Sunday, August 21, 2011

MOON OVER MANIFEST by Clare Vanderpool

Historical Fiction; 1929 Depression; Mystery; 2011 Newbery Gold Medal

Quiet book. I enjoyed it and was pulled in as the story unfolded and the intrigue increased. It would be a good read aloud and class discussion book.

Horn Book (Spring 2011)

"It's 1936 and Abilene's father, himself looking for work, sends her to his hometown of Manifest, Kansas, to live with Pastor Shady, a bootlegger-turned-preacher. There Abilene uncovers secrets about her family and the entire community. The setting jumps between the Depression era and WWI; mysterious letters and enlightening newspaper articles help set the scene for this captivating tale." Horn Book from http://titlewave.com

WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead

Fiction, space and time. 2010 Newbery Gold Medal.

I have to read Wrinkle in Time again! This book would be fantastic for discussion. Loved it.

Booklist starred (June 1, 2009 (Vol. 105, No. 19))

"Grades 4-7. If this book makes your head hurt, you’re not alone. Sixth-grader Miranda admits that the events she relates make her head hurt, too. Time travel will do that to you. The story takes place in 1979, though time frames, as readers learn, are relative. Miranda and Sal have been best friends since way before that. They both live in a tired Manhattan apartment building and walk home together from school. One day everything changes. Sal is kicked and punched by a schoolmate and afterward barely acknowledges Miranda. Which leaves her to make new friends, even as she continues to reread her ratty copy of A Wrinkle in Time and tutor her mother for a chance to compete on The $20,000 Pyramid. She also ponders a puzzling, even alarming series of events that begins with a note: “I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own . . . you must write me a letter.” Miranda’s first-person narrative is the letter she is sending to the future. Or is it the past? It’s hard to know if the key events ultimately make sense (head hurting!), and it seems the whys, if not the hows, of a pivotal character’s actions are not truly explained. Yet everything else is quite wonderful. The ’70s New York setting is an honest reverberation of the era; the mental gymnastics required of readers are invigorating; and the characters, children and adults, are honest bits of humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest. Just as Miranda rereads L’Engle, children will return to this." Booklist Review from Follett's Titlewave: http://titlewave.com

Sunday, August 07, 2011

KING OF THE SCREWUPS by K.L. Going

Realistic Fiction; Gender Identity; Fathers and Sons
REVIEW
Booklist (April 15, 2009 (Vol. 105, No. 16))
Grades 7-12. "Like her previous novels, including the Printz Honor Book Fat Kid Rules the World (2003), Going’s latest is a surprising, memorable story shaped from unlikely character bonds. High-school senior Liam is a talented, straight athlete who is as gorgeous as his mother, a former supermodel, and has inherited her interest in clothes: “I love fashion. And girls.” A mediocre student, he constantly disappoints his dad, an angry, sometimes verbally abusive executive who kicks Liam out of the house after one too many perceived transgressions. Against his homophobic dad’s wishes, Liam moves in with his gay, cross-dressing, trailer-dwelling uncle, Aunt Pete. Determined to meet his father’s expectations, Liam joins the AV club at his new school and actively tries to fight his natural status as “Mr. Popularity”; but once again, everything goes awry. Liam’s parents occasionally feel more like caricatures than fully developed characters, but Liam and Aunt Pete are true originals, and Going balances her strong messages of self-discovery and acceptance with compassionate, bittersweet scenes that highlight the soul-sapping futility of trying to please unappeasable adults."

Loved this one! Actually I love every book that I've read by Going. She is a fantastic teen writer - humorous, but with a punch of reality.

MAUS: A SURVIVOR'S TALE by Art Spiegelman

Holocaust, Graphic Novel, Young Adult.

Review:
School Library Journal (May 1987)
"YA Told with chilling realism in an unusual comic-book format, this is more than a tale of surviving the Holocaust. Spiegelman relates the effect of those events on the survivors' later years and upon the lives of the following generation. Each scene opens at the elder Spiegelman's home in Rego Park, N.Y. Art, who was born after the war, is visiting his father, Vladek, to record his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Nazis, portrayed as cats, gradually introduce increasingly repressive measures, until the Jews, drawn as mice, are systematically hunted and herded toward the Final Solution. Vladek saves himself and his wife by a combination of luck and wits, all the time enduring the torment of hunted outcast. The other theme of this book is Art's troubled adjustment to life as he, too, bears the burden of his parents' experiences. This is a complex book. It relates events which young adults, as the future architects of society, must confront, and their interest is sure to be caught by the skillful graphics and suspenseful unfolding of the story. Rita G. Keeler, St. John's School , Houston"

Powerful. This book is a winner with our eighth graders who study the Holocaust.

THE MOSTLY TRUE ADVENTURES OF HOMER P. FIGG by Rodman Philbrick

Civil War; Adventure; Newbery Honor.
Kirkus Review (December 1, 2008)
"Shortly after this lively comic yarn opens, Homer, a half-starved orphan boy who lives in rural Maine with his mean-spirited uncle and 17-year-old brother Harold, helplessly watches as Harold is sworn into the Union Army. After finding out that their avaricious uncle sold his underage nephew to substitute for a richer neighbor in the Civil War, 12-year-old Homer takes off on a rescue mission. On the way, Homer is kidnapped by some nefarious slave-catchers, joins a traveling medicine show and holds up the Union colors during the Battle of Gettysburg. Bursting with vividly voiced characters and descriptions so crisp they practically crunch, the story is trenchantly narrated in the first person by Homer, a resourceful, sharp-witted child who is never without a lie in his pocket. Despite the overall comic tone, Philbrick makes serious points about the evil of slavery, the horrors of war, inexplicable bravery, ethical decision-making and the need to move forward in one's life. (Historical fiction. 9-12)"

I had questions at first about whom I would recommend this to since the voice of the main character is very much in a 'tall tale,' mode; I wondered if middle school students could relate (IMHO after working daily with this age group). I changed my mind, however, a chapter or two into the story. Encourage students to stick with it a bit. Kirkus review above is a very accurate description.
Rodman Philbrick website http://www.rodmanphilbrick.com/

THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY by Suzanne Collins

Survival; Science Fiction "Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen becomes a contender in a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death, "Catching Fire" in which Katniss and Peeta win the competition and become the faces of an impending rebellion, and "Mockingjay" in which Katniss and her family and friends are in danger because the Capitol holds her responsible for the unrest." http://titlewave.com
Excellent, excellent riveting page turner! Suzanne Collins homepage http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/