Legend by Marie Lu

I picked up Legend by Marie Lu on Saturday night, read until I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and then picked it up again Sunday morning and read to the finish.  Yes, it’s one of those books where the action is so constant and fast-paced, and the plot so compelling, you just can’t put it down and can’t wait to find out what happens.  Kids are going to love this book.

The book takes place in a dystopian future, in Los Angeles.  The United States has dissolved to become two warring territories, the Republic and the Colonies.  The narration switches back and forth between June, a wealthy 15-year-old prodigy and member of the Republic military, and Day, also fifteen, who is from the slums and is the Republic’s most wanted criminal.  When June’s brother Metias is murdered, and Day is the prime suspect for the murder, she decides to hunt him down to get her revenge.  In the process, Day and June both discover disturbing things about the Republic and surprising things about each other.

There is definitely a fair amount of violence in this book, but of a milder variety than the Hunger Games trilogy.  There is romance, but aside from some “hard kissing,” there is nothing explicit.  I can tell you that, as a school librarian who loves to be able to recommend books freely to kids without having to worry a lot about content, I breathed many sighs of relief as I read this book.  There were places where other writers might have gotten more explicit when it really wasn’t needed, but Lu never did that.  The horror of the actions of government and the romantic tension are both completely evident without so many of the details that would be too much for the middle school readers who are drawn to this kind of story.  (Note: There are definitely many young middle school readers who would be upset by the violence in this book, but for ones who are not sensitive to it and are seeking it out, this is a better choice in my opinion than something like The Hunger Games.  We have been experiencing some high demand from 5th and 6th graders for these kinds of books, and within that genre, this is a relatively tame offering.  Emphasis on relatively, though, because there are a few scenes that are pretty brutal in terms of the violence, and I really would recommend this book more for the older middle schoolers and high schoolers.)

Another reason to be aware of this book: there’s going to be a movie, and if it’s at all good, it’s going to be popular.  This book is so visual and exhilarating, I really cannot wait to see it on the screen, assuming it is well done.  I don’t typically feel that way because I want to preserve my own internal vision of the book, but in this case, it’s just the right kind of book to be made into a film.  I also feel like the ending sets us up for more books, and I definitely look forward to seeing a next installment.

Update:  This went over very well in my classes this morning (I read the third chapter to them).  Two boys had already read the book and raved about it; it’s always nice to hear that actual kids have enjoyed the book!

The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce

What a funny little book The Unforgotten Coat is.

Two Mongolian refugees show up at sixth grader Julie’s school one day, and she becomes their guide to navigating life in Bootle, England.  The opening scene, when Chingis (the older brother) takes on a teacher in a battle of wills, had me literally laughing out loud, and those bursts of laughter continued throughout the book.  Frank Cottrell Boyce has a true grasp on middle school humor.  At the same time, there was an undercurrent of sadness and fear.  Nergui, the younger brother, worries about being taken away by a demon, and much of the story revolves around his and Chingis’ various tactics for avoiding this demon.  (Which might sound kind of silly, until you get to the end of the story, which I won’t spoil.)

I read a review that criticized this story for being insensitive and misrepresentative of Mongol culture.  I did not see what that reviewer saw.  I saw this experience of being confronted with difference, through the eyes of a young girl who does her best to understand and help these two boys, who become her friends.  But I’m curious to know more about what might be offensive or incorrect; this particular reviewer did not elaborate.

This book would be wonderful to read aloud to a class; I can’t wait to read part of it to my 5th and 6th graders.  It is short, and funny, and in the end, gives you a lot to talk about.  Be sure to read the Afterword, which describes the true story that inspired Cottrell Boyce to write this tale.  This book reads very much like nonfiction, with a series of Polaroid photos (including ones of the characters), so I wondered if it were actually true.  It is not, but the story behind the story made me feel like it kind of was true.

The only thing that bothered me about this book was the setting in terms of time.  The narrator is looking back maybe 20 years, but talks about doing searches on Wikipedia.  The present day bits read like they are in the true present (the narrator uses Facebook).  It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was a bit jarring to my former editor’s brain.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

I’m not going to be able to write intelligently about this book, so maybe I shouldn’t even try.  I just finished it, and I just want to go sob somewhere or something.

This is a beautiful, heartbreaking, complex book.  Even the story behind the book is beautiful, heartbreaking, and complex: Siobhan Dowd had an idea, but passed away from cancer before she could write the story.  Patrick Ness was asked to write the book, and as he says in the Author’s Note, he knew he couldn’t write the story Dowd would have written.  He decided to try to write a story she would approve of.  I believe he succeeded.

Conor O’Malley’s mother is very sick, possibly dying.  One night at 12:07, the yew tree from a nearby graveyard forms itself into a giant, frightening monster and comes crashing into his room.  Thus begins a series of visitations from the monster, who, like everything and every character in this novel, is no simple creature.  Is he evil?  Is he kind?  Is he destructive?  Is he gentle?  Yes to all of these, and more.  He yells, he rages, he destroys, and he tells stories in which the bad guys seem to win.  But he also seems to be there to help Conor sort out his problems–with his mother’s illness, his father’s absence, his grandmother’s coldness, his classmates’ bullying.

This little book, with its dark illustrations (beautifully wrought by Jim Kay) and its suspenseful scenes and its quirky but compelling premise, grabbed me from the very beginning and did not let go.  The beauty of this novel for me is how accurately it portrays this messy business of being human.  We have thoughts we wish we didn’t have, do things we wish we hadn’t done, hurt and are hurt by the people we love and who love us.  Nothing is ever tied up quite as neatly as many novels for children would have us believe or hope.  How wonderful of Ness to take all of that complexity and deliver it in a tight, suspenseful novel that I expect kids and adults alike will be moved by.

Guest review: Bigger Than A Breadbox by Laurel Snyder

I’d like to sometimes change things up a bit on this blog and include reviews written by actual middle schoolers.  Here is the first of what I hope will be many guest reviews!

Guest Review by Claire H., 5th grader.

I loved Bigger Than A Breadbox by Laurel Snyder. It is one of my favorite books of all-time. The book is about a girl named Rebecca, whose mother decides to leave her father, taking Rebecca and her little brother, Lew, with her to stay at their Gran’s house. On her first day there, Rebecca goes into the attic to get away from her mother and while she is there, finds a collection of old breadboxes. There is one in particular that sticks out to her because it is clean, unlike the others. She soon realizes that the breadbox is magical, whatever she wishes for will appear inside the breadbox, as long as it can fit inside. Rebecca struggles to figure out the true meaning of life and the breadbox in this novel.

I liked this book because it is something that, because I am a kid, is nice to see from a kid’s perspective. I really like books about girls like Rebecca, who have a hard time, and this book really fit into that category. It is also really suspenseful, which I like in a book. I finished the book in only two days, I couldn’t stop reading. It is a real page-turner.

Buzz Books (aka, My To-Read List)

Part of my job is reading reviews of books and following the blog buzz about which books are favorites to win awards (like the Newbery Medal, the Sibert Medal for kids’ nonfiction, or the National Book Award).  I don’t have the time to read everything I want to read, but with two weeks of holiday break approaching, I am putting together my To-Read List, based in large part on the buzz surrounding these titles.  Anything here is pretty much guaranteed to be well-written.  It might not appeal to a particular kid’s taste, but you needn’t worry about any of these books being awful!

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai recently won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.  This one has been on my list for months, and I hope to read it soon and book talk it with kids.  It’s the story of a young Vietnamese girl’s journey to America, specifically Alabama, after the fall of Saigon, and her struggle to adjust to a very different world from the one she has known.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.   This is a novel about loss.  I am, I confess, a complete sucker for sad books.  Even the story behind the writing of this book is sad.  Siobhan Dowd (who wrote the wonderful and quirky London Eye Mystery) came up with the idea for this book, but died of cancer before she could write it.  Patrick Ness (author of the Chaos Walking trilogy, which I wrote about in my post about Hunger Games read-alikes) picked up the idea and wrote the story.  Many of the reviewers seem to be flummoxed in trying to describe this novel, because of its inventiveness and power, and that tells me I must read it.

Jefferson’s Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley tells the story of Thomas Jefferson’s children by his slave Sally Hemmings, from the perspectives of two of the children and another child close to the family.  I’m hearing that’s it’s uncomfortable, thought-provoking, engaging, and poignant.  A must-read, I suspect.

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy mixes fantasy and historical fiction, set in the early 1950s.  Janie’s family has been forced to move to London due to the “Red Scare” in America, and there she meets a boy named Benjamin, the son of a mysterious apothecary.  Everyone I’ve talked to who has read this has loved it (kids and adults!).

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick.  If you haven’t already seen Hugo (based on Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret), stop reading this and go immediately to a theater.  If you have, then you are probably already as excited to read another creation of Brian Selznick as I am.  ’Nuff said.

Bigger than a Breadbox by Laurel Snyder.  My own 5th grader read this last week.  She loved it, and I’m hoping she’ll write up a guest review of it for this blog, so I won’t say more.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente.  This one is being described as “beautiful,” “unforgettable,” “magical.”  Reviewer Elizabeth Bird on Goodreads writes that it “walks up to the usual middle grade chapter book fantasy tropes and slaps ‘em right smack dab in the face.”  For kids and adults tired of derivative fantasy, this sounds like a viable option.

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming.  I have actually already read a good bit of this one, but a kid came looking for it, so I let it go before I was finished, and I am anxious to get it back and finish!  Very engaging and interesting, and it gives some interesting facts, particularly about Earhart’s self-promotion tactics.

Some other titles on my list:

Chime by Franny Billingsley.  Mary Kendall (co-worker) has read this and gives it a big thumbs up for 7th and 8th graders.

My Name Is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson.

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt.  A companion book to the wonderful Wednesday Wars.  Kids are giving me a lot of good feedback on this one.  Another good choice for 7th and 8th graders.

Funny Stuff (alternate post title: If you liked Diary of a Wimpy Kid. . .)

Funny books are always in high demand.  Who doesn’t like to laugh?  Of course, humor is very subjective, so what one kid finds hilarious can be utterly lame to another, but here are some humorous books that have been loved by many of our Diary of a Wimpy Kid fans, plus others with a different brand of humor.

I’ve already written here about Tom Angleberger’s The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.  That book and its sequel, Darth Paper Strikes Back, are pretty much guaranteed to be appreciated by anyone who likes the Wimpy Kid books.  Angleberger has another book, not part of that series, called Horton Halfpott, or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor, or The Loosening of M’Lady Luggertuck’s Corset, that will likely also appeal.

My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian centers on a kid who doesn’t like to read trying to solve the mystery of his former babysitter’s death while she was watching him.  The cartoons in the margins provide some lightness and humor, and the mystery adds some emotional weight.

Another book about a kid who hates to read, Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading (by Tommy Greenwald) follows a middle school boy’s exploits as he attempts to get by in school without ever cracking a book.  Funny and fast-paced.

Time travel? Check.  Aliens?  Check.  Two kids trying to save the world?  Check.  Herbert’s Wormhole by Peter Nelson has all of these, and more.

Micheal Buckley’s NERDS series (about the National Espionage, Rescue and Defense Society, populated by superhero spies who have gone undercover into middle school) has an interesting dilemma.  Kids who are reading these books LOVE them, but there is a bit of reluctance to initially check them out because of the title.  It’s funny, because once one kid takes the plunge, that whole class will happily check them out and talk about them and speculate on when the next one is coming out.  Fast, adventurous, and very silly.

The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander is the goofy, suspenseful story of  how a kid named Mac’s bathroom-stall business (he helps protect little kids from bullies; get underage kids into R-rated movies; sells test answers–pretty much anything for a buck or two) gets complicated when he goes up against a big bully with a gambling ring.  Kids get hooked right away by the whole idea of a shady business run out of an unused school bathroom stall, and the suspense over what Staples (the big bully) will do next pulls them through.

In Cosmic (by Frank Cottrell Boyce), 12-year-old Liam looks like an adult and ends up in various funny, odd situations as a result (test driving a car, for example).  His ability to pass as a grown-up is all good fun until he ends up being the only “adult” on a spacecraft full of kids that is off course and heading for disaster.  This novel is far-fetched, for sure, but great fun to read.

Anything by Daniel Pinkwater.  Pinkwater has a quirky sense of humor, so he’s the sort of writer one either loves or hates.  I have met adults who say that reading his books when they were kids changed their lives.  Check out The Neddiad and/or The Yggyssey for a middle-school-friendly taste of Pinkwater’s odd, goofy writing style.

It occurs to me, looking at this list, that all of the protagonists are boys.  That’s not right!  I think they are books that will appeal to both boys and girls, but I don’t like having a post with that imbalance.  So, coming soon:  a post on funny stuff with girl protagonists.  If anyone has suggestions of titles for such a post, please send them along!

I also apologize for the awful layout of the images/text here.  If anyone can tell me how to fix that, I’m anxious to hear it!

Extremely Cool Video

Check out this time-lapse video of the creation of the cover illustration for a comic book magazine.  This is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time.

Post-Apocalyptic Cover Illustration | Timelapse from DEISIGN on Vimeo.

A Google a Day!

I am probably the last person on the planet to discover A Google a Day.  It’s simple:  every day, Google gives you a question to search, and you submit your answer, trying for the best time, and it lets you know if you got it right.  The questions seem to be pretty kid-friendly, based on my playing around with it this morning, but they aren’t so simple as to be boring.  I think kids will LOVE to play this little game, and I think it has some real educational value in teaching them to find the right search terms and read the question carefully.

A similar type of game that students have loved playing is The Wikipedia Game.  The gist is simple as well, but it can be somewhat challenging depending on what topics you choose.  You choose two completely unrelated topics (the only guideline is that both must have a Wikipedia article devoted to them).  Pull up the article for one, and using only links within Wikipedia (no going to external sites that are linked from Wikipedia pages!), get to the other.  For example, get from “Collegiate School” (yes, we have a page!) to “Carrot,” or from “Marshmallow” to “Muhummad Ali.”  There is a site called The Wikipedia Game that will provide subjects to link to and from, but the suggestions and articles aren’t always kid-appropriate, so I have the kids come up with their own, which is usually far more random and entertaining than whatever I might come up with.  Whenever I play this game with a class, I have to brace myself for months of “Can we play the Wikipedia Game today?  Pleeeeeaase!!” every time they come back to the library, and kids will come up to me and randomly say stuff like, “I got from Lady Gaga to Toothpaste last night!”  It’s fun!  And they learn a few things, I think: how to browse text to find what they are looking for, and also how to look for connections.  I have yet to see two topics that can’t be connected somehow.

The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by Meg Wolitzer

I am not sure exactly how I feel about The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by Meg Wolitzer.  I wanted to really like it, and in some ways I did, but in other ways it just didn’t quite make it for me.  But there was enough good in there to make it a book I will recommend to students.

Pros:

The novel grabbed me right away, and I flew through it.  The writing is strong, and it felt to me like Wolitzer captured the language and world of middle school well.  And while I wouldn’t call it a mystery exactly, there were some little mysterious elements to the story that kept me engaged and wanting to keep reading.

The main characters, three middle school kids who are all headed to a major Scrabble tournament, each for very different reasons (Duncan because he hopes to win the cash prize; Nate because his father is pressuring him to win in order to avenge his own loss when he competed in the same tournament years ago; and April because she simply loves the game), are all interesting and quirky and appealing.  I would happily read a novel devoted to any one of the three of them.

Cons:

The very thing that grabbed my attention at the beginning of the novel (and would likely grab students’ attention if I read the first few chapters out loud to them) is probably the most problematic part of the book.  Duncan Dorfman, one of the three main children, has a strange special power that allows him to “see” with his fingertips.  In the world of Scrabble, this means he can reach into the tile bag and know exactly what letters he is pulling out–an obvious advantage at a tournament.  As the novel progresses, this special talent isn’t really central to the story, or at least not necessary, and in the end, I felt like the book would have been stronger without that element of magic.

It felt like there were a few too many plots thrown in.  The main stories of the three children were all compelling, but a side story about Nate’s dad’s former Scrabble partner didn’t grab me and just seemed like too much.  I also felt like the ending of Duncan’s story was too rushed and superficial.

In the End:

In the end, I would recommend this book to kids who like realistic fiction with a bit of a twist; kids who like E. L. Konigsburg (this book has a similar feel to many of her novels); and kids who like to write.  And I would definitely recommend it to kids who like Scrabble–there are a ton of neat tips and word lists included in the novel!

Brain Candy: Fun Factoid Books

Is your copy of The Guinness Book of World Records falling apart from overuse?  Does the photograph of the Largest Forehead Inflation (wha?) fail to impress you because you’ve seen it so many times?  Have you read Ripley’s Believe It or Not so much, it has become all too easy to believe?  If so, here are some other middle-school friendly books that don’t need to be read cover-to-cover to be relished and enjoyed.

Pick Me Up by DK Publishing.  This one is new to our library, so I have only had a chance to peruse it lightly, but from what I can see, it is chock full of facts about just about everything, presented with loads of fun illustrations and engaging bits of text.  Entries include cross-referential links to other articles in the text, and part of the fun of reading this book is jumping from one place to another via these links.  (To write this blurb, I started reading through the book again, and I swear, I could spend all day with it and not get bored!  I did not know that there are 99 million sheep in Australia!  Or that the average American eats 230 sandwiches a year!  Or that Albert Einstein’s brain was 15% wider than the average human’s!)

Show Off: How to Do Absolutely Everything. One Step at a Time by Sarah Hines Stephens and Bethany Mann.  I would love to go back in time to when I was 10 and get this book for my birthday.  Instead, I’m going to have to buy it for my kid and get her to do the activities with me, which I suspect will be met with plenty of enthusiasm.  Show Off is full of step-by-step instructions for doing a wide variety of random things, such as:  mess with a computer (e.g., put opaque tape on the mouse censor); read palms; blow a nose bubble; fake a cheek piercing; make an exploding volcano; weave a friendship bracelet; make friends with a cat or dog; make fortune cookies; tailwhip a scooter; moonwalk; and tons of other fun stuff.

Do Not Open by John Farndon.  Full of mysteries, codes, illusions, interesting stories and anecdotes (some on the macabre side), all conveyed with a lively combination of text, charts, and a variety of colorful illustrations, this is just the sort of book to dive into on a rainy Saturday.  Like in Pick Me Up,  many entries include “links” to other, related parts of the text.  Students in my library have really enjoyed this one.

Other browsable titles to look for . . .

The Wicked History of the World by Terry Deary and Martin Brown and The Stunning Science of Everything: Science with the Squishy Bits Left In! by Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles.  Our library copies of both of these titles are well worn.  Both are full of cartoon illustrations and all the gross facts and details behind the stories or facts.  Note:  These titles are not for the faint of heart; the descriptions of torture techniques in Wicked History truly made my stomach turn.  (Also note: I think the Wicked History one has been republished as Horrible History, but it appears to be the same book.)

For Girls Only: Everything Great about Being a Girl by Laura Dower and For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever by Marc Aronson.  I will confess that I am not always keen on books that label themselves as for girls or for boys.  Why reinforce gender stereotypes like that?  But the truth is, many kids love these books (including my own, who recently spent an entire weekend immersed in For Girls Only), and these two are pretty good examples.  Both are full of trivia, advice, puzzles, facts, activities, etc., all conveyed with humor and wit.