The Me I Meant to Be by Sophie Jordan

Flor and Willa are best friends. Willa and Zach are best friends. Zach and Flor had been couple but were now broken up. Willa has been in love with Zach, her next door neighbor, since they were kids, but now that he and Flor were broken up, the Girl Code kicked in: you don’t date your friend’s ex.

The narration switches between Flor and Willa chapter by chapter, starting with Willa. The two points of view create an interesting dynamic. The readers get to see the story in a more rounded way with the two narrators yet keep that personal first person point of view. I found myself relating to both characters which upped the ante in the story’s main conflict. And each character had other conflicts that spurred in the story and made them seem more real. 

The main characters were well rounded and dynamic. They came across as real, complicated individuals, not just a cookie-cutter cop out to teen stereotypes. Although the tone occasionally got a little whiny for my taste, over all it was handled well. It definitely has a few big surprises that kept me reading to see where the story would go next until it reached it’s ultimate conclusion.

Bottom line: strong characters, interesting plot. I recommend this book.

I received a free ARC of this book through Netgalley.com in return for an honest review. 

Jess Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity by Kristin Elizabeth Clark

I got quite caught up in this book; I almost read the whole thing in one sitting. 

I have not read a book from the pov of someone transitioning from one gender to the other. I liked that, while that was a very important part of the book, it wasn't the entire focus of it. 

Jess, the narrator, is transitioning from male to female. She has been taking hormones for the past 7 months, ever since she turned 18. Her estranged father had refused to give consent for her to do it before that. Now her father is getting married and she has decided, even after RSVPing no, that she was going to go. As herself. She had some vague plans to make him look at her and see her for who she really is. 

The road trip was the idea of her best friend, Chunk. Not surprisingly, given the nickname, Chunk (real name Chuck) is overweight. There is never an explicit mention of how overweight he is, but it was enough to get him picked on all through school. He is also brilliant, like over genius level. When he proposes the trip, Jess decides that it might be a good idea. And it would allow her to really start living as a female. Up to this point she had only come out to her mother and Chunk. 

There is a lot to this book. Some of the other reviews I read mentioned that they felt the author did a really poor job of representing fat people. I think that it could have been gone into more deeply, but that would have made this a different book. Jess has to confront her issues with physicality be it hers to other's. I believe that was what the author was aiming for. At least that's the way I saw it. 

Bottom line, I would recommend the book for older students.

I received a free electronic ARC of this book in return for an honest review. 

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

This book reminds me of The Velveteen Rabbit. It has the same kind of gentle sensibility to it.  Edward Tulane is a ceramic rabbit that thinks very, very highly of himself. He goes through a series of adventures that teach him humility and love.  A wonderful, quick read. DiCamillo is an excellent author. She made me get all emotional more than once during the reading of this novel.

The Altered History of Willow Sparks by Tara O'Connor

What would you do if you found a book that was a narrative of your entire life up to the very second? What if you found a pen that let you change things in that book? That is the situation Willow Sparks finds herself in in this thoughtful graphic novel. We see how the changes Willy makes affect not only her, but all those around her, especially her friend Georgia Pratt. Georgia knows what Willy has found and why her life is suddenly changing. Changing and leaving Georgia behind her. Tight plot, interesting and realistic characters, and okay artwork. I'd say give this book a chance. 

Mandela and the General by John Carlin

I knew who Nelson Mandela was. I was alive during the time these events happened. I had no idea all this was going on. The fact that the peaceful change of government that Mandela accomplished was almost thwarted by an armed "white power" movement was new to me. I had never heard of this General Viljoen. But I am glad now that I do. Reading this book gives me some hope for the future. If a country as divided and fractured as South Africa could come together; if a man who started out hating Mandela and thinking he should get the death penalty came to admire and like him; if that is possible, maybe there is some hope for our future as well. Gripping narrative and interesting artwork. I'd say give this book a read.

I received a free electronic ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

I enjoyed this. The demon Bartimaeus was a delightfully unreliable narrator.His high opinion of himself and occasional overestimation of his abilities lead to much merriment. I liked the way the narrative was traded between Bartimaeus's first person account and a third person account following his young human master, the apprentice magician Nathaniel. Not only is Nathaniel magically gifted, he is underestimated by Arthur Underwood, the mid-level bureaucrat/magician who was assigned to train the boy, whom he mainly ignores. This leaves Nathaniel with the tools and talent to get in a lot of trouble because if there is anything full grown about Nathaniel, it is his own arrogance and need to prove himself. In that respect he and Bartimeaus are perfectly matched.

The magic system devised by the author is similar in trappings to others I have read, but with a new twist to make it just different enough to work for me. Lots of twists and turns and just enough loose threads left to lead to the next book in the trilogy. It was a fun read. I am happy to recommend this book.

Big Nate Goes Bananas! by Lincoln Peirce

I taught middle school for the better part of 31 years and I see so much in Big Nate that is true to the middle school experience. Although in reality he is kind of dorky and prone to get put in detention, in his own mind he is the hero and the focus of all good things. While he's generally well-intentioned, he has a knack for trying hard (and not to subtly) to always get his own way. The fact that this rarely works for him never seems to slow him down. I laughed out loud more than once reading this. It was a fun time and a quick read. But one I would read again just for the laughs.

I received a free electronic ARC of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Posted by John David Anderson

Find your people. Make them your tribe and stick with them. I could have used a book like this when I was in middle school. It has realistic characters. The four boys in the group: Bench, Wolf, DeeDee, and Frost, are well written. They come across as real people not just cardboard cutouts. They are the oddballs who have found each other to form their own group. Then she walked into their lives. Rose is the new kid in school and decides to sit at their table at lunch. This forces the group out of their comfort zones and is the catalyst for much change. On top of this the school has just totally banned all cellphones. So the boys come up with a different way to communicate: they start leaving Postit notes on each other's lockers. This catches on and does not always go well.  It has a plot that the author keeps moving with hints of foreshadowing which pulled me along, making me think and predict where the story was going. The author was never completely predictable, though. He provided several twists and turns that I did not see coming. I like that in a book. Even better, this book has heart. I recommend it.

Dear Rachel Maddow by Adrienne Kisner

This book was written in the form of (mainly) unsent emails to Rachel Maddow. Brynn,the main character, writes to Rachel about the way her life has gone to hell. Once an honor student, now she is all remedial classes. She is no less intelligent, but after her brother's death and her breakup with her first serious girlfriend, what's the point? It's not like her mother or stepfather care whether she does well or not. Then there is the class election coming up. And there's a new girl she's interested in. And maybe there is a point to things after all?

The narrator's voice is strong and clear. I felt myself cheering for Brynn as she navigates all the pitfalls of her life. The characters mainly ring true The "villain" is a little too stereotypical, but no one likes him anyway. This was a fun book to read and I recommend it.

Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan

Frankly, I did not know what to expect when I started reading this graphic novel. I have read other works from this author that I thoroughly enjoyed, and read it pretty much based on the fact he wrote it.

I also read it because I have a daughter who really likes graphic novels. The problem with that is finding female protagonists that are not just there for drooly teenage boys (in either age, maturity level, or both). That being the case, I try to look for graphic novels with strong female leads.

One of the things I liked about Paper Girls is that with a full set of female characters, Vaughan gave each of them strengths and weaknesses. In other words, he made them realistic. They were also strong and independent, as exemplified by their job--one traditionally thought of as one for boys.

I enjoyed how the story progressed. It started with normal concerns and problems then gradually morphed into the strange. Seeing how these girls handled the growing weirdness they were getting into was interesting and fun.

There is a fair bit of profanity in the graphic novel. This is not gratuitous; it helps in getting a better idea about some of the characters. But, as a seventh grade teacher, it's enough for me to not put it in my classroom library. In that regard, I think it is more appropriate for older readers.

Overall, I would say to give this one a try. It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to Volume 2 so I can see what happens next.

Practical Applications for Multiverse Theory by Noa Gavin and Nick Scott

This is a wild ride! Scott and Davey hate each other. To Davey, Scott is nothing but an unpopular nerd. To Scott, Davey was a stuck-up, mean girl cheerleader. Their scheduled peer mediation is a few days away, but in the meantime, the animosity just grows and grows.

And so does the weirdness. It starts with a soft drink that changes from one to another and back and a soon-to-be-dissected frog begging for its life. It only gets more bizarre from there. Reality is collapsing and the multiverse is converging on their high school. If they don’t figure out what the heck is going on, reality is over.

The authors use a dual narration between Scott and Davey; that really works for me. Seeing the escalating situations from their two very different points of view only makes this more fun. I have to admit to identifying more with Scott. His desire to just get through high school without being noticed is one I felt pretty often back in my own high school days. While Davey just wants all the craziness to stop, Scott tries to figure out exactly what’s happening.

I laughed out loud more than one reading this book. It is great fun. My only problem with the book is the sheer amount of profanity in the book. It doesn’t really bother me as a reader, but it keeps me from putting it in my classroom library. There is a lot of violence, but it is almost cartoonish in its excess. If you don’t mind a lot of salty language, and you do like a lot of laughs, I’d suggest you give it a try.

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

I have to say that I loved this book. It is a series of monologues from different people involved in creating and maintaining a community garden in Cleveland, Ohio.

Through each short vignette, the story is advanced as the different perspectives of those involved are shared with the listener. This book could have diversity as its core value as each narrator was of a different age, sex, and race--from a young Vietnamese girl to a 78 year old man who spent his life working for social justice to a farmer from Mexico who speaks an Indian language only one person can understand. As this was an audiobook, I especially liked that each monologue was given a unique voice by a different narrator.

It touched me. I recommend it. I want to share it with my students.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

I don’t want to say that this is just another YA dystopian novel with a female main character. In a way, of course, it is. And after reading the Divergent series and the Hunger Games series, I was a little hesitant to read another of this type of novel. But, in some important ways, it is more than just another YA dystopian novel with a female lead.

There were many things that Westerfeld, the author, did that I appreciated. For one, he clearly states what it was that led to the collapse of the previous civilization (ours). I thought it was pretty clever and maybe a little too likely to be thought up by someone in the real world.

The premise of the society that evolved from that collapse seemed thin at first. That at 16 everybody was given an operation to make them, “Pretty.” The Pretties were beautiful, but vapid. The sense that she lost her best friend, Peris, after he became Pretty was the first hint of trouble in Paradise. But as the novel continued, there proved to be more layers to this new order that were even hinted at originally. Slowly the layers were peeled away as the truth started to emerge.

The way that this society seemed so perfect to the main character, Tally, made me wonder what could cause some people to reject it and choose to live on their own and reject becoming Pretty. To Tally the thought of remaining an “Ugly” was a major motivation to many of her actions. And what exactly about people rejecting being Pretty made it such an existential threat to the people who ran the society, the Specials? All these people apparently wanted was to be left alone.

It is a pretty interesting read. The end setting up the next book in the trilogy. I now need to put Pretties on my to read list.

I’d recommend this book. It is different enough from the other dystopias to make it distinct. And the questions it raises are good ones. I’ll look for a copy to put in my classroom library.

Paper Towns by John Green

This book was a real roller coaster for me. I identified a great deal with Quentin, the narrator and main character of the novel. He is overly responsible and to an extent proud of it. He is careful. He is a smart ass. He has a few good friends, and many acquaintances in different cliques around his school. And he is in love. Desperately. For as long as he can remember.

Margo Roth Spiegelman is the girl of his dreams. She’s the girl of everyone’s dreams. At least that is what everyone thinks. She has become a legend in her school and community. A free spirit. A nonconformist. A trouble maker. A chronic runaway.

She enlists Quentin’s help in a night of pranks. Her swan song to life as she knew it. And, like a swimmer being towed out to sea by an unstoppable current, Quentin went a long with her and helped her throughout that one wild night.

Now, for many teen novels, that one night of pranks would have been the meat of the story. As it was drawing to an end I kept checking to see how much time was left in the recording. Turns out, that night was just the prelude.

When Quentin woke up the next morning, she was gone. But, she did leave behind some clues. And Quentin and his friends were convinced that she left them for him to find her. That, is the meat of this story. His search for clues. His discovering layers of both Margot and himself that he never knew existed. His growth into a more confident and determined person.

This book was terrific. The characters are what made this book for me. Green has a way of breathing life into his literary creations. They become real people to me. And, what's more, people I care about. This ability is what drew me in. Not to mention the sheer laugh-out-loud moments that came frequently in this novel. A lot of fun with a lot of meaning--what could be better?

I recommend it highly. It will definitely find a place in my classroom library.

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

I love the author, Chris Crutcher. He is honest and unflinching when he writes about teens. In Deadline, he continues this. I thought this would be a good book to read after reading John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, and after finishing it, I feel so even more strongly.

Ben Wolf is an 18 year old young man who is about to start his senior year of high school. He lives in a small Idaho town and has some big dreams: getting a track scholarship and getting out of that small town are chief among them. His plans change drastically when he is told by his doctor that he has a terminal illness and about one year left to live. 

His first decision is to keep this a secret. He does not want everyone in town to treat him differently. He wants to live as normal a life as possible. His second decision, based on the whole life remaining normal idea, is to refuse treatment. The chance of him surviving with treatment is minuscule. Rather than end his life that way, he decides that if this year is all he has left, he is going to live it to the fullest. 

This success of this book is due to the excellent, in-depth characters that Crutcher has created. They are richly detailed and multilayered. There are no caricatures in his writing. These people came alive for me. There was character-based surprise after surprise. The exploration of the power and problems involved in all levels of secrecy made me stop and think more than a few times. Hard to look at secrets the same way after reading this.

I might not put this on my middle school bookshelf, but in a high school classroom, definitely. I urge you to read it.  

It's the End of the World as We Know It by Saci Lloyd

This was a whirlwind of a book! It took off fast and kept accelerating. The author's view of the wacky parallel universe was fun and not what I expected. For me, that's always a plus. The twists and turns kept me reading.

 I especially enjoyed the way the author handled the dialog. It gave me a good verbal image of each character.

 If you are looking for a lot of logic and a book that makes total sense, this may not be for you. If you're just looking for a good time, I say give it a shot.

Robert A. Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy as adapted by Robert Lazaro

I have always been a big fan of Robert A.Heinlein. Citizen of the Galaxy was one of the first books of his that I read. I remember well meeting and getting to know the main character, Thorby Baslim. I must have reread his adventures 10 or 12 times. So I was predisposed to like the graphic novel.

The basic story starts with Thorby being bought at a slave market as a child by what seems to be a beggar. As he grows older, Thorby realizes there is more to his "father" than just a beggar. Eventually Thorby winds up on a Free Trader ship, adopted into their family as a way to repay a debt. Then he joins the military and sooner rather than later winds up on Earth, in a way that he could never have imagined. There he realizes that his troubles are far from over.

While this was a reasonably good adaptation of the story, I felt it could have been better served as a multivolume edition. There were some important subplots that had to be removed in order for the book to fit into a single edition graphic novel. I was sorry to see them gone.

As far as that goes, however, it was a good introduction to Heinlein's story that could entice new readers, younger readers, to read the book after finishing the graphic novel. I will look for a copy to put in my classroom library. It is worth a read.

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

“Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.”

Ally doesn't fit in. She feels stupid. Whenever she tries to read the letters jump around and it isn't long until the black letters on the white page give her a killer headache. She would rather draw. She's really good at drawing. But if it means not reading, or not writing, she'd rather go to the principal's office.

Then her teacher goes on maternity leave and a new teacher, Mr. Daniels, comes to teach her class. He's different. He doesn't make her feel stupid. While he is there she makes friends with Keisha and Alfred, two students who are also different. I found myself especially identifying with Alfred.

I have to admit, I nearly teared up several times while reading this book. It reminds me a bit of Patricia Polacco's Thank you, Mr. Faulker, and that is a high compliment. The emotions that Hunt is able to bring out--Ally's fears and insecurities, her despair, and her eventual confidence and happiness--are vivid and real. As a teacher I have taught students like Ally, and I wish I could have done it half as gracefully as Mr. Daniels does.

This all strikes me as very realistic. It is more than just a book I want to put in my classroom library, it is a book I want to read aloud to my students. I highly recommend this book. It is wonderful.

Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos

The title is the first thing that caught my attention. It reminded me of some of the off-the-wall titles of Paul Zindel's young adult novels. As I read the blurb, I knew I had to check this book out. It looked just too interesting to pass up.

I'm glad that I did read it. It was not always an easy read. James, the main character and narrator, has self-confessed mental issues. He is in an abusive home where recently his sister, Jorie, had been kicked out after being expelled from school for fighting. His best friend, Derek, is not always nice to him (and is having an affair with an engaged woman). He desperately wants to get the attention of Beth, the pretty blonde girl of his dreams.

But who is he kidding? He hugs trees (literally), yawps his barbaric yawp, and has extreme social anxiety. Plus, when he tried to impress her by saving an injured bird from getting run over, he literally gets hit by a bus. He is stunned when she starts talking to him. It appears his sister was the major contributor to the school's literary magazine. With her gone, there is a problem. Beth, the co-editor of the magazine, asks for his help.

Throughout the story we see through James's eyes the many misadventures he has as he tries to understand what led his sister to be expelled and banished from the family home. He also struggles to understand his burgeoning relationship with Beth. The ending was satisfying because it was believable in context.

I identified a lot with James. While I never hugged trees or had a giant pigeon as my imaginary therapist, I had my own bouts with social anxiety when in high school. I don't think I would recommend this for younger teens, but for older teens (and adults, too, for that matter) I would say give it a try. I liked it.

El Deafo by Cece Bell

This was different. This is a loose biographical account of Cece Bell's loss of hearing as a child. What makes it different is that the book is a graphic novel and all the characters are anthropomorphized rabbits. With rabbits being renowned for their good hearing, having the characters be rabbits accentuates how much the loss of hearing hurts.

I liked that the book was not a self-pitying type of read. The main character was believable. She had her faults as well as her strengths. She never felt sorry for herself about being deaf, but did often feel stupid for not understanding things as quickly as others. She also was more of a follower than a leader. These qualities gave her an underdog aspect that had me rooting for her throughout the book.

In her imagination she is the superhero El Deafo, using her Phonic Ear to hear all and to fight for right. These flights of imagination often have real life consequences for her. Not all of them are good.

Full of lessons on how it feels to be deaf without being preachy, I recommend this book, the first Newbery Honor book in graphic novel form that I have read. I am looking forward to getting a copy to put on the shelf of my classroom library.