It was cute I guess, the sports parts and friendship aspects were fun. However, I felt the stepmom story line was exaggerated. The stepmom was not new to the family, it sounds like they had an okay relationship earlier when the main character was young. The arguments between the two felt blown out of proportion just to create a story, it felt forced. Overall it was a decent read because of the friendships and sports. It wouldn’t be on my list of MUST READ, but if you’re looking for a fun fairly quick read, it’s okay.
Author Archives: SSBRC Former Member
Really Truly: A Pumpkin Falls Mystery by Heather Vogel Frederick
I chose this book because (1) Our students love the Mother-Daughter Book Club series and (2) I already have books 1 and 2 in the Pumpkin Falls Mystery series. I haven’t read the first two in the series but was pleased that the author filled in enough detail that I didn’t go into the story feeling lost.
As in The Mother-Daughter Book Club, one of Frederick’s themes is “family.” The close-knit Lovejoy family (their last name says it all!) has gathered for their yearly family reunion, this time in New Hampshire. Our protagonist, Truly, adores her cousins, but with a love-interest this summer, she’s anxious for them to leave so the best summer of her life with R. J. can begin. When the week is up, the unexpected happens when her mom signs her up for mermaid camp with her cousin. It was at this point in the story that I lost interest — it was an odd choice for the author and at that point, the book fell flat for me.
The Popularity Code by Stephanie Faris
The pitfalls of social media come alive in this middle school novel, timely and important while not feeling “preachy” to the reader. When a website called SlamBook is popularized at Faith’s school, Faith is interested in what begins as nice comments to one another. But this is middle school, and the platform soon turns to cyberbullying. The target: popular kids. All changes for Faith when she becomes a victim of conversation when people are talking about the comments that she is leaving. As happens with Digital Courage, students, including Faith, find that it’s easy to be mean when you’re hiding behind a screen of anonymity.
While this book was hard for me to read as an adult, full of middle school drama, students will find it relatable and telling where social media can take some dangerous turns.
Just Like That by Gary D. Schmidt
Set in 1968, following the death of her best friend, Meryl Lee Kowalski goes off to St. Elene’s Preparatory Academy for Girls. Here she struggles to fit in with her wealthy, tight-knit classmates, with grief heavy on her heart. With pressure from her instructors to work toward’s their “Accomplishment” for the year. Feeling inferior in all things, Meryl Lee can’t imagine what her Accomplishment will be.
In a sub-plot, Matt Coffin, seemingly family-less, is on the run from thugs and needs a friend, too. Their lives intertwine as they both search for meaning in their lives in this coming-of-age story, rich with lyrical writing, references to literary works and humor, this book would make a great read-aloud.
The Project
Awful, infuriating, disgusting. Maybe, because I grew up in UT with the constant reminder of Warren Jeffs and his brainwashing of “his people” that I just did not enjoy this book. It is just a reminder of the evil and corruptness that comes from people who pray on the sick, weak, lost.
The Leading Edge of Now
“Trigger Warnings”: sexual assault, alcoholism, drug abuse, foster care, and grief.
The Leading Edge of Now tells the sad story of a teenaged girl, Grace, who is grieving the death of her father, and going to live with her uncle, her only living relative, who finally has claimed her from foster care where she has spent the past two years. Thankful to be out of foster care, she is nonetheless nervous about returning to New Harbor. So many memories that remind her of all she has lost: her best friend, her boyfriend, and memories of what happened that night two years ago at her uncle’s house when she was passed out on Ambien. “Memories are like land mines that I step on everywhere I turn.“
The characters are well developed with detailed backstories. I enjoyed this novel in spite of the very heavy subject matter.
Your Destination is on the Left
In this coming of age novel, we meet Dessa Rhodes, a teen whose family live a nomadic life-style traveling in a caravan of RVs with a communal group of friends. One of the friends is a teenaged boy, Cyprus, who Dessa has had a crush on for a long time. She’s worried about what a romance could do to their families’ relationship if the romance did not work out.
Dessa is an inspiring and talented artist who wants to leave the road behind and instead attend art school. But she can’t get accepted anywhere. And if she ever did, how would she pay for it?
An unexpected opportunity presents itself and she has to decide if she is going to leave the road, her family, and Cyrus, to pursue her dreams of becoming an artist, or stay with the ones she loves.
Learning to Breathe
*Trigger Warning for Sexual Assault*
A victim of rape, sixteen-year-old Indira struggles to conceal her pregnancy from her family, even though it was her cousin who assaulted her.
Indy has tried to do what her grandmother encouraged: to do well in school, to not let boys take advantage of her. So that she doesn’t end up like her mother, who was also sexually assaulted resulting in Indy’s birth.
Having been sent to live with relatives in Nassau, Indy feels that she cannot escape from her mother’s past. And how long can she hide her pregnancy from her aunt?
Indy tries to find a place where she will be safe. And she struggles with pressure to have an abortion. She is conflicted.
This is difficult story to read because of the graphic description of rape and assault. But I recommend it to readers interested in the #MeToo movement. Also, those who enjoy realistic fiction such as American Street.
Girl Made of Stars
Girl Made of Stars is a hard-hitting critique of rape culture and focuses on the ways victims are silenced by the disbelief of others. Sister and brother twins, Mara and Owen, are very close and Mara thinks she knows Owen as well as she knows herself. When Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara cannot believe it. How could her brother be guilty of such a violent crime? And why would he do such a thing to Mara’s good friend? But why would Hannah tell a lie like this? Mara is conflicted: how can she support her brother? And Hannah?
Further complicating her life is that things are strained with Mara’s ex-girlfriend and best friend since childhood, Charlie. Charlie is bi, and has not come out to her family. And then there a boy that Mara likes, Alex. As the story progresses Mara, Hannah, and Charlie navigate new terrain. Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide if Charlie fits in her future.
Girl Made of Stars presents a different take on a story about rape in that the point of view is not from that of the victim or that of the perpetrator; it’s from the point of view of those around them, the ones are caught in the middle.
The author provides a list of resources for victims of sexual assault, including a phone number for the National Sexual Assault Hotline.
I recommend this book to those who enjoy realistic fiction, stories of girl/women empowerment, friendships, brother-sister relationships, and courage.
Throwaway Girls by Andrea Contos
Caroline Lawson is three months away from freedom, otherwise known as graduation day. That’s when she’ll finally escape her rigid prep school and the parents who thought they could convert her to being straight.
Until then, Caroline is keeping her head down, pretending to be the perfect student even though she is crushed by her family and heartbroken over the girlfriend who left for California.
I wanted to like this book, the description sounded great and while I don’t hate it, I had to force myself to finish.
The writing style is choppy and hard to follow, numerous times I had to go back and re-read pages just to try to figure out who or what was being talked about. There was never enough to distinguish that the chapters had switched from one character to another.
While the book touches on lots of important topics it was just to scattered to really make you think too much about them.
The mystery part didn’t get interesting until the last 1/4 of the book but by then I had figured it out. Wouldn’t recommend.
Tamba: Child Soldier
TAMBA, Child Soldier chronicles the harsh realities of guerilla warfare and child soldiers as Tamba recounts his experiences as a child soldier to a UN tribunal. His description of his horrible experience of being kidnapped from his village at the age of eight, and forced into servitude as a child soldier is just shocking to the senses. The atrocities that Tamba and other children were forced to commit are not sugar-coated. This gripping story, accompanied by detailed and descriptive illustrations, is not an easy read. But the story needs telling, as many middle grade and teen readers, as well as many adults, have no idea that there are thousands of children who have been kidnapped and forced to be child soldiers.
Kiss Me in New York
It’s Christmas Eve at JFK in New York City. Two travelers meet at random: Charlotte, a British student, waiting for a flight home after a terrible semester. Anthony, from NYC, is there to surprise his girlfriend at the airport who has been away for three months. Charlotte’s boyfriend has just broken up with her, and Anthony will soon face the same fate, right in the middle of the crush of people traveling for Christmas.
A blizzard cancels Charlotte’s flight, and Anthony can’t bear to go home alone. Finding a book in the gift shop titled Ten Easy Steps for Getting Over Your Ex, the two head into the city together to follow the steps outlined in the book.
With snow falling, Christmas lights and carols playing in the background, the two start falling for each other. And that’s where this reader decided that this story is just too sweet and too cliche to be even remotely realistic. It’s just too much.
Some teenagers will enjoy this short (189 pages), lighthearted, formulaic romance but honestly, there are hundreds of more sophisticated, less formulaic titles available.
It’s All Your Fault
How did Caitlin, church going knee sock wearing Christian choir singing teen, end up in jail with a nose piercing and a tattoo that she has no memory of getting? How did she end up being charged with holding up a convenience store and stealing a convertible after a night of drinking and singing songs with lewd lyrics in public at the top of her lungs? Well, it’s all because of her bad-girl, famous cousin and former best friend, Heller.
Caitlin was asked by her aunt to help chaperone Heller for one weekend after Heller was released from re-hab. Keep her out of trouble and away from the media and public, until the appointed time for the press event and release of a sure to be hit movie based on a wildly popular book series featuring Heller as the lead character. But Caitlin’s attempts fail miserably.
This chick-lit comedy is a very fast and entertaining read (but note that there is swearing and sexual references throughout).
Chasing Lucky
Budding photographer Josie Saint-Martin has spent half her life with her single mother, moving from city to city. When they return to her historical New England hometown years later to run the family bookstore, Josie knows it’s not forever. Her dreams are on the opposite coast, and she has a plan to get there.
What she doesn’t plan for is a run-in with the town bad boy, Lucky Karras. Outsider, rebel…and her former childhood best friend. Lucky makes it clear he wants nothing to do with the newly returned Josie. But everything changes after a disastrous pool party, and a poorly executed act of revenge lands Josie in some big-time trouble—with Lucky unexpectedly taking the blame.
Determined to understand why Lucky was so quick to cover for her, Josie discovers that both of them have changed, and that the good boy she once knew now has a dark sense of humor and a smile that makes her heart race.
I enjoyed the setting of this book, it describes the cute New England style town you dream of visiting. I did enjoy the book for the setting, story, and characters individually. However, I found the main characters to be frustrating and almost annoying when together. The fact that these two former best friends couldn’t figure out how to act like normal humans around each other without constantly being mean and angry all the time seemed over the top. I understand hurt feelings and anger from the past can make things strange, but just when you think these two have it figured out they are mean and fighting again. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I don’t recommend this book but if someone asked for reading suggestions it wouldn’t be first on the list.
The Waning Age
In this dystopian novel, teenaged Natalina “Nat” Peña lives in a future San Francisco, where she works as a hotel maid, practices martial arts, and cares for her eleven-year-old brother, Calvino. “Cal” should be starting to ‘wane’, where kids in their teens begin to lose their ability to feel emotions. Nat has already waned. Their mother is dead, having died from taking bad “emotion” drugs while trying to regain her own lost emotions. And their dad is estranged and missing. When a corporation kidnaps Cal to do medical research on him to determine why he isn’t waning, Nat feels a series of emotions and this shocks her. Why is she feeling? An interesting premise for a dystopian novel.
What she does next takes up the bulk of the book. And this is where the premise failed for me. There was too much violence, too many unexplained secret weapons, too many unrealistic situations. I just could not buy it. Some die-hard fans of dystopia who are looking for a new book may enjoy it, but The Waning Age is not for me.
Night Music
Ruby Chertok comes from a well connected white family and her father holds a faculty position at the prestigious Amberley School of Music. Not only that, he’s in charge of the upcoming season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Having played and studies piano her entire life, it is expected that she will have a career as a classical pianist. She is confident that she’ll be accepted into Amberly, but she miserably fails her audition. How does she deal with the disappointment of her parents? What does she do next?
Enter Oscar Bell, a young black musical genius protégé who is to spend the summer studying with Ruby’s father. He’s charming, he is a YouTube sensation, and Ruby is smitten with him. Ruby moves in a privileged, mostly white circle. Oscar is from Maryland and is from a very different background. Oscar worries that people will assume he is dating Ruby to make inroads with her father.
Night Music is not just a romance. It delves into the theme of privilege and racial inequality in the classic music world, things most readers would otherwise be unaware of. The book has many musical elements that would resonate with those who play or enjoy classical music.
Into the Clouds: The Race to Climb the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain
Tod Olson, author of the narrative non-fiction series LOST, tells the story of three separate, but connected, expeditions to summit K2, the second tallest mountain in the world and the most dangerous to climb. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 tells the story of the first expedition in 1938 led by Charlie Houston, an American medical student. This attempt was primarily intended as a scouting mission to find a route to the summit. They were laying the groundwork for the second expedition to be led by acclaimed German American climber Fritz Wiessner, who planned to be the first man to summit K2. Part 2 takes place in 1939 and documents Wiessner’s ill-fated expedition up the mountain with Wiessner’s team losing three Sherpa’s and one of its crewmembers, Dudley Wolfe, and missing conquering the summit by a mere 700 feet. Part 3 takes place in 1953 when Charlie Houston returns to K2 with a new crew of disciplined hand-picked men determined to summit.
The stories are gripping with terrifying accounts of falls, injuries including snow blindness, frostbite and amputations, illnesses including altitude sickness and blood clots, and deaths. The author includes primary documents including photographs, paintings and drawing. There is also a Sources section, including author interviews, videos, books, magazine and newspaper articles, and archival sources such as expedition diaries. Source notes are cited, as well as photo credits.
Written at a reading level for middle grade readers, this book is accessible to middle school and high school students, and is a very interesting read even for adults.
Today Tonight Tomorrow
Today, she hates him.
It is the end of high school for Rowan, she has spent 4 years hating, and competing to be the best, against Neil. It all started with an essay contest that he won freshman year, and she hasn’t forgotten that loss. They have been rivals this whole time, forcing each other to do and be better for their entire high school career. Their rivalry has often forced them to work together, which both act like they hate every minute of. And now, it all comes down to who is named valedictorian.
After the valedictorian is named and before graduation day, the senior class has one last exciting thing to look forward to. HOWL, a city wide scavenger hunt in downtown Seattle organized by the Junior Class Officers, with a big cash prize to the winner. Rowan realizes this cash prize could help with college next year and it could be the one last thing to beat Neil at.
White Rose
This novel, written in verse, is based on the incredible story of Sophie Scholl, a young German college student who challenged the Nazi regime during World War II as part of The White Rose, a non-violent resistance group. Sophie, her brother, and soldiers in his regiment, are disillusioned by Nazi propaganda and together they formed the White Rose,a group that conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign for a few years in the 1940s. Sophie and her brother were arrested in 1943 for treason and interrogated for information about their collaborators.
The books is organized in sections that move backward and forward in time. We hear Sophie’s thoughts, those of her boyfriend, Fritz, who served in the German army, and those of the Gestapo interrogator. This is a tragic but powerful story which is beautifully told. It is appropriate for middle school and high school students, and adults interested in history and novel in verse will also appreciate White Rose.
The center of the universe
Grace Carter is a regular teenaged girl who likes astronomy and want to become an astrophysicist; just kind of a geeky high schooler. But her mother is someone entirely different. GC Carter is a celebrity news anchor, blond, thin, with gorgeous clothes and thousands of fans. Grace and her mother are very different. One day GG disappears with no warning. News crews flock to their house and reporters and news commentators speculate about what might have happened. Meanwhile Grace and her family wait for answers from the authorities. Trying to hold her life together, Grace continues to go to school where she grows closer to a really sweet boy named Mylo, who is facing grief of his own.
As the plot unfolds, Grace learns from her father and her grandmother some secrets from her mother’s long-lost past, and the more Grace learns, the more she wonders if she ever really knew her mother.
The mother-daughter dynamics, the friendships from school, and the geeky STEM-loving character of Grace make this an intriguing book. And as a bonus, in the story, Grace interviews her hero, Elizabeth Tasker, who is a real life famous astrophysicist and science communicator. See https://www.elizabethtasker.com/
Goodbye Perfect
A slice of life story of a British teenaged girl, Eden, and her best friend, Bonnie. Right before their final exams, Bonnie runs away with their music teacher. This is an unexpected shock to Eden, and even though she knows where Bonnie is, her loyalty to her best friends keeps her strong through questioning by the police, the school, and Bonnie’s family.
This is a serious story. We learn how pressured a 15 year old can be when subjected to pressure from her overbearing parents to be perfect with her behavior, scores, exams, and grades. As the plot unfolds, Eden begins to understand how Bonnie was groomed by Mr. Cohn, the music teacher. And, that this is a serious situation and that Bonnie needs to get away from Mr. Cohn.
Here is a significant quote: “I don’t think you can ever really start over. Because if you’re trying to do that, you’re basically trying to run away from yourself. And you can’t. You’re stuck with you, forever. Wherever you go.”
I recommend this book to those who enjoy “slice of life” realism with mature topics.
The Sky Blues
What a fun book, I read it in one day! This book, set in Michigan, is a story about an openly gay high school student and his best friends. Sky deals with an awful high school bully, a racist and homophobic school wide e-mail scandal, the stress of having a secret huge crush, and upcoming PROM. During the stress of finishing Senior year, he realizes that friends are the family you get to choose. Sky learns you should fight for those friendships, because through it all, they are the ones who have your back when you need it most.
The Great Unknowable End
This story is set is the 70’s in a town called Slater, Kansas and involves a girl and a boy whose lives could not be more different. Stella wants to be a space engineer but once her mother dies, and her brother runs off to live in Red Sun, the nearby hippie compound, she feels compelled to stay to help her father and sister. Galliard grew up in Red Sun but leaves it after losing the Artist in Residence position that he feels he deserved. Stella is dealing with her disappointment and grief; Galliard is dealing with living in “Outside” in the mainstream society where his Tourette syndrome isn’t accepted the same way as it was in the compound.
And then strange things begin to happen in Slater, from red rain to eyeless snakes, and the town puts the blame on the Red Sun. The Red Sun returns blame to the Outside. Meanwhile, Stella and Galliard meet and strike up an unlikely friendship.
The book is filled with references to ’70’s music and culture, and reminds me somewhat of The Twilight Zone. It was an enjoyable book, although the ending is somewhat anti-climatic.
Who in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
This is an adaptation of a Netflix series based on the Who in the World is Carmen Sandiego? story, and reminiscent of the video game by the same name popular in the 1980’s and 90’s. This adaptation tells Carmen’s backstory and the reader learns much more about WHO Carmen Sandiego really is.
Normal: One Kid’s Extraordinary Journey by Magdalena & Nathaniel Newman
Born with craniofacial syndrome, the same condition August has in the book “Wonder,” Nathaniel Newman, and his mother, Magda, share the hardships of growing up with this condition. Nathaniel faced sixty-seven surgeries before the age of fifteen, needing surgeries to help him breathe (tracheotomy), eat, to stretch his chin wider, to hear, and more. Told in alternating voice, this is a true story of a mother’s love for her special needs son, the amazing doctors who have worked with him, the courage and humorous spirit of Nathaniel, and the challenge by the author to redefine “normal.”
Nathaniel is a very funny kid with many laugh-out-loud comments. The book is touching in places, such as when Nathaniel, in one of his many doctor appointments, was asked the question, “Have you ever thought about hurting yourself” replied:
“That might be the stupidest question I’ve heard in my life” …..”I have an awesome mom and dad and brother. I have a dog named Smokey. Why would I hurt myself? My life is awesome.” (page 162)
Drawings throughout the book give it an elementary feel, though I know it would be enjoyed by middle school grades as well. My favorite drawing was of Nathaniel reading the book “Wonder” by P. J. Palacio. A fun fact about the Newman family is that they became friends with P. J. and Nathaniel even tried out for the part of August for the movie “Wonder.” Although he wasn’t cast, the book and the movie were both appreciated by the Newman family as they saw a general shift in how the public viewed Nathaniel.