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Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve

After the Romans left the British Isles in the fifth century A. D., there were many centuries of pillaging and plunder by one tribe or clan upon another until it became a unified country. It must have been excruciatingly painful to try to raise crops and families. One legend gave them hope, and indeed continues to give hope to this day. That legend was of Arthur, the king who, with the help of a somewhat magical destiny, created a golden island of peace for a short period of time. The legend said it could be done once, so it could be done again.

Well, Philip Reeve has exposed that legend for what it was–a really good story. But no matter, it is the story that everybody needed anyway. Best not to go by the truth on the ground for historical inspiration–we humans are much better at story than we are at deeds. And Philip Reeve is an excellent writer who tells a really good story about an orphaned slave girl who was there and who may have been the only one with any common sense. So in this book, we get hope renewed by trading the ancient story of a legendary and peace-loving king for the modern story of a sensible and strong-willed girl.

Fans of Reeve’s Mortal Engines series will like this book as will upper middle school and high school readers who enjoy stories of historical fiction with strong girl characters.

Gaby

Slam! by Walter Dean Myers
On the basketball court, a player has a clear objective and several people who are seriously in the way. In a young person’s life, there is the goal of reaching adulthood with style and what can seem like shark-infested waters in the way. For Greg, who likes to be known as Slam for his finesse on the basketball court, the obstructions on the court are no threat to his confidence. Off the court is another story. As he makes his way through one successful basketball season, he struggles to transfer some of his basketball skill to his life.

Told solely through Slam’s voice, this story also reveals what goes on inside the head of an African-American youth growing up the inner city, where drive-by shootings are commonplace and drug-dealing is a prevalent career choice. Yet his only real obstacle to realizing his dreams is himself. Slam has grit and heart and a family that he values; if he overcomes his sensitivity to what he sees as disrespect, he will have a clear shot at his dreams.

As a story with a lot of basketball action, this book will mostly be enjoyed by kids in upper middle and high school, boys and girls, who like to play basketball. But the basketball should not be a reason to avoid this book. It is a great story of tackling growing up with both mind and heart.

Gaby

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt

Fiction tends to follows certain rules, particularly fiction for kids. The reader is satisfied when the bad guys get their due, and when true friendship endures. But fiction based on a real event cannot necessarily follow those rules, because in real life, often good guys lose really badly and friendships get lost forever. In 1911, the lives and homes of the people of Malaga Island off the coast of Maine did get destroyed by some greedy, powerful men from the neighboring mainland. Nothing good came of it; the powerful men never got the tourist attraction they wanted and the people who lived there never came back.

Author Gary D. Schmidt populates this story with the new minister’s son who lives on the mainland and an orphaned girl, the youngest of several generations of African-Americans to call Malaga home. Turner finds his starched white shirts and the scrutiny due to the new minister’s son suffocating. He meets Lizzie, who rows over from her island to dig for clams on the mainland beach. Their instant liking for each other deepens into a solid friendship. He believes he can save her. She tells him he isn’t thinking straight. She is the wiser of the two.

This is a tale of the war between two human instincts: the desire to be generous and kind to others and the coexisting capacity to treat fellow humans cruelly and without conscience. It is told with a cast of colorful characters on a backdrop of  natural beauty by a  sensitive and lyrical writer. Written for middle school and older elementary school kids, it is also a joy to read for an adult.

Gaby

The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen

For years I gave my students books by Sarah Dessen to read because I was confident they would enjoy them. But I only found the time to read one myself just recently. Now I am even more confident. I love giving books to teenagers that I know will help them. Sarah Dessen writes as a beneficent adult but through the eyes and the soul of youth.

In The Truth About Forever, sixteen-year-old Macy Queen grieves for her recently deceased father as she navigates her goals, her peer relationships, and her shaken home-life. The clear path through comes from  deeply buried instincts that seem to fly in the face of what she and her mother thought would get her through. But she makes it because of the unadorned goodness in others that draws her along.

I laughed, I wept, I got involved with the true-to-life characters in this book and wished to get back to them when I wasn’t reading. This is clearly a book for girls; the romance develops very slowly and is deeply committed.  It is a story about strength, the power of love, and pulling through.

Gaby

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

It is 1797 in London and a young girl has just been put out on the street. All of her family has died of the pestilence and she has nothing but the clothes on her back. Oh, wait! Soon she is robbed of even those by a gang of orphans in need of new clothes. The girl who has her new clothes looks back at her and says, “Well, come on then. And quit your sniveling.” The girl, who narrates this story, writes, “I snuffles and gets up.”

She weeps, she fears, she loses, but she keeps getting up throughout this highly entertaining story of a girl who disguises herself as a boy so she can become a ship’s boy, avoid being hung for thievery, and get enough to eat. I usually demand more than pure entertainment from the books I read–I want to be able to see the world in a new way or learn something thrilling–and I usually don’t like series books, but I finished this book with a single thought: I wanted the next book in the series.

The character of Mary who becomes Jacky leaps from the pages. The endless series of riotous adventurous never seem contrived. All resolutions feel perfectly apt. Danger never disappears, but evil always gets its satisfyingly just desserts.

Bloody Jack will be enjoyed by kids who liked The Unfortunate Series of Events in their younger years, middle school and younger experienced readers who will not be confused by the occasional “guttersnipe” dialect of the narrator (“prolly” for probably; me mum and me dad, etc), high school readers who need a break from fantasy, teen-age angst, and vampire genres, and adults who just like to have fun reading. Attitudes towards the innate differences between the genders are of course amply explored and the romance is tender and true and not excessively graphic. I recommend not trying to find out if the author is male or female until you have read at least one book in the series.

Gaby Chapman

Over and Under by Todd Tucker

Paradise is being a fourteen-year-old boy and having a true friend to share complete freedom with–the forest is unspoiled and filled with wildlife and unexlored caves; the town is small and suitable for unsupervised explorations, and the bedroom windows are easy to climb out of at night. Though the summer of 1979 has more fodder for adventure than usual–a divisive labor strike, a deadly bombing, and a murderous drunk–it all serves as backdrop for the real story: the value and the power of a solid childhood friendship.

This authentic-feeling story is not represented as young adult fiction though it is written entirely from the perspective of one of the fourteen-year-old boys, essentially because it is about nostalgia–ah, the irretrievable days of youthful freedom! However, middle school boys and younger high school boys who like the outdoors and the freedom to roam and explore will enjoy this book. The adventure and excitement never ebb, and all the characters are richly drawn. The description of one of the boys in a drain pipe with a copper head snake by itself makes the book worth reading. It’s a great book for parents who like to read and enjoy the books their kids also read.

Gaby Chapman

A Curse As Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

In a tight spot, in an end of the road absolutely everything will be lost tight spot, who among us would not turn to the supernatural for help, even at an extreme cost? And if it works, would we not turn to it again if misfortune pushed us again to the wall? This is such a common experience it is no wonder it is a theme of stories in many cultures over the centuries. In the story of Rumplestiltskin, a miller’s daughter must spin straw into gold or her father will die. Talk about a tight spot. But a little man appears and spins the straw into gold for her. He asks for a necklace at first but eventually it is her child he wants. She saves the child by finding out the little man’s true name.

Elizabeth Bunce has taken the hapless miller’s daughter and made her into a real force. Strong, sensible Charlotte takes over the mill when her father dies and throws herself into the impossible challenge of overcoming adversity on every side. When all her options vanish, she turns to the mysterious little man who can spin straw into gold. But it is not only his name she must discover to save everything she holds dear; she must use all her courage to discover where her forebearers went wrong and she must make it right.

This is storytelling at its best and a wonderfully rich version of a very old tale. The spells, the magic, and the curse from the dead are skillfully woven into a warmly realistic tale of millers of cloth in the years before the Industrial transformation. As I was reading this book, I heard mysterious noises in my house differently and experienced fleeting moments where I thought I might be in the presence of spirits. No wonder I liked fairy tales so much when I was a child. They break open thin windows onto alternate worlds.

Girls from age ten to ninetly will love this book. It is an advanced read for younger girls and though fairly scarey, has nothing that would be inappropriate for younger readers.

Gaby Chapman

This is one of the most transcendentally beautiful children’s books I’ve ever read. As a poet, Randall Jarrell gives every word a particular grace and spaciousness, and the illustrations by Maurice Sendak are peaceful and evocative.

The story begins with a hunter who lives alone on an island. Although his world is lovely, he has no one to share it with. Jarrell gives a sense of the hunter’s loneliness in a particularly memorable paragraph: “One winter night, as he looked at the star that, blazing coldly, made the belt and the sword of the hunter Orion, a great green meteor went slowly across the sky. The hunter’s heart leaped, he cried ‘Look, look!’ But there was no one to look.”

One night, as the hunter stands looking out over the sea, he hears a kind of burbling laughter arising from the waves. He returns night after night, and eventually becomes friends with an adventurous mermaid who wants to see what living on land is like. Together they begin a kind of family, to which is eventually added a baby lynx and a bear cub. Without being anthropomorphized, the two animals are fully realized characters, capable of both great kindness and foolishness. The adventures of this foursome are often funny and always moving because of the great love that binds them together. One of my favorite details in this wonderful book is that the mermaid is not afraid of making mistakes; they simply make her laugh!

My uncle gave me this book on my seventh birthday, and I have read it at least once a year (43!) since. Although it is a wonderful book for ages six to eight, it will enchant readers of any age. In fact, I read it often during my teens when I needed to be reassured by its serene sweetness.

Alix Pitcher

Last year many of my students loved Graceling by Kristin Cashore. The sequel, which actually is a prequel, Fire comes out on October 5. Jen Robinson’s Book Page has an excellent in-depth book review for Fire which appears to be every bit as good as Graceling.

Gaby

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

The Whipping Boy

I’ve adopted an orphan who I spank and punish every time my children misbehave. That way my children can learn something is wrong, but the only pain they suffer is one of sympathy. I’m kidding, of course. However, that is the basic premise of the book, The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman.

Whipping boys existed in the 15th and 16th centuries because the Divine Right of Kings decreed that to punish a prince would be the same as heresy. The whipping boys were usually actually of noble birth and quite close with the prince so that, in theory, the prince would care when their friends were beaten for their own misdeeds. In the Newberry award winning The Whipping Boy, by Sid Fleischman, the whipping boy is instead an orphan of a rat catcher. The prince feels no sympathy towards the boy, is quite mischievous, and is only disappointed when his whipping boy does not cry when he is beaten. The royal rapscallion is so bored he decides to run away and drags his very reluctant whipping boy along with him. What follows is a romp of an adventure where the boys outwit kidnappers, escape through sewers and befriend pretty young bear tamers. This small book (89 pp) has the perfect children’s story arc with the prince eventually learning what friendship means and he and the whipping boy living happily ever after. I recommend this book for any age that can read at this level (4th grade reading level) as the ‘danger’ is all silly and fun.

- Jessica Wheeler

The Gift of Rain, by Tan Twan Eng

As a teenager living in Penang, Malaya during the Japanese invasion of World War II, Phillip Hutton has to choose between several bad options. Born of a British adventurer/trader father and the daughter of a successful Chinese expatriate, Phillip is the student of a Japanese aikido master. The aikido becomes a metaphor for his choice, his ability to endure, and ultimately his survival–to deflect aggression, to roll,  and to come up standing. But in life, it is a whole lot harder to carry off.

The combination of beautiful South Pacific imagery, the mystic presence of timelessness, the exploration of the depths of frienship and love, the inner struggles between conflicting loyalties, and the dance between inescapable fate and free will make this a richly enjoyable read for anyone who can read at or above a high school level. There is a load of information on the arrogance of British colonization, the last of the Chinese emperors, the psychology that drove the Japanese to war, the culture of Southeast Asia, Buddhism, the power system of Chinese Triads, the infancy of Asian communism and much more. Teen-age boys interested in Asian culture and history, as many seem to be, will love this adventure-filled book. Even though the protagonist is a boy, there are a few strong female characters too. A little thin on romance it may be, but I think teenage girls will like it too.

The Gift of Rain, published in 2008, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize. It is the kind of book you can’t wait to get back to and yet you hope you will never finish.

Gaby Chapman

Gardens of Water, by Alan Drew

This book is not written for young adults but I think that well-read teens would like it, particularly girls. I say well-read because it takes place in Turkey and is primarily about a political and a family reality very different from that in our western culture. The abundance of new information might overwhelm those with less reading experience.

That said, this story maintains a finely tuned and relentless sense of conflict and imminent danger that many teens like. In addition, one of the central themes is the seemingly inevitable tangle of cross-purposes that parents and their teenage children pass through. Another is the confluence of the adolescent drive for independence and the first stirrings of romantic love. An unfamiliar setting for familiar themes offers perspective that thoughtful teens will enjoy.

Finally, the overriding theme of this novel is the potential for subtle but lethal cruelty when cultures intertwine but lack sufficient empathy or understanding. Today’s teens will likely encounter more interchange with foreign cultures during their lives than  previous generations have; with this book, they will begin to learn more about their world.

Intense and thought provoking, this story is, however, quite sad and scary. It would not be a book to give someone who needs to be cheered up. Rather, it would be a good book for confident teen readers who have a hunger to know more about other parts of the world, and in the process, more about themselves.

Gaby Chapman