused about his feelings for her. She meets Troy, who is also a coma survivor, and is at first comforted by the similarities in their experiences, but when she realizes that he too is drawn to the dying, but acts on this impulse in a way she doesn't agree with, she is not sure what to do.

Strengths: I was immediately drawn into this absorbing tale of struggle and loss. Brilliant lines, great characters, a nice amount of teen angst without overdoing it. Really enjoyed this.

Weaknesses: The moral dilemma gets a little complex for middle school, and the dropping of f-bombs becomes a bit gratuitous toward the end. Great for high school, but I will pass.

Flack, Sophie. Bunheads.

From Goodreads.com "As a dancer with the ultra-prestigious Manhattan Ballet Company, nineteen-year-old Hannah Ward juggles intense rehearsals, dazzling performances and complicated backstage relationships. Up until now, Hannah has happily devoted her entire life to ballet. But when she meets a handsome musician named Jacob, Hannah's universe begins to change, and she must decide if she wants to compete against the other "bunheads" in the company for a star soloist spot or strike out on her own in the real world. Does she dare give up the gilded confines of the ballet for the freedoms of everyday life?"

What I wanted: More books about ballet. Aside from Ballet Shoes the paperbound Dancing on the Inside and A Dance of Sisters and the oddly named Jersey Tomatoes are the Best, there's very little to give my girls who dance. Has anyone written a happy ballet book?

Why This Didn't Work For Me: Since Hannah is 19 and living on her own, this book is a bit mature for my girls. It's usually the 6th graders who want books on ballet. While the romance is fairly innocent, there are several gratuitous uses of the f-bomb that bothered me.

People Who Liked This: Bookalicious Ramblings, Lost in Believing, The Irish Banana, and The Reclusive Bibliophile.

Time Slip Tuesday--Day of the Predator

2012-01-10T05:05:00.008-05:00

Scarrow, Alex. Day of the Predator.
Sequel to Time Riders.
Liam and Maddy, Time Riders stationed on September 10 and 11, 2001, are joined by Sal and and a new version of their support unit, Bob, now a woman named Becks. Liam and Becks are sent to stop the assassination of Edward Chan, the father of time travel, but when they are at that period in time, an explosion sends them back to the Cretaceous period... with Chan and several of the students and teachers! The group tries to survive and battles wily dinosaurs while trying to get a message through to 2001 about their coordinates. Meanwhile, in 2001, Maddy is trying to find the group as well as trying to get through to Foster, her mentor, on September 12. The message does get through, but brings with it new risks of time contamination, and the Time Riders have a lot of clean up work to do before they can go back to just monitoring.
Strengths: Dinosaurs bring lots of action to any story, so that was fun. I also liked the secret service agents, even if they were the bad guys.
Weaknesses: Still not entirely sold on the method of time travel presented in this series, but it does address the whole issue of time travel changing the world.

Make sure you check out Charlotte's Library for more books on time travel on many Tuesdays, as well as a fabulous round up on middle grade and young adult science fiction and fantasy reviews.

Nonfiction Monday-- Blizzard of Glass

2012-01-08T12:05:00.010-05:00

Walker, Sally M. Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917.

In December of 1917, several ships containing hazardous chemicals in the harbor of Halifax collided. The resulting explosion was the biggest man made one until Hiroshima. Not only did the heat and shock waves destroy all of the buildings nearby, but the resultant tsunami also caused major damage. Thousands died. The devastation was incalculable, and this book does an excellent job of explaining this for middle grade readers-- after an introduction of how things aligned for this to occur, the catastrophe is followed through what happened to the members of several families. Maps, copious period photographs, and well-researched information and harrowing tales of survival make this a book that many readers will enjoy.

Thanks to Deb Marshall, of Just Deb for recommending this! One of our school volunteers, a former history teacher, really enjoyed it as well!

Turner, Pamela S. The Frog Scientist.

Like the honeybees in The Hive Detectives, the frog population in the US has been at risk for years. Not only are the numbers decreasing, but there has been a decided increase in the number of frog mutations that are turning up. One scientist, Tyrone Hayes, has dedicated his life to finding out what chemicals may be harming frogs. One of the most common chemicals that farmers use and that ends up in the pond water is atrazine, and Hayes has determined that this chemical often feminizes male frogs, leaving them unable to procreate, which may be one big reason behind the drop in population. This book details how he goes about his research, describing days in the field and at the labs, and also discusses the long term ramifications of this research.

Strengths: This series was recommended to me by my public librarian, and it is a very good one with lots of information. The books are engagingly presented in an easy to read but informative way.

Weaknesses: Again, the picture book format orientation of this series may work to its disadvantage in the middle school setting. Might take some arm twisting to get students to read them, but I will definitely be purchasing some when I have the money.

There's a new Nonfiction Monday page by Ms. Suen, and today's roundup is hosted at The Swimmer Writer.

Middle Grade Monday can be found at Shannon Whitney Messenger's blog.

The Crazy Things Girls Do For Love

2012-01-08T11:57:00.004-05:00

Sheldon, Dyan. The Crazy Things Girls Do For Love.

Sicilee, Maya and Waneeda all have their own distinct personality quirks, but when new boy Cody Lightfoot comes to town, they are all so smitten that they join an environmental group run by the geeky Clemens in order to get near Cody. Sicilee is the poster child for overconsumption (he wants her parents to enlarge her walk in closet because it's not big enough for all of her clothes) and thinks that vegan is show for vegetarian. Maya is a little more environmentally inclined, but still more interested in Cody. Waneeda usually doesn't care much about anything, but is oddly struck by Cody's environmental interest... and his good looks. Soon, all three are trying to outdo each other in order to get Cody's attention, and come to realize that perhaps the environment is more important than they thought.

Strengths: It's always good to have books with a positive environmental message. I normally love Sheldon's work, and the cover is a slam dunk for girls to pick up.

Weaknesses: I was annoyed at almost every character in the book, and even the style (the story is told in the present tense) irritated me. In an afternote, Sheldon addresses how important being aware of the environment is, but I wish she hadn't made it seem so awful for the girls to give up meat, new clothes, and riding in the car. I am not sure it will encourage readers to become environmentally aware, but they will enjoy the story and I will probably buy the book. I just wish that I enjoyed it more!

Saturday Morning Cartoons

2012-01-07T12:54:00.008-05:00

Beleated answers to Thursday's trivia. Yesterday, I was too busy saying how awesome Linda Gerber was!
1. In Robert McCloskey's Homer Price, what is the color of the dress that Miss Terwilliger wears in the giant ball o' yarn contest?
Robin Egg's Blue AND Pink. She unwound it to pad out her ball of yarn!
2. What is the very 1950's name of Henry Reed's best friend? Midge
3. What was the first mainstream audio CD sold in the US? Springsteen's Born in the USA.
4. What is appropriate apparel for librarians everywhere this coming January 18?
A Winnie-the-Pooh t shirt! It's the 130th anniversary of A.A. Milne's birth!
5.What is the state rock song of Ohio? Hang on Sloopy

Do children watch Saturday morning cartoons anymore? It was one of the few times that I watched as a child (Josie and the Pussycats was a particular favorite!), but my own children didn't watch much. Instead of letting 7-11 year olds watch cartoons, try giving them one of these books:

Bonnell, Lynne. Lawn Mower Magic.
EARC provided by Edelweiss' Above the Treeline.
The Willows have moved out to a somewhat remote house with a fair acreage. Derek misses his friends at his old home, and wants to get a train ticket and go visit, but money is tight. When the family lawn mower dies, Derek and his brothers and sister find an old rotary mower in the shed and start to tackle the huge job of mowing. It's much easier when they find that the mower is magic, and it happily drags them all over the yard, as well as over some hedges. Can Derek keep the lawn under control so the family doesn't have to buy a new mower, and he will have enough money for a train ticket?
Strengths: The second in a series (Hamster Magic is first) this was a fairly amusing Stepping Stone book vaguely reminiscent of the work of Ruth Chew. Since I have a rotary mower, I had to read it.
Weaknesses: Too young for middle school, and very weak on plot.

Hashimoto, Meika. The Magic Cake Shop.
Emma Burblee is a no nonsense ten year old who lies to bake and is very weary of her incredibly vain and self-involved parents. Her mother and father don't eat anything but carrots, have 80 step skin care routine, and care more about their business selling expensive hats than they do about Emma. When she disappoints them at her tenth birthday party, she is sent to live with her horrible Uncle Simon, who is a neglectful slob. The bright spot in her day is Mr. Crackle and his fantastic bakery. When she finds that her Uncle is in league with a villain who wants to force Mr. Crackle out of business by selling substandard bakery items fortified with "elixir of delight" that will make them irresistible, she has to find a way to stop him.
Strengths: The cover is SO pretty! Anything with cakes on the cover will get picked up, and this has an overall decent Roald Dahl/Lemony Snicket vibe to it that younger students might enjoy.
Weaknesses: While the extremely vain parents, horrible uncle, and magical baker started out not being too cloying, the level of whimsy got a bit much for me when sentences like "Well, why do't you and Albie plug in the blender and take care of the beans, squid, spleens, legs, sogs, and hegs while I deal with the tree, shick shack shree spizzle, and tea." (page 125) Really? This pushed it right out the middle school arena and down to elementary school for me.

Guy Friday-- Ghouls!

2012-01-02T15:09:00.013-05:00

Newbound, Andrew. Ghoul Strike.
This cover goes to prove that boys WILL read books with girls as the main characters, as long as there is enough action, an intriguing cover, and ... ghost drool. Sigh.
Alannah has a ghost busting business, but it's not the paltry 50 pound fee she charges to get rid of the ghosts that earns the big bucks-- it's selling the treasures that she gets from the ghosts! Most ghosts are bound to earth by some valuable worldly good, so Alannah dispatches the ghosts and keeps the treasures! She runs into problems at Pittingham Manor with her sidekick Wortley when they meet up with the otherworldly Office Flhi who is dealing with a ghoul invasion. Alannah is a bit put out by Flhi's interference because she is trying to find her parents and the ghouls are an unwanted wrinkle, and Flhi is irritated that Alannah doesn't understand the seriousness of the threat. The two find a common enemy in Horrad, who knows more about Alannah's parents than he will admit AND is definitely working with the ghouls. While the two are able to thwart the imminent demise of the earth, the next threat is just around the corner.
Strengths: There are not enough monster books out there that are not overly cartoony. This is a loto f great action and adventure, and my students will be pleased. Not a surprise that Newbound is British. The Brits seem to write ghosts and horror so much better than authors in the US! (Gauntlet flinging? Why, no!)
Weaknesses: While action is good, the first major ghoul fight went on four about 8 chapters. I wanted a bit more background, but that translates into "nothing happening" to my students.

LINDA GERBER IS MADE OF AWESOME!!!
The 7th graders are writing letters to authors, and about eight girls asked me for Linda Gerber's address. Since Linda was my first author interview, has spoken at my school several times and drove me to a cupcake party in Cleveland (um) two years ago, I had (um) her phone number still in my phone. Not that that is creepy and stalkerish at all!
So I told the students "Let me text her and ask!" They were suitably impressed.
I forgot that unless someone has your number in the phone, they have no idea what crazed lunatic is asking for your address! I texted her back with my name, and she very kindly provided a destination for their letters AND told me I could tell the students that she always replies to me. Hee, hee, hee.
So, not only are Linda's books awesome, she is, too. My students will be thrilled. Go buy her books NOW!

Murder Mysteries

2012-01-02T15:08:00.018-05:00

Mackel, Dandi Daley. The Silence of Murder.
When Hope's brother Jeremy is accused of murdering the high school baseball coach, she doesn't believe he's guilty. Jeremy stopped speaking at the age of 9, has trouble relating to people, and also has an odd fascination with empty jars. Since the coach was always nice to Jeremy, Hope sees no reason that he would have bludgeoned him to death with a ball bat, although all evidence points to the contrary. With the help of T.J., a long time friend, and Chase, the sheriff's son who was on the same ball team as T.J., Hope tries to figure out who the real culprit is. In her search, she uncovers other family and community secrets, which lead her to discover exactly how the crime occurred.
Strengths: Always need more murder mysteries, and this one is well done. Hope is a persistent and strong character who rises above her circumstances to do right by the one person, her brother, in her life who doesn't let her down. Jeremy's diagnosis of being on the autism spectrum is reasonably portrayed.
Weaknesses: Wish this was little shorter (it's 300+ pages), and since the courtroom scenes slow down the plot, I would have cut those a bit. Still definitely buying. Love the cover!

Margolin, Phillip, and Ami Margolin Rome. Vanishing Acts.
Madison Kincaid's father is a defense attorney who tries a lot of murder cases, and Madison has always tagged along to his office, since her mother died when she was young. Her biggest love, however, is soccer, and she hopes to make the team in junior high, which is starting soon. Unfortunately, her best friend, Ann, doesn't show up for tryouts or for school, and Madison starts to worry that something has happened to her, especially when her father gets a case defending Mr. Shelby, who is accused of murdering his wife-- who was Madison's teacher! Evidence is circumstantial, but Madison, with the help of rather cute classmate Jake, decides to investigate on her own. She makes the soccer team as the first alternate, middle school doesn't seem too bad, and she manages to find out about why both Ann and Mrs. Shelby have vanished.
Strengths: Very nice middle grade mystery with engaging characters, intriguing setting, and true to life handling of middle grade issues.
Weaknesses: The murder part of this is week, and I didn't quite buy the reasons for the vanishing acts. Would anyone really think this would work? Still, a little darker than Maggie Brooklyn or some younger mysteries.

Cusick, Richie Tankersley. Trick or Treat.E ARC from Netgalley.com
Martha and Conor's parents have gotten married and moved the family to the old Bedford house at the outskirts of a small town. Martha isn't happy about this, especially when the old house gives off massively creepy vibes that make her suspect that her stepbrother is even creepier than she thought. She settles in fairly well at school, meeting the dashing Blake and his sister Wynn, but the house turns out to have been the scene of the murder of Elizabeth... who was Wynn's best friend and Blake's girlfriend. Martha starts to recieve threatening phone calls and several incidents like a creepy scarecrow hung on their porch and an unexplained fire in the kitchen make Martha even more worried. Is Elizabeth's ex-boyfriend Dennis, who was presumed dead, really alive and threatening Martha? Can all of the friends survive the Halloween dance?
Strengths: Since I just lost Cusick's Fatal Secrets to a juice box in a back pack, I was in mourning and very pleased to see Open Road Media rerelease this 1989 title. It was fast paced, super creepy with moaning trees and secret passages, and I wanted to order two copies!Weaknesses: Imagine my suprise when I logged into Follett's Titlewave and found this listed as "out of print"! I was beyond crushed! Why had I not realized earlier that Open Road Media is only digital content? Since these were originally paperbacks, there is just no way to get a copy to circulate. Back to the mourning!

I try to be laser-like in my focus on books, but given the sheer number of comments on Saturday, maybe I should just start posting a new picture of my dog every day! While wandering around other's blogs for Mother Reader's Comment Challenge, I was greatly amused by Annie's trivia challenge over at The Backstory . For those of you who need a bit of levity in a grim January morning, here's my own challenge. Feel free to make up answers!

1. In Robert McCloskey's Homer Price, what is the color of the dress that Miss Terwilliger wears in the giant ball o' yarn contest?
2. What is the very 1950's name of Henry Reed's best friend?
3. What was the first mainstream audio CD sold in the US?
4. What is appropriate apparel for librarians everywhere this coming January 18?What is the 5. state rock song of Ohio? (Feel free to tell me your state's rock song. What? You don't have one?)

Answers tomorrow on Guy Friday!

Not What I Wanted Wednesday

2012-01-02T14:57:00.015-05:00

Again, I managed to get into a lot of Young Adult books that I don't see working in my library. It's a tricky line, sometimes based on content, sometimes based on style and sometimes, I kid you not, based on print size. Anything smaller than 12 point, and there are complaints! Most of these would probably be great in a high school library!

Kenneally, Miranda. Catching Jordan.
From Goodreads.com: "What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though - she leads them as the captain and quarterback on her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starring position on the team... and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate."
What I wanted: A good sports story for girls.
Why it didn't work for me: While I adored Jordan and thought the writing was pitch perfect, this was far too mature for middle school. Several f-bombs, and a LOT of sexual innuendo. Drat. Really liked it otherwise.
People who liked this include: Obsession with Books, 2 Read or not 2 Read, Coffee Table Reviews, and Fabbity Fab Book Reviews.

King, A.S. Everybody Sees Ants.
From the publisher: " Overburdened by his parents' bickering and a bully's attacks, fifteen-year-old Lucky Linderman begins dreaming of being with his grandfather, who went missing during the Vietnam War, but during a visit to Arizona, his aunt and uncle and their beautiful neighbor, Ginny, help him find a new perspective."
What I wanted: All the cool blog kids are reading it.
Why it didn't work for me: The style and voice of this seemed older, and the magical realism premise seemed a bit confusing.
People who liked this include: Guys Lit Wire, Booking Mama, Ringo the Cat's Blog, and My Words Ate Me.

Riggs, Ransom. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.
From the publisher: "Sixteen-year-old Jacob, having traveled to a remote island after a family tragedy, discovers an abandoned orphanage, and, after some investigating, he learns the children who lived there may have been dangerous and quarantined and may also still be alive."
What I wanted: All the cool blog kids are reading it.
Why it didn't work for me: Tiny print, weirdly disturbing pictures, and the tone and pacing of an adult novel.
People who liked this include: YA Book Lover, Of Books and Reading, S. Krishna's Books, and The Infinite Shelf.

McKinty, Adrian. Deviant.
From Goodreads.com:"Danny Lopez is new in town. He made a mistake back home in Las Vegas, and now he has landed at an experimental school in Colorado for “tough cases.” At the Cobalt Charter School, everything is scripted—what the teachers say, what the students reply—and no other speaking is allowed. This supercontrolled environment gives kids a second chance to make something of themselves. But with few freedoms, the students become sitting ducks for a killer determined to “clean up” Colorado Springs."
What I wanted: A mysterious, supernatural creepy story.
Why it didn't work for me: I don't like cats. REALLY don't like cats, and even for me, the first chapter of graphic cat abuse was too much.
People who liked this include: Inspirations and Popcorn Reads.

Barnes, Jennifer Lynn. Every Other Day.
From the publisher: "Every other day, sixteen-year-old high school student Kali transforms into an invincible demon hunter, but when she sees that a popular fellow-student is marked for death in the next twenty-four hours, unfortunately it is the wrong day for Kali."
What I wanted: Adore this author's Tattoo, The Squad and Raised by Wolves series and was hoping for more.
Why it didn't work for me: Fighting hell hounds didn't feel like something my 6th graders who want paranormal romance books were really looking for. Again, drat.
People who liked this include: Almost Grown Up, In the Good Books, The Book Swarm, and Bookd Out.

And am I the only one having trouble on Blogger with spacing? Even when I edit out the tags on the html, it still puts huge spaces between things. After about ten minutes of trying to fix it, I give up. Sorry about any excess spacing!

Fantasy Books!

2012-01-02T14:56:00.008-05:00

Hubbard, Mandy. Ripple.
Lexi killed Stephen on her 16th birthday. She lured him into the water and drowned him. For the last year, she has been estranged from everyone at school because of this, but it wasn’t Lexi’s fault. She’s a siren, and her mother committed suicide before she could tell Lexi about her family’s curse. Every night, Lexi is drawn to the water but is afraid to go to the nearby sea for fear of dragging another innocent boy to his death. She spends hours every night swimming at a remote mountain lake so she can quench her desire for the water while all those around her stay safe. When Cole, Stephen’s best friend, starts to bring her out of her shell, she is able to resucitate her social life, but when she starts to fall in love with him, she fears for his safety. Enter Erik, who is not only very attractive but is a nix, a water spirit who drowns women in rivers. His mother is a siren, and he tells Lexi that if the two of them fall in love before his 18th birthday, the curse will be broken and both of them will be able to lead normal lives. Even though she loves Cole, she dumps him and gives Erik a chance. Can she leave her curse behind permanently?
Strengths: Didn’t really want another paranormal romance, and just bailed on Jones’ After Obsession (seemed too high school), but this one really pulled me in. Aside from some shirtlessness and one totally inexplicable f-bomb on page 250 or something, this one was very good. The ending was a fabulous twist that I did not see coming at all.
Weaknesses: I now have the recurring moral dilemma: do I white out the f-bomb or leave it and hope that students read it quickly enough that they don’t notice it and bring the wrath of their parents down on me. Sigh.

Carson, Rae. The Girl of Fire and Thorns
Shortlisted for the Cybils YA SciFi/Fantasy award; nominated by Hallie Tibbits.
Elisa is the second princess of Orovalle, and is married of to Alejandro, king of a desert kingdom at the age of 16. Eisa is not a complete innocent-- she is the bearer of a Godstone (permanently attached at her navel!) which facilitates her prayers to a limited degree, but more importantly, makes her a target. She is well educated, shrewd, and quickly learns to deal with Alejandro, who is nice to her but not a nice man. Just as Elisa is figuring out her new royal role and secrets about her past, she is kidnapped and hurried across the desert by a political faction that finds her useful. And Elisa is VERY useful-- while the Godstone warns her of danger and is of little help otherwise, Elisa kills an animagus, figures out what is going on in the war, and keeps her band of companions alive-- with one painful exception. Returning to Alejandro's palace a wiser and more assertive woman, she must once again be at the forefront of battle strategy while trying to figure out her role as Bearer... and as the ruler of a kingdom. While a sequel is possible, this could also easily stand alone.
Strengths: In this Spanish-esque fantasy setting, Elisa is at first self-indulgent, heavy, and slow, but her travails in the desert lead her to an improved personality and appearance in a very natural way. Like Pierce's Alanna, Elisa is a great heroine, but I LOVED that she was a somewhat reluctant one.
Weaknesses: So much death, and they made me really sad because I was envisioning the story line continuing with several of the characters who died. Does make me want to read a sequel to see if there is a romance for Elisa!

Nonfiction Monday

2012-01-02T14:32:00.008-05:00

Seiple, Samantha. Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska's WWII Invasion.
One of the things that the US government didn't want anyone to know was that Alaska had been attacked. The Japanese were trying to distract US intelligence from realizing that Midway was going to be attacked, and so took control of areas of the Aleutian islands. This book covers a huge number of aspects of this occurrence, ranging from the cryptographers who were following what the Japanese were doing, to residents of the village of Attu who were made prisoners of war and shipped to Japan, where many of them died, to members of a military weather unit stationed in Alaska who were also captured. In addition, there was a lengthy battle at Attu that was the most deadly hand-to-hand combat in the entire war; 549 US troops were killed (out of 15,000), and only 29 of the 2680 Japanese survived because the generals ordered a mass suicide, and the Japanese detonated hand grenades while holding them against their chests. All documents about these events were classified for many years, although there were some reparations made in the 1980s for the citizens of Attu.

Strengths: Wow. The middle school boys will LOVE this one. Already had my number one WWII reader request this from the public library.It reads like a fact-filled novel, and there are enough gruesome details as well as espionage and survival stories that this will never be on the shelf.
Weaknesses: The prose seemed a bit wooden to me, and I don't usually notice that.

Bodden, Valerie. Fighter Jets.

ARC from Baker and Taylor; published by Creative Education.

This is one of the Built for Battle series on military equipment that also includes aircraft carriers, armored vehicles, helicopters, and several others. This was very short (24 pages) and contained rudimentary information about how jets operate and are used. There is a glossary in the back, and ample pictures. While these would get checked out in my middle school, they are more suited to the youngest war mongers, probably from first to third grade. I was rather amused by the ARC-- it consisted of the sewn together pages from the inside of the book, and the dust jacket!

There's a new Nonfiction Monday page by Ms. Suen, and today's roundup is hosted at Great Kid Books.

Middle Grade Monday can be found at Shannon Whitney Messenger's blog
.

The Game of Triumphs

2012-01-02T14:29:00.003-05:00

Powell, Laura. The Game of Triumphs.
Cat, who is living in London’s Soho district with her young and disorganized aunt, is approached by a stranger to save him. When she investigates, she uncovers an elaborate role playing game based on Tarot cards, The Game of Triumphs, and accepts an invitation to play. Wanting to know more, she looks for information on Tarot at a fantasy supply store, the Dark Portal, where she meets Toby, who is also involved in the fame, and he enlightens her. Not only does the game allow people to go into Arcanum, another dimension, but if they win their card, they gain certain powers that transfer to real life. But not only are the rewards real, the dangers are as well, and Cat finds herself involved in this treacherous pursuit that had horrible implicationsc for her family in the past, yet she can’t stay away. The sequel, The Master of Misrule, comes out in 2012.
Strengths: Solid, modern day magical fantasy. I have five readers I could hand this to right now. Love that Ms. Powell studied Classics. At Oxford. *Sigh*
Weaknesses: My only concern about appeal of this book at the middle school level is that my students are not as aware of role playing games.

True Blue and randomness

2012-01-02T14:28:00.008-05:00

Smiley, Jane. True Blue. (Sequel to The Georges and the Jewels and A Good Horse)
Abby Lovitt’s family lives on a California ranch in the 1960s. When a friend who runs a stable ends up with the horse belonging to a woman killed in a car accident, she offers the horse and its fittings to Abby, who gladly takes them. True Blue is a good horse, and well-trained, though apt to spook. The horse is a good addition to the family’s stables, and Abby gives lessons and goes to school, but is plagued by the ghost of the dead owner. Abby imagines seeing this ghost all over the farm. Abby breaks her arm, the family suffers some illnesses, but the activities of the stable continue and eventually Abby realizes there is no ghost.
Strengths: Don’t know how I missed this series, but will definitely be buying it. I have had a few girls who really like horses, and most of my horse books are really old! I really enjoyed the Elaine Clayton illustrations.
Weaknesses: The ghost story is rather weak, and the 1960s setting doesn’t really add anything to the story. There were also too many church details for my taste-- they slowed down the story.

Brocket, Jane. The Gentle Art of Domesticity.

Okay. Really, I was looking at a catalog for middle grade books and saw Spotty, Stripy, Swirly. Since I am always looking for good nonfiction, I investigated further at my public library (which didn't have any of the Jane Brock's Clever Concept Books from Lerner at all.) and found this. Which I had to have, for no particularly good professional reason.

I enjoyed it, but it made me feel a little bad. I've been quilting for 30 years, and knitting for 43 and could have done a blog like Yarnstorm and earned my living doing fun things like knitting tea cozies. Or, at the very least, have had a better blog name. Man. One of my big regrets.

I realized that I spend a HUGE amount of time reading, to the exclusion of doing the crossword, caring what the house looks like once it is clean and clutter free, talking to my children, and knitting.

So I knit a sweater for Sylvie. Really, it's only practical. When you are that low to the ground, if it snows, you end up with icy armpits.

Guy Friday-- Guys with Problems

2012-01-02T14:24:00.009-05:00

Ellsworth, Loretta. Unforgettable.
Ever since having a concussion as a young child, Baxter Green has been able to remember EVERYTHING. When his mother wants to move from southern California to escape a criminal boyfriend, Baxter nudges her to move to Wellington, Minnestoa, where he remembers Halle, his elementary crush, moved. After Baxter uncharacteristically gets a bad grade on an assignment, Halle is assigned to be his tutor. Only problem-- she doesn't remember him! Baxter settles in to school and his new life with his waitress mother. He flashes back to his therapy sessions with Dr. Anderson, who was trying to help him deal with the weight of remembering every past hurt. He works with Halle and her environmental group to try to stop a local taconite plant from increasing the risk of certain cancers for people in the area. He worries that Dink, the boyfriend, will track him and his mother down, which does happen. Baxter may have an extraordinary ability, but he also manages to have an ordinary, and fairly happy, life. Strengths: Halfway through 8th grade, a lot of my guy readers are looking for more than humor books. They want something with challenges, romance, and some deeper meaning. This will be great for them, and would also be an excellent high school book. I'll also have to take another look at this author's In A Heartbeat, which looks familiar.
Weaknesses: I found it hard to believe that Halle wouldn't remember Baxter, or that she would be mad when she finally did. Of course, I remember people from my kindergarten, but they would probably not remember me!

Polisner, Gae. The Pull of Gravity.
Nick has mulitple problems. After he breaks his leg climbing a small tower during a fever-induced hallucination, his overweight and underemployed father decides to take off, feeling guilty over being asleep when Nick had his accident. He is walking to New York City, where the family had lived previously, in order to lose weight and "find himself". Nick's neighbor and best friend, Scooter, is dying of progeria, which ages him rapidly and causes all sorts of health problems. On the up side, Nick meets Jaycee, the step daughter of a local newscaster who comes to interview the family about the father's walking expedition. She also knows Scooter, and after Scooter's death, shows Nick a first edition book that Scooter wanted returned to the father who left HIM when he was young. Jaycee and Nick set off to Rochester, NY to try to find Scooter's father but encounter multiple problems along the way. In the end, Nick find out that sometimes, the journey is more important than the destination.
Strengths: Fast-paced, a good length, appealing cover, and again, boys like problems at this time of year. Good cover, too.
Weaknesses: Stretched my believability, especially when Jaycee gets very ill in Rochester.

Plum-Ucci, Carol. Following Christopher Creed.
College reported Mike Mavic has been following the disappearance of Christopher Creed and the developments in the case on the blog of a local who was a rock star. When a body is found in Steepleton, Mike and another reporter, RayAnn, he goes to Steepleton to try to get a story. There are lots of wrinkles-- the body ends up being the sister of a boy involved tangentially in the original case, Christopher's brother is thought missing but later turns up in rehab, there is a weird natural phenomenon going on in a local woods that may or may not be contributing to a host of problems, and Mike has to come to terms with his own past as an abused child. Can the case and the problems of the town finally be solved?
Strengths: There is strong interest in the first book, The Body of Christopher Creed (2000), and mysteries are always in demand.
Weaknesses: Several uses of the f-word, and a plot that could have been tighter. At over 400 pages, I don't see this going well with middle school students, but would be okay at high school.

It's a frog-eatin' morning here.* Got in to work at 4:45. Have done the following: E mailed overdues to homerooms and replied to ten emails; set up LCD projector; printed Infohio bookmarks and made copies; repaired ten books; organized Battle of the Books information so someone competent can take over, since I have failed utterly at meeting with the students in the ten minutes every other Friday I don't have class during lunch; compiled a hand out about E Readers and free E Books; put together a handout for Sustained Silent Reading and Writing in case students have two study halls per day next year; reinked a self-inking stamp, mailed payment to Baker and Taylor; commented on five blogs as part of

Mother Reader Comment Challenge

And posted this. Now must get LCD projector to WORK. (Which I had to call tech to do. *Sigh* I'm usually the one coming and fixing things and making other people feel incompetent!)

Have a great Friday and a fabulous weekend!

*"Eat a frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day." In my family, we use this to refer to getting a lot of things done that you DON'T want to do!

Desert Angel

2012-01-02T14:21:00.003-05:00

Price, Charlie. Desert Angel.
Angel and her mother have lived with Scotty, the mother’s abusive boyfriend, for only a month before he killed the mother and buries her in the desert. He then ties up Angel and sets fire to their mobile home with her in it. She manages to escape and is taken in by a family of illegal Mexican immigrants, but Scotty is a trained tracker, so hunts her down and terrorizes anyone who helps her. The family moves her to another town where she stays with Rita, a tough Head Start teacher. Angel is glad to have her support, but doesn’t want to endanger those who help her. She realizes that the best way to keep everyone safe is to find Scotty before he finds her, but he becomes increasingly violent as the two come closer to finding each other. Another title by this author is The Interrogation of Gabriel James
Strengths: Immediately gave this one to Picky Reader, who loves problem novels. This is not only abuse, but survival, and I can see it being very popular in February, when all of my students want the most depressing book I can give them. A real page turner!
Weaknesses: It’s very clear that Scotty was sexually abusing Angel, but since there are no details given, I think it’s okay even for middle school.

Wilson, N.D. The Dragon's Tooth.

Book received from publisher.

Cyrus lives in a run down motor lodge that he runs with the help of his older sister and brother because his mother is in a hospital and his father is dead. This is bad enough, but after Billy Bones appears and claims that Cyrus is the new caretaker of artifacts that will help save the world, the motel burns down and the siblings are sent on a long journey to save the world against the forces of evil. They have a lot of help from the Order of Brendan (in which their parents were involved) and they need it, since Cyrus' brother has been kidnapped by Dr. Phoenix, who is trying to take sacred relics from the Order. This is a new series from the author of 100 Cupboards.

Strengths: A lot of action and adventure, a well-constructed mythological base, and amusing characters. I don't have a lot of readers who want modern fantasy, but this will be good for readers who liked The Gods of Manhattan.

Weaknesses: I had trouble with this because I was so repulsed by many of the settings. The old hotel was disgusting, and I think I stayed in its twin in Kalispell, Montana in 1977! Gave me the willies! I read somewhere that the Archer Motel was based on a real place.... echhhh! Cyrus moved from one dilapidated place to another-- the writing must be effective because I was seriously so creeped out by the settings that I had a hard time concentrating on the book. I had to get up and vacuum and scrub because I could feel the gnats living in the damp carpet. Students will not have this trouble!

The One and Only Ivan

2012-01-02T14:17:00.018-05:00

Applegate, K.A. The One and Only Ivan (link to the trailer on YouTube)
Ivan is a real gorilla who was captured from the wild in 1964 and lived in a Washington state shopping mall until the mid 1990s. He now lived in Zoo Atlanta. It’s good to know this information before reading the book, because Ivan’s life in the mall is a sad one. He has a grimy cage with a tire swing and a dirty wading pool, his diet is substandard, and he has to perform three shows a day. There is an elephant, Stella, at the mall who hates being there, especially when she becomes ill and does not get proper medical care. Ivan is treated well by the custodian’s daughter, who brings him crayons and paper so he can draw, and Bob, a stray dog, sneaks into his cage at night and sleep’s on Ivan’s stomach. When a new elephant, Ruby, is brought to the mall, Stella makes Ivan promise that he will do all he can to get her into a proper zoo. Using the one method of communication he has-- drawing-- Ivan managed to get all of the animals moved to a more suitable location.
Strengths: Really, we need to decide now which division this will be in when it is nominated for the Cybils! Realistic fiction or fantasy because the animals’ thoughts are presented? The style of this book-- short, simple sentences-- fits the subject matter perfectly. Ivan’s sad history is recounted without being maudlin. This manages to portray the triumph of the spirit in a way that is accessible to struggling readers, who make up the majority of my animal book readers, without in any way being simplistic. I’m not alone in loving this one-- Reading Rumpus does, too.
Weaknesses: I cried when Ivan went to the zoo, because I worried about Bob. Not to spoil things, but Bob is well taken care of!

I did not think that I would like this one, but since K.A. Applegate caused me to nearly faint by e mailing and asking me to read it, I felt I should. My children were HUGE Animorphs fans, and Ms. Applegate very kindly sent them autographed copies that they got for Christmas which thrilled them to pieces. But seriously, I don’t do animals that “talk” in any way, and this was a great book. I even liked the artwork!

Abrahams, Peter. Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood St.
Expected publication 1/19. ARC received from Baker and Taylor.
Robbie lives with her writer father and lawyer mother in NYC. She has recently moved from public to private school, and while she is on the basketball team, she's not making a lot of other frien. When she finds that a client of her mother's is doubling the rent for the soup kitchen where she volunteers, she wants to help. Luckily, a charm bracelet she got from a homeless women makes odd things happen. She lucks into $3,100 in cash falling out of the evil Sheldon Gunn's pocket, is able to thwart bullies who try to steal her glasses. She and her friends Ashanti, Silas and Tut Tut start to realize that there is a bigger plot by the New Brooklyn Redevelopment Project to shut down their favorite places (like Mr. Nok's Thai restaurant) and put new buildings up instead. Can Robbie use her newfound powers to stop Sheldon Gunn and the even more evil Egil Borg?
Strengths: Fairly good mystery, with a nice message of underdog businesses bringing flavor to a community.
Weaknesses: The gimics detracted from a good mystery. Robbie didn't need the charm to accomplish what she did, and the Robin Hood connection is rather weak, except for the troubling incident where she takes the cash that Gunn dropped and gives it to the soup kitchen. Even though she meant well, that's not the moral lesson we hope kids learn!

Thanks to Kate Coombs over at The Book Aunt for The Versatile Blogger Award. These awards are a good way to highlight other bloggers that my readers might find useful as well. I really enjoy:

Heidi Grange over at GeoLibrarian
Karen and Nancy at Kidsmomo
Ms. O at Ms. O. Reads Books
Pam Torres at So I'm Fifty
Provo City Library Children’s Book Review

Here are the rules:
•Thank and link to the blogger who bestowed the award.
•Share seven random facts about yourself (see below).
•Spread the love by passing the award to five other bloggers--and be sure to let them know.

Seven random facts about me:
1. I worked as Doodles, the giant Chick-fil-A mascot, in high school.
2. I wear a lot of pleated skirts.
3. ...and cardigans. (Like to be true to my cultural heritage!)
4. I wrote the world's worst novel in the 8th grade
5. I hate to cook.
6. My dream job is teaching Latin at Eton College
7. I am currently knitting a sweater for my dog, Sylvie.

Time Slip Tuesday

2012-01-02T14:12:00.007-05:00

Time Slip Tuesday is a feature at Charlotte's Library. Some day I am going to post a picture of myself in my time traveling outfit, which I have all assembled except for the appropriate shawl!

Baratz-Logstead, Lauren. Little Women and Me.
Emily March’s language arts teacher assigns a fairly easy project-- students are to discuss three things that they like about their favorite book, as well as just one thing that they would change. After debating many of her favorites, Emily decides that she would pick Little Women, and that she would either stop Beth from dying or make sure that Laurie ended up with Jo instead of Amy. Before she knows it, she is literally sucked into the book and emerges as the middle March sister, on the first page of the story. Her presence is occasionally odd; she is routinely excluded from the sisters’ activities, and has huge lapses of memory as well, especially when the story jumps ahead. Still, she makes a good effort to make a go of it in the 1860s, since there seems to be no way for her to escape. She ends up being in the story for many years, and realizes that while she can change some of the story, other parts of it are best left the way they are.
Strengths: Super twist at the end! Completely didn’t see it coming! Plus, this might be a good way to encourage girls to pick up Little Women, which really was one of my favorites. I was always vaguely annoyed with Jo, and it was good to know I wasn’t the only one.
Weaknesses:Since I desperately wanted to BE Emily and travel back in time to Little Women, I was disappointed that she wasn’t as thrilled to be there as I would have been. Really? Kissing Laurie? Did she know nothing about the book? This is a problem only for people who adore the book, and there are very few girls who do nowadays.

I feel bad that I had trouble understanding the next book; my students ADORE the Quantum Prophecy books; I even had one student reading them who struggles with reading so much I was a little concerned, but when I asked him about the books, he went on for the longest time about the details. Super Human is an interesting prequel,and Michael Carroll is a great guy; I just have a fantasy plot following disability sometimes!

Carroll, Michael. The Ascension.
Abby, Lance, James and Roz are back having gotten rid of Krodin. Instead of being able to enjoy riding around in hover cars, they find themselves in an alternate version of what should be their reality. Krodin is chancellor, and the Praetorians support him because other options are more horrible, but the kids still feel he is supremely evil and needs to be overthrown. This reality was set in place after Daedalus bombed Anchorage, Alaska, killing thousands of people and resulting in the US being placed under military rule. Instead of being lauded for their work in making the world safe, the children are hunted, imprisoned, and generally mistreated. Eventually, after blowing many things up and being chased (really, no one does these things as well as Carroll!), the children manage to stop Krodin and go back to the way reality should be, but we know that this can't possible last for long!
Strengths: Action, adventure, awesome superheroes, and JET PACKS!!! And flying bikes! My readers don't want cartoony super heroes; they want kids with powers who save the world, which is exactly what Carroll delivers.
Weaknesses: There is so much going on that I had trouble following. I have the same trouble with some Rick Riordan books. If I didn't want to post a review, this would be fine-- I would just enjoy the action!