Middle School

Review: The Lightning Dreamer by Margarita Engle

| Tasha

lightning dreamer

The Lightning Dreamer by Margarita Engle

Margarita Engle, award-winning author of verse novels, continues her stories of Cuba.  In this book, she explores the life of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, also known as Tula, who becomes a revolutionary Cuban poet.  Raised to be married off to save the family financially, Tula even as a young girl relates more closely with slaves and the books she is reading than with girls of her own age and her own social standing.  As she reads more and more, sheltered by both her younger brother and the nuns at the convent, Tula starts to explore revolutionary ideas about freedom for slaves and for women.  In a country that is not free, Tula herself is not free either and is forced to confront an arranged marriage, the brutality of slavery, and find her own voice.

Engle writes verse novels with such a beauty that they are impossible to put down.  Seemingly light confections of verse, they are actually strong, often angry and always powerful.  Here, Engle captures the way that girls are asked to sacrifice themselves for their families, the importance of education for young women, and the loss of self.  She doesn’t shy away from issues of slavery either.  At it’s heart though, this novel is about the power of words to free people, whether that is Tula herself, her brother or a family slave and friend.

Highly recommended, this is another dazzling and compelling novel from a master poet.  Appropriate for ages 12-15.

Reviewed from digital galley received from NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Review: The Bird King by Shaun Tan

| Tasha

bird king

The Bird King: An Artist’s Notebook by Shaun Tan

This book opens the curtain to Tan’s creative process, allowing readers to view art from stories that have not yet been full formed, art from books that have been completed, and beautiful illustrations that may not be stories at all.  The courage this book took to produce is to be applauded.  Allowing readers and other artists to see a process of creativity is raw and soul baring. 

This book is stellar.  One turns the pages slowly, lingering in worlds undreamed of, wondering at ideas, and pausing to allow a particular image to sink in more deeply.  It is a journey, specially designed for a young creative to see that mistakes can be joyous, that creation is messy, and that works in progress are breathtaking.

This is a book to get in the hands of teens who enjoy art and writing, for it is a look at the unformed and the just formed.  It is a book of pure creativity and the creative process.  Beautiful.  Haunting.  Inspiring.  Appropriate for ages 10-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Scholastic.

Review: Etched in Clay by Andrea Cheng

| Tasha

etched in clay

Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet by Andrea Cheng

Told in virtuoso verse, this is the true story of the life of Dave, an enslaved potter who lived in the years before and after Emancipation.  Dave was an artist, most likely making over a thousand pieces of pottery in his lifetime of work of which only 170 survive today.  He inscribed some of his pieces with either his own name, his master’s name and also poetry that he wrote, brief verses that offer a glimpse into his world.  The amount of bravery that small act took is monumental, since Dave faced potential death because he was demonstrating his ability to read and write in a time when it was forbidden for slaves in South Carolina to do so.  Dave serves both as an example of the injustice and brutality of slavery and also as a remarkable example of the artistry and strength of human beings. 

Cheng tells Dave’s story in very short poems.  They are not all in Dave’s voice, sometimes instead being in the voice of his owners, his wife, or his children.  Cheng does not soften the harshness of slavery, offering poems that speak directly to the separation of families through selling them apart and the brutality of the punishments inflicted.  I would not call it unflinching, because one can sense Cheng flinching alongside the reader as she captures the moment but also makes it completely human and important. 

Cheng also did the woodcuts that accompany the poetry.  They are a harmonious combination with the subject matter thanks to their rough edges and hand-hewn feel.  Done only in black and white, they share the same powerful message as the poems.

This powerful book informs middle grade readers about a man who could have been one of the many lost faces of slavery but who through art and bravery had a voice.  Appropriate for ages 12-15.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Lee & Low Books.

Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers 2012

| Tasha

Every year VOYA (The Voice of Youth Advocates) offers a list of the top books of that year for middle school readers.  Middle school can be particularly difficult to purchase for, since students in that age range are transitioning to full teen reads, yet not everything in the teen collection may be appropriate for them.  So here are the best books of 2012  for that age selected by VOYA:

Almost Home The Apothecary Buddy

Almost Home by Joan Bauer

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy

Buddy by M. H. Herlong

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale Child of the Mountains Chomp

The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Agra Deedy

Child of the Mountains by Marilyn Sue Shank

Chomp by Carl Hiassen

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact Deadweather and Sunrise (The Chronicles of Egg, #1) A Diamond in the Desert

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact by A. J. Hartley

Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey

A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

Double Eva of the Farm Fighting for Dontae

Double by Jenny Valentine

Eva of the Farm by Dia Calhoun

Fighting for Dontae by Mike Castan

Jump into the Sky Kepler's Dream Laugh with the Moon

Jump into the Sky by Shelley Pearsall

Kepler’s Dream by Juliet Bell

Laugh with the Moon by Shana Burg

Liesl & Po The Lions of Little Rock One for the Murphys

Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

13790755 Poison Most Vial: A Mystery The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen

Pip and the Wood Witch Curse by Chris Mould

Poison Most Vial by Benedict Carey

The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen

Shadow on the Mountain Sway Three Times Lucky

Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus

Sway by Amber McRee Turner

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Ungifted Vessel Wonder

Ungifted by Gordon Korman

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Review: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

| Tasha

etiquette and espionage

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

I must admit right up front that I haven’t read Carriger’s adult series The Parasol Protectorate.  So it is with fresh eyes that I came to the first book in her new teen series.  Here we meet Sophronia who at age 14 is rough and tumble enough for her mother to send her to a finishing school, hoping that she will learn proper manners and decorum before her older sister’s debutante ball.  Sophronia thinks she is being sent to a dull school only about curtsying and clothes, but Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality turns out to be about far more than Victorian manners and society.  Instead Sophronia is thrust into adventure right from the trip to school, finding herself the heroine when they are attacked on their travels.  As she discovers her real gifts are embraced by her new school, much of which would chagrin and alarm her mother.  This blend of boarding school and steampunk espionage will not stay on library shelves for long!

Carriger has created a great world in her book, one that I understand is the same as that in her adult novels.  Populated with vampires and werewolves as well as humans, the world that Sophronia is sent to at school reveals that there is far more to life than her mother would approve of.  The setting of a school that floats in the air also adds that distance and isolation that works so well in boarding school novels. 

Happily, Sophronia is a girl who loves adventure and though she may disdain her mother’s focus on fashion and decorum, begins to learn that as well.  She is a brave character, one that is unafraid to go against societal rules.  It makes for a book that is rambunctious and wildly fun while at the same time filled with wide skirts, hats and frippery.  It’s a charming mix.

With the popularity of steampunk, this is one book that belongs in every public library collection for teens.  With no sex and plenty of action, middle school readers will also enjoy it immensely. It’s a very fun read, so expect demand for the upcoming books as well.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Hokey Pokey by Jerry Spinelli

| Tasha

hokey pokey

Hokey Pokey by Jerry Spinelli

No adults live in Hokey Pokey, just kids.  They fall asleep right where they leave off playing and then jump up again to start playing the next day.  There are plenty of places to play: the Doll Farm, Thousand Puddles, Snuggle Stop, and Trucks.  Jack is one of the biggest kids at Hokey Pokey. He rides a legendary bike, Scramjet, captured from the herds of wild bicycles that roam the plains.  But when Jack wakes up one day, Scramjet has been taken and by a girl!  As Jubilee rides Scramjet around Hokey Pokey, everyone soon realizes that something is changing.  Jubilee paints the bike yellow but as she tries to get under Jack’s skin, Jack realizes that he himself is changing.  It must have something to do with hearing a train whistle no one else can hear.  But trains never come to Hokey Pokey despite the train tracks.

I was captured by this book the moment I read the first page.  I knew that I was in for a treat from Spinelli that is unlike anything he’s every written before.  This is a wonderfully wild and fanciful book that will remind readers of Peter Pan, yet it is brightly modern and not afraid to be dark too.  Spinelli uses a new language in Hokey Pokey, one that is easily understood but that also marks that we are somewhere new.  Take this description of children at play in Hokey Pokey, “…kids big and little everywhere streaking, leaping, chasing, shrieking, warring, hopscotching, footballing, hide-and-seeking, jumproping, hokeypoking, razzing, dazzing, runamucking, chuckleducking…”  The language he uses has a wonderful rhythm to it that is evident throughout the book.

The setting of Hokey Pokey is such a large part of this book.  Some places remain rather mysterious while others are completely explained in action in the story.  When readers are given a glimpse of some of the other wonders of Hokey Pokey, they can immediately relate to what it is because all of it is about childhood and play.  As Jack moves towards adolescence in the story, the book changes too.  It becomes more filled with questions, more angst pervades it.  This is a story of leaving childhood and all of its bright, candy-colored play behind and heading into the unknown.

Gloriously fun to read, this book was impossible for me not to love.  Spinelli writes with a lovely playfulness and yet beneath it all is truth.  A truly outstanding read for middle graders.  Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Review: A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

| Tasha

tangle of knots

A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

Cady has a Talent for baking cakes and making just the right one for a specific person.  Miss Mallory’s Talent is matching children with the perfect home, but she hasn’t been able to find the right fit for Cady for years.  Will has a Talent for hiding, passing through walls and disappearing along with his pet ferret.  Zach has a Talent for spitting, something just right for a troublemaker.  Marigold is desperately searching for her Talent, trying all sorts of things with no luck.  Then there is the mysterious man who has a Talent for knots who seems to appear whenever he is needed most.  There is even a man who steals Talents and keeps them in jars, as he frantically searches suitcases for a slip of paper he lost over 50 years ago.  The stories of all of these characters are just a tangle at first, but slowly the stories come together into one gorgeously designed knot of a tale.

Graff has created a world like ours but with more than a touch of magic infused into it.  While most of the characters have Talents, there are some who don’t have any.  There are others who only discover their talent late in life like Marigold.  But in this book it is not the magical bits that make it special, instead it is the intricate storytelling, the puzzle.  Readers who want a straightforward book should not look here.  This is a book that hints, it rambles, it invites you in for cake and adventure, then wanders a bit more.  But the wandering is rather the point, the cake is particularly important, and one wouldn’t want to miss a ramble.

Give this one to the dreamers, the wanderers, and those who want a hint of magic, sweetness and frosting with their stories.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC received from Philomel.

Review: One Came Home by Amy Timberlake

| Tasha

one came home

One Came Home by Amy Timberlake

Georgie knows that she is the reason her sister Agatha left.  When an unidentifiable body is found with her sister’s hair color and the dress her mother sewed, everyone assumes it is Agatha.  But Georgie refuses to accept that.  She sets off to find out what happened to her sister.  In 1871 in rural Placid, Wisconsin, Georgie is forced to ask her sister’s old beau Billy to give her a horse.  She has a gun that she is an expert at using and a destination in mind, where the body was found.  It doesn’t work out the way Georgie expects since Billy insists on joining her for the trip and gives her a mule rather than a horse to ride.  The two set off arguing all the way, traveling through the debris from the largest passenger pigeon nesting in history, finding wild adventures along the way. 

Written in a lyrical voice, the prose in this book is noteworthy and lovely.  Timberlake has radiantly recreated both the society and setting of the late 1800s.  Happily, she spends less time on clothes and societal niceties and much more on spirit and gumption.  Early in the book you can see her words at work, drawing a picture of the two sisters using imagery from nature around them:

Feathers flew up with each breaking bottle. Pigeon feathers that spring were like fallen leaves in the autumn-they were everywhere, in everything. But there’s a difference between feathers and leaves. Feathers claw their way back into the sky, whereas leaves, after flying once, are content to rest on the earth. Agatha? She was a feather. She pushed higher, farther always. I suspected my constitution was more leaf than feather. I hoped I was wrong about that, though, because I wanted to be like Agatha.

Georgie is a tremendous protagonist.  She’s a natural with a rifle, looks forward to taking over the family store in their small town.  She’s not interested in boys and is far more concerned with her own future with her sister than with anything else.  She speaks with confidence and very boldly, never keeping her opinions to herself for long.  At the same time, she is also the voice of the novel, and through that she herself looks at the world in a poetic way.

Beautiful with a strong heroine, this book is a dazzling read for tweens.  Appropriate for ages 9-12. 

Reviewed from copy received from Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Review: Road Trip by Gary Paulsen and Jim Paulsen

| Tasha

road trip

Road Trip by Gary Paulsen and Jim Paulsen

This collaboration of father and son is about a road trip to rescue a border collie puppy.  Ben and his father have not been getting along lately.  His father just told Ben that he has quit his job and started to flip houses.  That means that Ben’s hockey camp that he had been promised may not happen this summer.  The road trip is a way for the two of them to spend time together along with their adult border collie, Atticus, and for his dad to avoid his ticked-off mother.  When Ben realizes what is happening, he invites along a friend that his dad doesn’t really approve of.  That friend will not be the last surprise passenger on the trip as they quickly trade their failing truck for a school bus.  Told in alternating chapters, Ben and Atticus explain the journey in their own unique points of view.

This is really a love story to dogs.  Atticus is a huge part of the story, his reactions to people foreshadow what sort of person they will turn out to be.  The use of his perspective is also cleverly done so that his actions are explained to the reader even though the other humans in the book may not fully understand them.  Happily, the various odd characters who join them on their journey are also well drawn and interesting.

The writing is clever and fresh in this slim volume of just over 100 pages.  It is a great pick for reluctant readers.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House Children’s Books.