Ben Bright is about to graduate from high school. He’s an accomplished student, a talented actor/singer, dedicated boyfriend and brother. He’s got everything going for him, except for the fact that he has yet to explain to all his loved ones that he’s about enlist in the US Army.
Boot camp gives way to deployment, everyone’s worst fear. While on a routine mission, Ben’s vehicle rolls over an IED, leaving all of its passengers with life-threatening injuries. Ben receives a massive brain injury that essentially re-wires his entire brain. Everything must be relearned. Ben doesn’t remember or recognize anyone from his past, making his homecoming more bitter than sweet. Hope seems elusive until Ben finally recognizes someone: his autistic brother, Chris.
This is an extremely fast-paced read. Ben is not the typical soldier type. He’s really altruistic about the whole enlisting thing and genuinely believes he can make a difference. His best friend and girlfriend take a considerable amount of convincing before they feel they can support his decision. Ben’s brother, Chris, is underdeveloped in the first half of the book, but makes more of a showing post-deployment. I can’t help but feel that more development of Chris’s character would have greatly benefited the trajectory of the story. We see very little of Chris and Ben interacting before Ben leaves. A lot of focus is placed on Ben’s best friend, Niko, and his girlfriend, Ariela. All three of the older kids are too good to be true and come across as a bit two-dimensional. The issues, however, are very timely, which makes this a good choice for book discussions, particularly where reluctant readers are involved.
Devon is your typical teen girl. She is a star soccer player and a good student. Her home life isn’t the best with a single mom who acts more like a child than a parent. Devon has strict rules for herself so she won’t turn out like her mom. One summer day she goes on a date and ends up having sex with the boy. Then she gets pregnant. Devon is so steeped in denial that she denies the sexual experience and the pregnancy. She even denies giving birth and throwing her baby in the trashcan. But she can’t live in denial forever. Devon is sent to jail for her crime and must face up to the legal consequences of her decisions.
I’m not sure if it was listening to this book instead of reading it, but I did not find Devon to be a sympathetic character at all. I found her delusions and denial hard to swallow. Of course, I can’t imagine ever being pregnant and hiding it or not realizing you are giving birth until the baby pops out but that is just me. Devon spends the majority of the book not really present. She doesn’t get why she is in jail and she blocks out the events that led up to her incarceration. We find out what happened through a series of flashbacks. We learn about Devon’s date and how she hid her pregnancy and what happened the night she had the baby. It isn’t until the very end of the book that Devon actually quits fighting her lawyer and owns up to her actions. I have to say that the legal processes in the book seemed spot on. I really enjoyed Devon’s lawyer Dom and her eternal patience for Devon’s bad attitude. Not sure how I feel about the end of the book, but in a way I thought it was justified; stupid but justified.
Eleanor is having a very bad summer. Her babysitter, Bibi, has moved away. Her parents force her to get another babysitter, Natalie. Natalie is not Bibi, but she understands what Eleanor is going through. By the end of the summer, Eleanor has accepted Natalie and had a letter from Bibi so things are looking up.
This is a fun little book. I really enjoyed Eleanor’s story. The verse works really well and definitely translates what Eleanor is going through. I also enjoyed the illustrations. They are fun and silly.
Foster wants to become the first kid with a cooking show on the Food Network. Her specialty is cupcakes and muffins but she can cook anything. She practices for her show every time she cooks. The only problem is she and her mom just moved to small town Culpepper and who is going to discover her in Culpepper? They had to leave Memphis fast to get away from her mom’s Elvis impersonating boyfriend and Culpepper is where they ended up. Culpepper is a quirky little town with a reclusive Hollywood diva, a young documentarian without a camera and a host of other fun characters.
I love small town books. They always have the quirkiest characters. I think this book has a nice mix of crazy and sane. I like Foster’s ambition and determination to make it big. I also enjoyed the fact that she had a little dimension. She can’t read and she tries to hide that fact with everything she can. Once her secret is out she accepts the help of those around her. I do wish there would have been a little more development for Foster, but overall this was a fun little book.
Bo’s dad is the commander of the Air Force Base they live on. Bo is in sixth grade and has a new teacher this year. Ms. Loupe is an Air Force brat so she knows all about life on the base. Her entire family is in the military including her brother Marc who is stationed in Afghanistan. Ms. Loupe is unlike any teacher the class has had before. She comes from a theater background and starts teaching them improv from day one. She has a “taped space” where anything can happen and she brings in a ugly green couch for a prop. Gari is Bo’s cousin. She is forced to leave her home in Seattle and move in with Bo’s family when her mom, an Army nurse, is deployed to Iraq.
Marc is reported missing from his squad and when he is found he is gravely injured. This puts Ms. Loupe off her game and makes her step back from her class. In order to get Ms. Loupe back and to show how much they care for her, Bo, Gari and the rest of the class enact Operation Yes. The plan is to get 100,000 LGM (little green men) and deploy them throughout the school. Each LGM can be purchased for a $1 donation and all proceeds will go to help wounded soldiers. Soon the students have started a nation-wide campaign and written a play about the soldiers. But best of all they have brought Ms. Loupe back to herself.
I didn’t think I would like this book as much as I did. It seems like such a simple story about kids on a military base, but it ended up being more than that. It was about hope and learning to accept the life you are given and making something of that life. I thought the kids were fantastic and very realistic. I would definitely recommend this one to kids.
Ted is a tall, gangly 15-year-old. She has always felt like the ugly duckling next to her older sister Ava. Ava is beautiful and everyone loves her; however, Ava hasn’t been feeling well. Her neck is swollen and she has been having night sweats. It turns out that Ava has cancer and has to immediately start chemo and radiation. At the same time Ted is approached on the street by a model scout. She and Ava both think it is a scam until Ted does some investigating and discovers it is real. She starts modeling (or trying to), hiding her new job from her parents and learning a lot about the industry.
I loved Ted. She was a fun, spunky, different character. I love her transition throughout the book. She starts out as an ugly duckling and ends up as a swan (or something like that). She does grow into her self and becomes more confident as she is exposed to more and more of the modeling world. I like that she grew a backbone and stood up for herself and along the way discovered what she really wanted to do with herself. However, my favorite part of the book was the relationship between Ava and Ted. They are typical sister who are going through extraordinary times. I think their relationship is highlighted by the hair cutting scene. They are one and they stick together just like sisters should. I guess my only complaint in this book was the romance angle. You could totally see it coming as soon as Nick was introduced, but I thought it was completely unnecessary. It doesn’t really detract from a wonderful, surprising story though.
I received this galley from the publishers on NetGalley.com.
Silver Linings Playbook is a first time novel by Matthew Quick. The story centers around, Pat, a man who has mental issues [who doesn't], who recently returns home after a lengthy stay at the mental hospital. Pat thinks his life is like a movie and in the end will reunite with his estranged wife, Nikki. On his way to recovery, Pat meets Tiffany another odd individual who is dealing with her husband’s death. This is a story of a mom who loves her son, a dad who is ashamed of her son, family and friends trying to support, the Philadelphia Eagles and two odd individuals trying make their way through life. The book will make you laugh, cry and become a part of you.
Stella is living with her great aunt Louise in Cape Cod while her mom is off somewhere. Angel is a foster child taken in by Louise so that Stella will have a friend. Louise manages the a group of cottages for George. Stella and Angel don’t really get along or have anything in common except being parentless. Then something terrible happens, Louise dies. The girls decide not to report it because they don’t want to be sent away. Together they manage the cottages and keep everyone from finding out about Louise.
I like spunky young girl heroines and Stella and Angel definitely fit the bill. I like their ingenuity and determination. I think this book was beautifully written. However, I did find it completely unlikely that the girls could go as long as they did with no one finding out about Louise. I couldn’t believe George never once pushed to talk to her or that any of her friends and neighbors never thought it strange that she wasn’t around. So you really had to suspend your disbelief a bit to get around that part of the story. I did enjoy how everything worked out in the end though.
Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) leads a quiet life in the village of St. Mary, England, until his brother’s death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But will their relationship survive in a society that considers Ali a foreigner?
Tess was a shining star. Everyone loved and adored her. She was always the center of attention and loved it. She did have her dark side but no one except her family ever saw that. Tess is now in a coma after a tragic car accident. She was the planet her family revolved around and they aren’t functioning well now that she isn’t there. Abby is Tess’s little sister. She has always been in her shadow. She isn’t as pretty or popular or well-loved as Tess and she knows it. Abby just wants Tess to wake up and things to go back to normal. She thinks the key is Eli. She knows Tess moved when he spoke so she enlists his help to wake Tess. She is sure the extraordinarily beautiful Eli will love Tess and she will love him. The only problem is her burgeoning feelings for him and his absolute disinterest in Tess.
I love Elizabeth Scott’s books. They are always dark and depressing but very real. They are definitely not for everyone. This book was a little harder to read than some of the others mainly because of Abby. Abby has extremely low self-esteem and it comes out in everything she does. She believes she is not worthy of anything, that Tess is perfect and she will never compare. Eli is clearly interested in her and she just keeps pushing him on Tess. She doesn’t think she deserves happiness or love. It makes it hard to read about someone who is so down on themselves. Despite that I did like Abby and her journey through this book. She is deep in denial and self-loathing but she is interesting. I like that Scott tackled so many issues in this book (racism, OCD, sexuality, self-esteem, teen pregnancy, death). I thought the ending was a bit abrupt. I really would have liked to have more closure, but sometimes in life you don’t get a happy ending or even a satisfying one.
Low Pressure by Sandra Brown 467 pages
Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson 499 pages
The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks 217 pages
Wandering Son follows two fifth-graders as they navigate the beginnings of adolescence. One is Shuichi Nitori, a boy who would rather be a girl. The other is his good friend, Yoshino Takatsuki, a girl would would prefer to be a boy. Both are from good, loving homes and are both well-liked by their classmates. Often mistaken as members of the opposite gender, both children feel more at home in their bodies when they dress and act as such.
This is an unusual and somewhat provocative topic for manga, but the intertwining stories of these two kids’ stories does not focus on sexuality. It does, however, focus intently on personal identity. Yoshino and Shuichi are both sweet and endearing. Readers will hopefully empathize with their struggles and, ideally, learn to accept that gender is not always as black-and-white as it may seem.
The artwork here is nice enough, though I was expecting more from a hardcover manga. I often had difficulty telling characters apart since the sparse drawing style made many of the characters look similar. Overall, Wandering Son is sweet and earnest in its storytelling, making it appropriate even for younger readers who may wish to better understand themselves or their peers.
Speaking From Among the Bones by Alan Bradley, 378 pages
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson, 358 pages
Lost Boy: The Story of the Man Who Created Peter Pan by Jane Yolen, 35 pages
Little Rock girl 1957 : how a photograph changed the fight for integration by Shelley Tougas, 64 pagesRecounts the events surrounding the 1957 photograph taken by Will Counts that captured one of nine African-American students trying to enter an Arkansas high school while being taunted by an angry white mob and discusses how the photo brought the civil rights movement to the forefront of the nation’s attention.
Nine African-American students made history when they defied a governor and integrated an Arkansas high school in 1957. It was the photo of one of the nine trying to enter the school- a young girl being taunted, harassed, and threatened by an angry mob- that grabbed the world’s attention and kept its disapproving gaze on Little Rock, Arkansas. In defiance of a federal court order, Governor Orval Faubus called in the National Guard to prevent the students from entering the all-white Central High School. A chilling photo by newspaper photographer Will Counts captured the sneering expression of a girl in the mob and made history.
Charlie is your typical shy teenager. Entering his Freshman year of High School is difficult for Charlie, like it is for most Freshman. Charlie trying to find ways to fit in, as two Seniors take him under their wing. The new friends introduce Charlie to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, drugs, sex and the true meaning of friendship. In the end, Charlie must deal with his inner demons.
Face the winter naked by Bonnie Turner, 283 pages
Daniel Tomelin, a shell-shocked veteran haunted by the carnage of the First World War, abandons his family in the Great Depression and goes on the road in search of relief from his nightmares. The life of a freight-hopping, banjo-strumming hobo appeals to him more than he wants to admit. But he insists he’s not a bum – he’s a family man looking for work; a down-and-out victim of the Depression, whose war flashbacks and guilt for leaving his family accompany him through the hills of Missouri.
Compassionate, humorous, and warm, despite the economic hardships of the era, Face the Winter Naked will appeal to readers who enjoy tales of survival in the Great Depression. Stories of desperate men who couldn’t handle the realities of war or financial ruin. Men who dearly loved their families but hadn’t the courage to stay and accept responsibility. The story pulls the reader back to a tragic period in history, where people either learned to cope with poverty – or perished.
The Dinner by Herman Koch, 292 pages
It’s a summer’s evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse — the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.
Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
The Terror by Dan Simmons, 769 pages
The bestselling author of Ilium and Olympos transforms the true story of a legendary Arctic expedition into a thriller worthy of Stephen King or Patrick O’Brian. Their captain’s insane vision of a Northwest Passage has kept the crewmen of The Terror trapped in Arctic ice for two years without a thaw. But the real threat to their survival isn’t the ever-shifting landscape of white,the provisions that have turned to poison before they open them, or the ship slowly buckling in the grip of the frozen ocean. The real threat is whatever is out in the frigid darkness, stalking their ship, snatching one seaman at a time or whole crews, leaving bodies mangled horribly or missing forever. Captain Crozier takes over the expedition after the creature kills its original leader, Sir John Franklin. Drawing equally on his own strengths as a seaman and the mystical beliefs of the Eskimo woman he’s rescued, Crozier sets a course on foot out of the Arctic and away from the insatiable beast.But every day the dwindling crew becomes more deranged and mutinous, until Crozier begins to fear there is no escape from an ever-more-inconceivable nightmare.
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier, 305 pages
Forced to leave England and struggling with illness in the wake of a family tragedy, Quaker Honor Bright is forced to rely on strangers in the harsh landscape of 1850 Ohio and is compelled to join the Underground Railroad network to help runaway slaves escape to freedom.
Will lives for football; he is a football star. Unfortunately his town, Forbes, PA, is running out of money and decides they can’t fund the football team this year. Forbes has seen better days; the Forbes Flyers shoe factory has gone out of business and taken all the jobs with it. People are moving away and the town is slowly dying. Will writes to New Balance and asks them to sponsor the team; and of course they do. Now he just has to get a team together. He convinces his dad, former football player sidelined for a knee injury, to coach the team. Unfortunately, he only has 10 players. He recruits new girl Hannah and bullied by his father Toby to join. All Will wants is a chance to beat the Castle Rock team in the championship.
I have read this book twice now and there is still a lot of football in this book. This book is all about football; I know nothing about football nor do I really want to. So all the passages describing plays and the games went right over my head. I am sure for people who follow football this was a fantastic portion of the book. Thankfully it is easy to skim the football parts and still know what is going on. I enjoyed this book even with the football. It was a little predictable: Will is a football genius, New Balance actually funds the team and the CEO comes to the championship, they silence Toby’s bullying dad by making him assistant coach, the whole town comes out to support them, etc. All things you would expect; there were very few surprises in this book. However, I am not sure kids will care. This is a quick read with lots of sports action. The characters are likable and you really do root for the team even though you know they are going to win.
In Front of God and Everybody by K. D. McCrite, 298 pages
Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer by JohnGrisham, 263 pages
Hidden by Helen Frost, 147 pages
Georges (the S is silent) has had to leave is home and move into an apartment. His dad was laid off and his mom is working double shifts as a nurse. He meets new neighbors home-schooled kids Safer and Candy and joins their spy club. Their mission is to figure out if mysterious Mr. X is really a serial killer. Meanwhile Georges is being bullied at school. His best friend has moved on to the popular kids and the bullies are picking on Georges. Georges has to learn to stand up for himself.
This is a good book to recommend to boy readers. It has a little adventure, a little mystery and a lot of humor. Georges is your typical geeky kid just trying to survive middle school. His relationship with his parents is strained since his dad lost his job; he only communicates with his mom through scrabble notes. I enjoyed the side story of the science of taste. I thought it was really interesting how that played out. I also liked how Georges finally learned to stand up for himself to Safer and the bullies at school.
Laurel has lost her mom and grandma to a hurricane. She has moved north with her dad and brother. At first things start out great. She makes a new best friend and joins the cheerleading squad. She also starts dating the co-captain of the basketball team, T-Boom. Everything seems perfect until T-Boom introduces her to moon (or meth). Laurel is soon hooked on the moon and doing anything to get her next fix. She is living on the streets and begging for money. Her dad tries to help her but rehab just doesn’t stick. She loses everything before she can start rebuilding her life.
This is a moving story about addiction. Laurel is like so many teens who just want to feel good, to party, to leave their pain behind. Her fall is fast and brutal, but not permanent. Because this is a story about recovery as well as addiction; about hope and despair. Laurel is saved by her family and a graffiti artist who paints those who have died because of moon. Laurel is a writer and keeps writing her story even when she has hit bottom. This story is a touching one and an excellent read.
Sarah didn’t really want to go on the weekend field trip to the Everglades, but her parents genuinely believe that she’ll get something out of it, so she goes anyway. Taunted by the other girls on the trip and ignored by the boys, Sarah attempts to keep to herself. She meets the boy whose parents own the camp, Andy, and agrees to go on an airboat ride with him. She pretends to be sick to avoid the next day’s outing and then takes off with Andy. The ride is awesome, even if there are tons of mosquitoes and the saw grass keeps cutting Sarah’s exposed flesh. The pair take a break at an old hunting cabin, but when they get ready to depart, they discover that their boat has now sunk. They are completely stranded and well over 10 miles from their camp. Worse, no one knows where they’ve gone. Their only option is to begin an epic trek across the everglades in the hopes of making it to the levee before nature takes its toll. Sarah and Andy brave alligators, water moccasins, wild boars and all kinds of nasty insects. Sarah starts out a bit on the whiny side, though we understand her reluctance and fear. She does grow considerably as a character throughout the course of her ordeal. This was a nice survival tale, made all the better by being completely plausible. The descriptions of the Everglades are spot-on and give the reader a real sense of place. A nice choice for the Truman Award list.