Month: March 2011

Recovery Road: Stunning Honesty

| Tasha

recoveryroad

Recovery Road by Blake Nelson

Madeline is in rehab at Spring Meadows.  She has been moved to the halfway house where they are allowed to go to a movie once a week.  What starts as a protest and a joke, becomes a habit for Madeline even after her only friend at rehab leaves.  She meets Stewart there, a gorgeous boy who is also at the halfway homes.  The two of them connect immediately and even though there are strict rules about associating with the opposite sex, they manage to start a relationship.  Madeline leaves rehab to continue high school, leaving Stewart to finish his time in rehab.  Now the question is whether their relationship live without the intensity of rehab and in the cold light of real life.

Nelson has captured the intriguing mix of boredom and intensity of rehab.  He explores addiction and recovery with an unflinching honesty that forces readers to see the reality of the situation.  Through his two main characters of Madeline and Stewart, readers can see the different paths that recovery can take. 

I don’t want to make this seem like a clinical look at recovery.  Rather, it is filled with emotions and connections and failures and humanity.  It is that humanity that makes the truth so brutal at times.  Madeline is a great protagonist: a person who has made many mistakes but is striving to fix their impact on her future.

One quibble I have about the book is the sudden change of Madeline’s opinion about going to college after high school.  While it is a choice that makes perfect sense, her rapid change of a strong opinion happened a bit too quickly for me.  I found myself thinking about how it would have made much more sense delayed by a chapter or two as Madeline continued to grow and learn.

This is a superior book about addiction and recovery that is honest and human.  Appropriate for ages 14-18.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

Also reviewed by:

Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word

| Tasha

lemonade

Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word by Bob Raczka, illustrated by Nancy Doniger

Poetry combines with puzzles and playfulness in this book.  Raczka takes the letters from one word and creates a poem that relates to that word.  Interestingly, the letters are always shown in the order that they appear in the original word, which makes for a fun time unraveling the words in the poem.  If you don’t want to puzzle or wonder if you got the poem right, you can always turn the page and see it written in a more traditional format.

Doniger’s illustrations are simple, modern and offer just the right amount of visual interest without detracting at all from the poems themselves.  The color palette is limited to reds, blacks and grays that make for subtle and friendly support for the text.

Highly recommended, this book will encourage children to try this format for themselves and look at words in a playful way.  Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.

Harry Potter in the News

| Tasha

Harry Potter frenzy is picking up with the anticipation of the final film.  Here are a couple of interesting recent news items:

Daniel Radcliffe will be appearing on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.  Unfortunately, it seems Radcliffe has double-booked himself, since that’s the same time that he should be doing publicity for the final Harry Potter movie!

What is a studio to do if their star can’t make the PR tour?  Well, if you are Warner you rent the entire Hirschfiend Theater for five nights to keep the star’s schedule clear for your PR tour.  How much?  $500,000.

In other news for Harry Potter fans, you can now attend the Grey School of Wizardry!  A real world version of Hogwarts for young and old wizards alike.  Tuition is a very reasonable $30 per year though you do pay a bit more as you advance through the courses.  I wonder if a diploma would get me in shorter lines at Universal’s Harry Potter rides? 

Peter Pan–The Movie

| Tasha

Moviefone has the news that a new Peter Pan movie may be in the works.  The movie will be an “origin story” that is tentatively called Peter Pan Begins.  So my guess is that it is the story of how Peter Pan himself became a Lost Boy.

Now if it can just be better than the last few Peter Pan movies.  Anyone want to take bets on that?

Tall Story: A Magical Giant of a Book

| Tasha

tallstory

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

Andi is a very petite 13 year old and has just found out that she won’t be able to play point guard on her school basketball team, because her family is moving.  The move from their small apartment to a larger home will hopefully allow her older brother, Bernardo, to join their family at last.   But there is no basketball team for girls at Andi’s new school and when her brother does arrive, he is a giant!  Bernado feels very guilty leaving the Philippines and his small village behind.  Over the years, he has become an almost folk hero for his village, where he is credited with stopping the daily earthquakes.  Now he and Andi have to figure out how to be siblings to one another, what family means, and how basketball plays into it all.  This is a funny, touching and heartwarming story that has a great depth to it as well.

The novel is written from both Bernardo’s and Andi’s points of view, allowing readers to relate to both protagonists.  This also underscores their different attitudes about family and their relationship with one another.  The book weaves magic into a realistic story in a way that will have readers convinced that there is magic at work, yet able to also think it may simply be coincidence.  It is very subtly crafted.

This book deals with deep subjects of culture, family and belonging.  At the same time, it remains upbeat and celebratory of our diversity.  This is a book that would work well as a classroom discussion thanks to its natural depth and its positive attitudes.  There is plenty here to discuss that is timely and relevant to any community.

Highly recommended, this is a book that will put a smile on your face and warm your heart.  Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House.

You can check out the book trailer below:

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Hunger Games–Who Will Be Katniss?

| Tasha

Variety has the news that the lead in Hunger Games may be a previous Academy Award nominee.  But that doesn’t narrow down the choices, really.

The three actresses under consideration at this time are:

  

Jennifer Lawrence – star of Winter’s Bone

Hailee Steinfeld from True Grit

Abigail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine

Three very different types of actress but all brilliant at their craft.  The film is due out March 2012.

So should it be one of the three above?  Do you have a better pick?  Or should it be an unknown?

The Sea of Monsters–The Movie

| Tasha

It looks like Fox 2000 will be developing a sequel to the first Percy Jackson movie. 

According to the LA Times, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (writers of Ed Wood and Agent Cody Banks) will be writing the script.

No director has been linked to the film yet, but it is not expected to be Chris Columbus who directed the first film.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this franchise, since the first film was not a blockbuster of a movie.

The Junkyard Wonders: Timely and Timeless

| Tasha

junkyard

The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco

Polacco tells another very personal story of an amazing teacher in this book.  Trisha thinks she has a fresh start when she moves to live with her grandparents and father.  She expects that she will no longer be in a special needs class anymore, but in her new school she is once again in a special class.  At this school, the class is known as The Junkyard.  Happily though, it has an incredible teacher in Mrs. Peterson.  Mrs. Peterson begins the school year talking about what genius is, and continues to lead the class forward by inspiring them every day.  She allows them to create their dreams, to realize that a junkyard is place of opportunity, and to achieve and grow.  When tragedy strikes the class, they persevere on with their efforts as a tribute. 

Polacco’s books are always heartfelt and vibrantly real.  Here readers see that differences are not disadvantages and friends are not always the most likely but can be the longest lasting.  The arc of the story takes readers through a wide range of emotions, from the dismay and shame of the special class to the achievements they realize to the loss they experience together.  Her tributes to teachers and the difference the great ones make in children’s lives could not be more timely and more timeless.

As always, Polacco’s illustrations are bright and evocative.  Obviously based on real people, the characters in the book are consistently portrayed and entirely unique from one another. 

Highly recommended for all children, whether in special classes or not.  I guarantee they will all long to be part of a Junkyard class by the end of the book.  This would make a great book for elementary classrooms discussing diversity and differences.   Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Philomel Books.

Also reviewed by:

My Wild Sister and Me

| Tasha

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My Wild Sister and Me by Iris Wewer

Told from the point of view of a younger brother, this book is about the thrill of having a big sister who not only plays with you, but pretends to be different animals!  She is sometimes a giraffe, aloof and ignoring him.  So he is forced to be a skunk and sulk about it.  Other times, she is a bear and he can be a bear along with her.  Still other times, they are the happiest animals of all, bunnies!  They play Catch-the-Bunny, much to their mutual delight.  But when his sister’s friend comes and asks her to play with her, she leaves without a second thought.  Leaving one very sad bunny behind.  But this bunny is also clever and knows just how to tease his sister into another round of Catch-the-Bunny when she returns.

Wewer captures the sibling dynamic so well here.  From the pull of other friends for the older sibling, to the sense of abandonment for the younger, and finally the joy of playing together.  She has also nicely captured the naughtiness of children, their energy and their vivid imaginations.  It is a book that really feels just as wild and loose as its title implies.

Wewer’s art adds to the dynamic feel of the title.  My particular favorite page features the children dashing around the entire margin of the page dressed as bunnies.  The illustrations of the children plainly show their emotions, from the anger when his sister returns to the blank innocence in case he gets caught taking her toothbrush.  Priceless!

If you have children who are wild, silly and occasionally turn into animals on you, this is the book for them!  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from NorthSouth.