Author: Tasha

Twisted

| Tasha

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson.

This is another great character study for teens, except this one features a male protagonist.  At first I was worried about Laurie Halse Anderson writing a male lead, but I should have realized that it is because she nails her female characters so well that I could relax and just enjoy.

Tyler is a teen who got caught spraypainting the school.  He left his wallet behind.  So now he is considered the biggest loser in the school.  That is until his new bad boy status gets him the attention of one of the hottest girls in town.  His family life is troubled, his best friend goes by the name of Yoda and is dating his younger sister, and Tyler is faced with a life that goes up and down like a rollercoaster ride.  When he is accused of putting compromising photos of his girlfriend up online, Tyler has to decide whether it is worth living the life of a pariah once again. 

This book grabs you from the first page and never lets you go.  Relentless, deep and almost overwhelming, readers will understand the loser’s life that Tyler is living.  The characterization of every character from Tyler to his broken father to his younger sister to Yoda is spot on and reads perfectly.  They are far from cardboard characters, each displaying the wounds that they carry with them much as Tyler does.  Additionally, I enjoyed the fact that teen sexuality is addressed in a matter-of-fact way and with a great deal of humor. 

Readers of her previous novels will flock to this one, but make sure to get it into the hands of boys as well.  The knot-filled life that Tyler leads is one that many teens will recognize. 

Grief Girl

| Tasha

Grief Girl: my true story by Erin Vincent.

As a teen I was obsessed with reading true stories that related to my life.  Actually at the time, I liked them the darker the better.  This book would have been right up my alley, and still is.

Erin Vincent writes the story of her teens when she lost her mother in an accident and then her father one month later.  It is a harrowing true story of grief and mourning and how the familiar list of the stages of grief does not really capture the process that mourners go through.  Through much of the book, Erin is lost and confused.  She has a miserable relationship with her older sister, a blissful relationship with her very young brother, and a very strange relationship with her uncle who manages their inheritance.  While some people stand by the children, many others desert them and go on to live their own lives.  The coldness of familiar faces is one of the major themes of the book. 

The writing is powerful, unflinching, and gripping.  Erin creates a book where readers will experience her pain and loss along with her.  Her honesty is amazing as is her sense of humor.  She is a true survivor who has written a true story that most teen girls will want to read.

Recommend this book to teens who enjoy books about loss, but also to those teens who enjoy a good dark tale filled with psychology.  Erin is the epitome of the teen narrator, capturing the teen experience brilliantly.

Bembo

| Tasha

Enter the gates of Bembo and you will find a very cool alphabet website. Run your mouse over a letter and it makes the noise of the animal that you will see when you click on the letter. Then the name of the animal is displayed and the word becomes the animal itself, built out of the letters in its name. Lovely stuff! And what a nice place for preschoolers and kindergarteners to spend some time.
You will need to have Shockwave installed to view the site.

The Dumpster Diver

| Tasha

The Dumpster Diver by Janet S. Wong, illustrated by David Roberts. 

I was charmed by this book when I opened it to the end pages and found a mishmash of different insects.  The dumpsters near the children’s buildings are filled with treasure, but it takes the Dumpster Diver to find it.  Suited with a yellow raincoat, snorkeling gear, heavy gloves and flippers, Steve is ready to enter the dumpsters.  It takes an entire diving team of children to support him, much to their delight.  And the treasure they find may be garbage to others, but is soon built into fantastic creations.  As Steve says, “Junk is good!”

This is not a sweet-scented, clean dumpster experience.  It is dangerous, dirty, icky and gross.  The fact that this all ends with cleaned up items that are made into useful furniture, toys and more is what makes the book so successful.  I love that it is not a sanitized version of junk collecting but instead embraces the icky along with the finds. 

Share this with an art class, kids who enjoy a good rummage around, or anyone who sees value in things that others toss out.  It will inspire children to see functionality and art in everyday objects. 

Notable Children's Books in the English Language Arts

| Tasha

The 2007 Notable Children’s Books in the English Language Arts have been announced.  Book were selected in the following categories:  Poetry, Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Fantasy/Folklore, Biography/Autobiography/Memoir, Informational, and Picture Books. 

My favorites on the list are: 

Meow Ruff by Joyce Sidman (in the Poetry category)

The Braid by Helen Frost (in the Historical Fiction category, though it could also have been in the Poetry one)

Rules by Cynthia Lord (in Realistic Fiction)

Gossamer by Lois Lowry (in Fantasy)

And all of the picture book choices! 

I obviously need to branch out into more nonfiction books, because I haven’t read many of the ones on the list at all.

On the Mend

| Tasha

I was attacked a week ago Friday with an awful flu.  Fever of 101-102 for all the days in between.  I did try to go to work on Monday, but had to head home at lunchtime. 

I never get fevers.  My last fever was over 15 years ago in library school when my then fiance and now husband gave me chicken pox!  I never got many spots, but had to move back with my parents for a month and out of the dorms.

Well I am on the mend with books piled around me waiting to be read.  The worst part was that for most of the week I was too sick to even read. 

This next week is the children’s spring break, so I am on vacation.  I may post a little bit but will return to full posting strength on April 9th.

See you then!

How It Happened in Peach Hill

| Tasha



How It Happened in Peach Hill by Marthe Jocelyn.

This is a fascinating portrayal of a teen girl during Prohibition who moves from town to town with her mother who pretends to be a medium in touch with the spirits.  When they arrive in Peach Hill, Annie plays the idiot, drooling and rolling one of her eyes so that she can serve as an information gatherer for her mother.  But Annie who is a bright person begins to chafe under her mother’s rule and dreams of breaking free from the cage she has been put in. 

Seventy pages from the end of the book, I still didn’t know how the author was going to end it.  How were all of the details going to be tied together and still be satisfying.  But Jocelyn does it very well, not projecting much of the ending ahead of time.  The setting is fascinating, though I would have liked to have the time period introduced immediately.  It was jarring to find clues about the 1920s when I thought I was reading a more modern story.  The small town and outsider point of view was well done, as were the characters of Annie and her mother.  I even enjoyed many of the lesser characters who were surprisingly unique just when you thought you had them figured out.

Unfortunately, the cover of the book does little to sell it.  This is a good read that will have to be hand sold to readers who will look at the cover and not see the palm reading and crystal ball.  It’s disappointing because there are such options with this subject matter.

Those teens who do pick it up will find a nice book that matches well with A Drowned Maiden’s Hair.  Though it is a teen novel where Annie is 15 and 16 in the book, it is a gentle enough story to use with older elementary children and tweens.   Recommend to tweens who enjoy realistic fiction.

Top Picks for Reading Groups

| Tasha

Kirkus has a pdf version of its Top Picks for Reading Groups available online. The top picks include ones for teen reading groups towards the end. I have only read two of their recommendations: Ida B and Loud Silence of Francine Green. Good books, but I’m not sure they would have been my top picks for discussions.

Harmless

| Tasha

Harmless by Dana Reinhardt.

Ever have a moment as a teen where you were caught in a situation and realized that lying was going to be much easier than telling the truth?  That is exactly what this book is about.  It is the second book by Dana Reinhardt, author of A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life, which was a Cybils Award finalist in the teen category. 

Three high school freshman friends, Emma, Anna and Mariah get caught in a situation that they should not have been in.  So they make up a little lie, saying that Emma was attacked by a man and Anna and Mariah save her.  But the lie spirals out of control.  Anna and Mariah are seen as heroes, Emma sees herself as a victim, and the community goes on a manhunt for the perpetrator.  Then a girl in a neighboring town goes missing and a vagrant who frequents both communities is accused of the crime.  Now the three girls have very big decisions to make.  Do they allow an innocent man to go to jail for a made-up crime or do they admit to family, friends and the entire community that they were lying from the beginning.

This book is far more complex than the brief storyline I have written above.  It offers a glimpse into three unique girls who all struggle with their lies in different ways and from different perspectives.  Additionally, all three families of the girls are unique and interesting; all reacting differently to the crisis of the attack and to their daughters. 

Reinhardt is an author who is not afraid of truly delving into the psyches of her characters, revealing depths that otherwise could be left unexplored by other authors.  She has a gift for showing emotions and not telling readers about them, making her characters all the more genuine.

There is sexuality in the novel, but nothing happens in front of the reader.  Mariah is sexually active with her older boyfriend, which speaks directly to her character and her family situation.   The topic is used deftly in the story itself and is not treated lightly.

Recommend this to readers who enjoyed Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  They make very interesting companion novels.