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By: Stacy Dillon,
on 8/26/2016
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To be honest, I was first drawn to this book because of the gorgeous cover. Who wouldn't fall for the jeweled toned rich hues suggesting autumn evenings wrapped up in cashmere? Then I noticed the girl, front and center oddley white except for a hint of a blush on her cheeks and gold toned eyes. I was curious.
Furthermore joined me on my journey upstate to my summertime reading retreat. It's August pub date meant it wasn't the first book that I read, but I kept eyeing it as I pulled others from the shelf. Clocking in at 393 pages, this is not a slight read, but once I started it, I put it down only to sleep.
Alice, almost twelve, is filled with anticipation for Ferenwood's annual Surrender. She is anxious for life to change, because frankly Alice's life hasn't been so easy lately. Not only is Alice considered odd, even by Ferenwood's magical standards, her father is still missing. Alice's father is the one who really cared for her and understood her despite her differences from everyone else in Ferenwood. He indulged her and listened to her. And now it was only Alice, her three little brothers and her mother.
"Alice was beginning to realize that while she didn't much like Mother, Mother didn't much like her, either. Mother didn't care for the oddness of Alice; she wasn't a parent who was predisposed to liking her children." (p.10)
Because of her situation, the Surrender is more important to Alice than she can really say. Ferenwood is a magical place, and everyone who resides there has magical gifts. The Surrender is the time when all the 12 year olds share their gifts upon the stage. At the end of the surrender, only one child would be celebrated and given a task. The task is always an adventure of some sort and is rather secretive as well. This year there are 86 twelve-year-olds. Alice meeds to win the task in order to leave her home.
But Alice is odd, and she believes that in this magical world, her love of dance is her gift. After all her father always encouraged her to listen to the earth and to dance when she feels it.
Alas.
Alice's failure on the stage, however, is not the death knell for adventure. An acquaintance of hers named Oliver approaches her with a request. One that will bring her on the adventure of her life if she chooses to accompany him.
What follows is an adventure reminiscent of the Phantom Tollbooth, with a dash of Through the Looking Glass and a coming of age bent. Furthermore is a place like no other. The orderly magic of Ferenwood is wild here, and the rules seem to change from town to town. Will Oliver and Alice be able to find her father and bring him home?
This is a fantasy adventure that will keep readers on the edge of the page. Interestingly both Alice and Oliver are unlikeable at times for very different reasons which get slowly revealed as their adventure moves along. At first I was worried about the idea of Alice being white in the sea of color that is Ferenwood. What did it mean? But it works in that it others Alice in a way but helps explain her own magic as the story unfurls.
I enjoyed the voicey nature of Furthermore. Alice, though exasperating, is endearing as well. I was charmed by the chapter sections' headings as well as the fox! There is a cinematic aspect to Furthermore and I would *love* to see it on the big screen.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 8/4/2016
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If there is one request I get from students the most it is, "Stacy! I want a scary book!" This is always tricky business, because invariably this question is not coming from an 8th grader. It's coming from a 4th-6th grader. And honestly, there aren't that many titles. This is one of the reasons I am so thankful for DeStefano. I first got to know her through
The Curious Tale of the In-Between, which is so absolutely creepy and scary in a subtle way. I am incredibly happy to have gotten my hands on The Peculiar Night of the Blue Heart, which is perhaps even scarier.
Lionel and Marybeth live with Mrs. Mannerd in a home for orphans. They are among the youngest in the home and couldn't seem more different from one another. Lionel is somewhat of an animal boy. He would rather eat with the animals and be outdoors with the animals than do anything as seemingly silly as eat at a table with untensils! Marybeth, on the other hand, has perfect manners, is a quiet child, and does things like brush her teeth and comb her hair without even being asked. While everyone else in the house thinks that Lionel is weird, Marybeth does not.
Marybeth often follows or accompanies Lionel out on his journeys into the woods to see the animals. Lionel often talks about the animals he is friends with, and just recently he has been talking about a fox with a blue coat that he saw but is unable to track. One rainy night, Marybeth sees a streak of blue running outside of her window. When she goes to wake Lionel, she is admonished and chased away by one of the older boys he shares a room with a decides that she will go track the animal on her own. She heads out into the dark and rainy night toward the river. As she plummets into the river she is surrounded by a blue light before she surfaces.
When Marybeth shows up back at Mrs. Mannerd's house at the end of the following day, everyone is relieved to see her alive. Lionel is one of the first to realize that the Marybeth that returned to the house is not the Marybeth who left. She is not wearing her glasses anymore, has not plaited her hair. When one of the older boys steals her breakfast because she is too slow, she does something that is decidedly not Marybeth. She lunges across the table and bites his neck!
What was that blue light in the water that surrounded Marybeth? And how did it get inside of her?
What follows is an absolutely chilling tale of ghostly possession, friendship, madness and family. Moody and atmospheric, readers will be able to picture the settings and feel the tension and desperation Lionel feels as he tries to save his friend.
Breathtaking!
(Publishing 9/13/16)
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 7/4/2016
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I always look forward to books by Kate Messner. Why? Because I know they will be solid, kid centered and bring something to the table. I had read
online that she had recently been disinvited to a school due to the content of her latest book. I quickly went to my TBR pile and pulled out my copy to give it a go.
Charlie's sister Abby is home from college for the weekend and things aren't going exactly like Charlie had imagined they would. When she goes to wake Abby up to see if she will come out to look at the lake with her just in case the ice flowers have shown up again, Abby waves her off telling her to just go away. Somewhat chagrinned, Charlie trudges out to the lake only to see that the ice flowers have come back. Her neighbor Drew and his nana are also out on the lake but they are checking the ice for fishing possibilities. Drew tells Charlie about the fishing derby he plans on entering and the prize of $1000 for the biggest lake perch. Since Charlie really wants a new dress for her Irish dancing competitions, she decides to give it a go.
But despite living near the lake, Charlie is scared of its winter ice. So when she joins Drew and his nana, she sticks closer to shore. Soon everyone is landing fish left and right except for Charlie. When she finally pulls one in, it's hardly bigger than the bait she used to catch it. But right before she releases it she hears something. The fish is
talking to her. "
Release me and I will grant you a wish."
Well, what would you do? Charlie hastily wishes on her crush liking her and to not be afraid of the ice anymore. What harm could wishing on a fish really do?
Anyone who has read a fairy tale knows that wishes can easily go awry. And Charlie's wishes are no exception. While no harm is truly done, Charlie finds herself out on the ice more and more (since she miraculously is no longer afraid of the ice) with Drew and his nana. Not only is it adding to her feis dress fund, but it's getting her out of the house. It turns out that Abby has changed in ways that Charlie never even imagined. While she was away at school, she started dabbling in drugs which led to a full blown heroin addiction. Who can Charlie even talk to about this? When she thinks about it, she feels ashamed and bewildered. How could Abby, who she had always looked up to, done this?
Kate Messner has written an important book that somewhat gently looks at the fact that anyone can be swiftly taken down by drugs, and specifically by opiates. I live on
Staten Island where opiate abuse and heroin are at an all time high. I commute to Manhattan with my children, and by the time they were 9 and 12 respectively they could tell the difference between someone napping and someone in a nod. They have witnessed police using narcan on people who have OD'd in the ferry terminal. They watched me try to convince the friends of a woman in the throws of an OD to allow me to call an ambulance for her. Kids aren't too young for this story. My kids are living this story everyday they commute. And the brothers and sisters of kids all over our Island are living Charlie's story. So I would like to applaud Kate Messner for telling this story. It is one I plan on sharing and book talking whenever I get the chance.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 10/20/2015
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Oh, twitter. Sometimes you are a wonderful thing! Last July I was at my daughters' swim lesson reading away, and I shared a shot of the book I was reading online. Barbara, it turns out, was reading the same book and we began somewhat of a back and forth as you are want to do when you find out someone besides yourself is smitten. We decided we would co-blog closer to the publishing date, and here are our thoughts!
Barbara: Gracie Lockwood's voice immediately drew me into the story. She keeps a careful record of the family's journey in a diary, a gift from her mother. It is lovingly inscribed with these words, To Gracie, May this diary be big enough to contain your restless heart. Gracie is a girl with strong opinions, stating from the outset that her purpose in keeping a written record is to "prove that I knew it first." Her friend Oliver's observation, "You're kind of fiery" is an understatement. In addition to Gracie's fire, readers witness her gradually evolving realization that the world is much more complex than she initially imagined it to be. She begins to temper her original strong judgments. "I've realized I may have been completely wrong about my dad." "I wondered about the word 'beast.' I wondered if sometimes, the way everything looks - who's the beast and who isn't - depends on where you're standing." I love this statement of self-realization: "Every year I realize how dumb I was the year before."
One of this book’s striking aspects is the comparisons I made to Homer’s The Odyssey. The book’s 416 pages is itself a reading odyssey. It requires an investment of time, attention to storyline, and a commitment to the characters. Reading Gracie's diary becomes a personal journey for the reader.
The travelogue aspect is certainly an integral part of this family's epic saga. We follow Gracie and her family on an extended journey to known and unknown places, several described in vivid detail. The mode of travel is symbolic. The family first travels via Winnebago, a name reflecting a Native American Tribe who excel in oral storytelling. Later they board the Weeping Alexa. Alexa is a reference to Alexander the Great, the “protector”. These modes of transportation give added meaning to the family’s quest.
The major characters read like the cast from a Greek drama.
We meet good guys, bad guys, both real and mythical. Sea monsters and mermaids inhabit the waters. Dragons and unicorns take flight through the skies.
Homer’s motifs take the form of the individuals the family encounters on their journey: an oracle (Grandma), sirens (Luck City), Penelope’s suitors (Captain Bill).
Not since the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? have I encountered such an imaginative homage to Homer’s epic classic.
Without question, the theme which resonated with me and continues to haunt my thinking is the concept of fate. This also reflects the Greek concept of The Fates: goddesses who controlled the life of every mortal from birth to death and watched that the fate assigned to every being proceeded without obstruction.
Stacy: I read quite a few books. Especially during the summer when I am fortunate enough to be lakeside and poolside depending on the day. So it’s not everyday that a story really makes me sit up and notice it. In the first few pages of MDFTEOTW I found myself looking up from the pages and grinning. Reading bits aloud. And then tweeting this to my friend Barbara -
“@moonb2 thanks for the spotlight on this book, Barbara. I'm only on page 7 and I'm already delighted!”
By page 7 we know this: Cliffden Maine isn’t the Maine that we know in 2015. It is a Maine where there are the expected things like McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wendy’s, schools and houses. But people in town are scuttering around because the dragons are on their way to hibernate and they’ve been quite destructive this year. Protagonist Gracie is out at her favorite spot (where she’s not supposed to be) on top of the hill overlooking town and writing in the journal her mom gave her for her 12th birthday.
Dragons aren’t the only odd things in the sky in Maine. There are also Dark Clouds. These are not the storm clouds we know that release the likes of lightning and rain. Rather they come to town and take away the people who are meant to die. And now a Dark Cloud is settling right in Gracie’s yard. Gracie is worried about her little brother Sam, who is often ill. Complicating family matters is the fact that Gracie’s dad’s crackpot theories about the Extraordinary World have just ousted him from his job. So when Gracie comes home one day to see a Winnebago in the front yard, she’s not too surprised that her dad means to pack up her mom, sister, brother and Gracie and head out of town.
Obviously this is a story about a journey, but it wasn’t until I had back channeled a bunch with Barbara that I could see the Odyssey’s tracks. For me, the Lockwood family was running from crisis and desperately grasping at possibility.
Gracie truly makes this books shine. Whether it’s seeing her witchy grandmother’s house through her eyes, feeling her affections for Sam, seeing her longing to have a relationship with older sister Millie, or having those moments of embarrassment followed by yearning to believe in her father, if Gracie’s voice was less Gracie, the story wouldn’t work half as well.
The other high point for me was Anderson’s world building. The magical mixing with the mundane is presented so matter of fact, that readers simply have to buy it. The journey has them landing in places like Luck City, Big Tex’s Circus, The Crow’s Nest, a broken down L.A. and even Cliffden itself and of the places contain different magic, but the magic follows the same rules.
And then there’s the idea of hope. Inextricable hope tangled up with fate. Which one rules the day?
What a pleasure it was to virtually read My Diary from the Edge of the World with Barbara across geography and time. Clearly, both Barbara and I love this book, and though we both approached it differently, it worked for us. I can’t wait to share this with a big cross section of readers. It works on so many levels that I am sure it will be a crowd pleaser!
************************
A big note of thanks to Barbara Moon for co-blogging with me this time. Barbara is a retired librarian who reads up a storm! Member of 2009-2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens selection committee, 2012 Odyssey Award committee, 2014 Margaret A. Edwards Award committee. Currently servicing on the 2016 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award committee. You can find Barbara blogging at Reading Style.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 7/31/2015
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Pram has never truly been told the tale of her beginnings. A beginning that started with her still inside her mother, even as she hung from the branch of the tree. Pram was orphaned right from the start, but was taken in by her two no-nonsense aunts. Pram is even short for Pragmatic -- named such because it was deemed sensible for a young lady, and sensible is just what the aunts wanted for Pram.
But Pram has always been the opposite of sensible. She’s dreamy, and her oldest and best friend is a ghost named Felix who appeared one day in the pond by the home for the aged where she lives with her aunts.
Pram is forced by the state to actually attend school at the age of eleven and this is where Pram meets her first real life friend. She gets into an argument with Clarence before school even starts when he informs her that she is sitting in his desk. By lunch time they have discovered that both of their mothers are dead and with this the seeds of their friendship are planted.
As time goes on, Pram doesn’t tell Clarence that she can speak with ghosts, but she does agree to accompany him to a spiritualist show where he hopes his mother’s spirit will reveal herself. Things don’t go as Clarence hoped and instead the spiritualist is very interested in Pram. What Pram and Clarence cannot know is that the spiritualist is anything but a charlatan, and a girl like Pram is very valuable to her.
What follows is a haunting and frightening ghost story that straddles the world of the living and the dead. Lyrical and tender, DeStefano’s story will scare readers without tipping into horror. This is an achingly beautiful story of love and loss, of friendship and family. A Curious Tale of the In-Between is for the deep reader, and I can see it becoming that touchstone title that ferries readers into more complex and intricate stories.
Gorgeous.
Jack can't believe that he is moving from New York City to a suburb of Cleveland! He knows that it's where his dad is from, and that work is bringing him there, but for a kid city born and raised, the suburb and its stand alone houses aren't exactly familiar territory for him. His parents know he's feeling down when an offer of listening to the Into The Woods soundtrack is turned down.
Louisa is just coming down from being at Camp Curtain Up (theater camp if you can't tell) with the other MTNs (musical theater nerds). As she and her parents pull into their driveway, they notice that the new family is moving in two doors down. Louisa notices that the kid looks about her age, and then suddenly she notices his tshirt. It's from the musical Mary Poppins! This is a very interesting development. After all, up until now, Louisa was the only MTN in her grade!
If Louisa only knew! Jack's dad's job wasn't the only reason they were moving to Cleveland. Jack had lost a job himself. He
is a theater kid, and not too long ago he was cast in the musical
The Big Apple. And not in a bit part either. He was super excited to be part of the cast...until the first rehearsal. Jack is going into 7th grade, and his voice was changing. The notes no longer came easily...and sometimes they didn't come at all. So Jack was no longer first choice for the role. Which obviously made leaving NYC a heck of a lot easier.
In this age of google, Louisa finds out about Jack pretty quickly. And seeing as they are in the same class at school, she figures they are pretty much meant to be friends since they have so much in common. But Jack is thinking about reinvention. It's pretty easy to be a theater kid and be a boy in NYC, but in Cleveland he figures his soccer skills will make his life easier than his singing and dancing skills.
Sometimes, however, it's hard to turn off what you really love. And when the community theater announces it's putting on one of Jack's favorite shows of all time, will he be able to resist the call of the stage (let alone Louisa's influence)?
This is a pitch perfect middle school story that's not simply about theater, but drills down into issues of family, friendship and being true to oneself. Keenan-Bolger and Wetherhead get the voices spot on without ever venturing into over-the-top Glee caricatures. The alternating voices go back and forth in time, but are never confusing, rather a great device for giving the back story in pieces instead of one big chunk. Fans of Federle will eat this up, as will fans of realistic fiction and musical theater.
Super fun.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 2/7/2015
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Flor and Sylvie are the best of friends. They live on Moonpenny Island - a small island that only boasts 200 residents when all of the summer folks leave. Even though Sylvie and Flor seem quite different from one another, they compliment each other very well. Sylvie doesn't make fun of Flor's fears, and when she does laugh at her, it's not the kind of laugh that hurts her feelings.
Imagine Flor's surprise when Sylvie announces that she is leaving Moonpenny and moving to the mainland in order to live with her aunt and her uncle and attend private school. It seems that Sylvie's big brother's mess ups have made her parents want a better situation for her.
One day, Flor goes off on her bicycle to hang out in the old quarry after her parents have a fight. She runs into a girl she doesn't know! It's a girl with hiking boots wearing an oversized sweatshirt. She says her dad is a geologist, and that they are on Moonpenny Island because of all of the fossils. The girls strike up an awkward friendship and not unlike Flor and Sylvie, Flor and new girl Jasper need each other.
What follows is a poignant story of friendship, family and change. Springstubb is at her very best as she coaxes the characters along in their journeys and sets the stage for the story to unfold. This is the summer that everything is changing for Flor and her family. It's that eye opening summer...the one where a certain degree of innocence is lost and truths are revealed. The juxtaposition of the three families gives readers much to think about.
This is a book that will stay with readers.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 1/10/2015
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I was lucky enough to receive this ARC a long time ago. It was irresistible. I mean, look at that cover! Read that title! I am a person who has never even had a twinkie, but I knew I needed to read this one. Sometimes a book just gives you a feeling, and this one was calling to me.
Twelve year old Gigi (short for Galileo Galilei) and big sister Didi (short for Delta Dawn) have moved from their trailer park digs in South Carolina to an apartment in Long Island. One of the only things they have brought with them is their late mother's recipe book which helped the girls win big money in a cooking contest, and Didi is set on giving Gigi a better life that she had. Gigi is all registered to go to Hill on the Harbor Preparatory School and as long as she keeps following Didi's recipe for success by studying hard and getting top grades, everything will be great.
But here's the thing...Gigi is ready for some changes. She has even come up with her
own recipe for success that doesn't include studying in the library every extra moment of the day. Instead she wants to find friends her own age, try on a new version of her name, and find ways to have the qualities she knows her late mother would see in her shine. Gigi (now Leia) is feeling confident about memorizing her locker combination and her schedule and is ready for her first class on her first day when she crashes into Trip who just happens to be the most beautiful boy she's ever seen, and is also in her English class. All of a sudden this front row girl was sitting in the back row next to Trip.
But change isn't alway smooth or easy, and even though Trip and most of his friends are super nice, mean girl Mace notices Leia's dollar store shoes and less-than-healthy E-Z Cheeze sandwich and makes sure that Leia knows that she is the square peg at school. Leia can handle the insult about the shoes, but nobody makes fun of Didi's cooking!
Readers will be rooting for Leia as she navigates through all sorts of changes in her life. From the tony world of private school to freshly unearthed family secrets, Leia's life is not following
any recipe! Kat Yeh has written a treat of a middle grade story that will tug on your heart strings and make you smile in equal measure. The multifaceted characters and rich turns of phrase that had me reading with a twang are only a couple of the reasons I read this book in one big gulp.
The Truth About Twinkie Pie is a book with honesty and heart and I cannot wait to share it with the tweens in my life!
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 9/23/2014
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We begin with Amira's 12 birthday. She is finally old enough to wear a
toob yet young enough to enjoy her Dando lifting her to the sky. Amira lives on a farm in South Darfur surrounded by friends and family, but changes are afoot. Amira's best friend Halima and her family are packing their things and moving to the city. They say the city has more opportunities. Amira wishes she could go with them to Nyala and attend the Gad Primary School with Halima. Amira is not so sure about her Muma's old fashioned ways.
"She does not like the idea of Gad,
or any place where girls learn
to read
or write,
in Arabic or English
or think beyond a life
of farm chores and marriage." (p. 13 arc)
Soon, the extra chores of 12, missing Halima, and trying to solve the ongoing bickering between her father and villager Old Anwar seem anything but troubling. The relative peace of her village is shattered when the Janjaweed attack, changing Amira's very existence.
Amira and the other survivors must pick up the pieces and leave the ruins of the village to find safety. Their trek takes them to the refugee camp Kalma - the Displaced People's Camp. Amira doesn't like this space surrounded by fences and barbed wire.
"Everywhere I look,
I see
people, people, and more people.
I'm glad to stop walking.
I'm glad we have finally reached who-knows-where.
But already I do not like this place." (arc p. 139)
It would be easy enough to give up in such a desperate place with no real end in sight. Amira and her family have lost so much. But when Amira meets Miss Sabine and is given a gift of a red pencil she discovers some things about herself, her family and those on the journey with her.
Written in free verse, The Red Pencil is a story of family and loss and hope. It was eye opening for me on a number of levels. One is that it is so easy for me not to see what is happening in the world from my perch here in NYC. The horrors of Darfur in the early 2000s seemed so far away in time and place that I wonder how many people in North America are aware of what was happening. I find myself very impressed with the deftness of Andrea Davis Pinkney's hand when it came to writing the passages dealing with the violence. She truly tells the story from a 12 year old's point of view, and the free verse format allows for silences that speak volumes. The illustrations by Shane W. Evans are playful within this serious book and somehow bring a feeling of safety to the pages.
A must read for librarians, teachers and students.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 8/11/2014
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"I should have taken the shortcut home from my bird-watching spot at the salt marsh, because then I wouldn't have to walk past Joey Morell, whipping rocks against the telephone pole in front of his house as the sun goes down." (p. 1) If you know anything about me, I am a sucker for a good first line, and this one has got the goods.
This is Chirp's (Naomi's) story. Well, her family's story really. Her mom is a dancer who has suddenly started to have some problems with her body. Her leg is dragging around and has been hurting her for a while, but Chirp's somewhat clinical and distant psychiatrist dad isn't really talking about it. Big sister Rachel is distancing herself as well as she tries on teendom for the first time.
When Chirp's mom is diagnosed with MS the family verily falls apart. Hannah's existence has always been that of a dancer, and she quickly falls into a deep depression and nobody in the family really knows how to cope. Chirp finds an ally in a very unexpected person - Joey Morell.
Joey's family is one that Chirp's family looks down on. They have a 3 sons who run amok, but their problems go deeper than that. Chirp and Joey find common ground, and as two kids who ultimately are scared and feeling abandoned, they cement their friendship as they slowly reveal the pain inside each of their houses.
I don't want to spoil the plot so I will leave it there, but will also say that Ehrlich is part poet and part magician as she weaves this tale together. "Ice-blue quiet smacks me when I open the front door after school." (p. 86) "A little square of my blouse is stuck to my upper arm, like the wrinkly paper on a temporary tattoo before you lift it off and leave a splotchy red heart or yellow smiley face behind." (p. 164) "The air's already thick and warm, even though the sun's still just a spritz of light in the pitch pines and the scrub oaks and not a hot, round ball bouncing on the top of my head, like it will be soon." (p. 12) Swoon.
For sure, this is a story filled with heavy and heady stuff. But it is through the eyes of Chirp, so while it is indeed sad, it is never too much. It is gorgeous, quiet and filled with hope. I fell in love with Chirp and Joey as I read. They simply became real, and I turned the pages late into the night because I could not leave their story unfinished.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 7/23/2014
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After an illness at age 4, Cece loses her hearing. She is soon equipped with a hearing aid that involves wearing a pouch around her neck attached to some "ear globs". Cece is happy to hear again, but now has to learn how to understand once more. To top things off, Cece now has to go to a new school.
A good thing about the new school is the other kids are wearing hearing aids too, and Cece is learning some useful skills like lip reading and using visual, context and gestural clues to help in understanding. Cece is just finding her way, when her family decides to leave the city and head to the country, where she will be going to a regular school.
Cece gets a brand-new-BIG-for-school-only-around-the-neck hearing aid (The Phonic Ear) that comes with a microphone for her teacher to wear and is superpowerful. What nobody expects is that it comes with the added feature of having a super long range, allowing Cece to hear not only her teacher teaching, but whatever her teacher is doing when she is out of the room as well (yes...even *that*!).
Cece has to negotiate the things that all kids go through at school - including navigating a friend who is not-so-nice, and getting her first crush. Things unique to her situation include dealing with friends who TALK TOO LOUD AND TOO SLOW, and those who refer to her as their "deaf friend".
This is more than a graphic memoir - it is a school and family story for all kids. Cece is an imaginative and emotional kid with whom readers will identify. There is an accessibility to Bell's art that immediate draws you in and you can't help but cheer with her successes and cringe with her tears. Fans of Telgemeier and Varon will readily scoop this up off of the shelves, and it *will* be passed hand to hand. I am certain I will see many doodles of Cece and her friends in the margins of writer's notebooks this coming school year. Do yourself a favor...get more than one!
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 8/28/2013
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Anna is a worrier. But she is also a planner, which helps to alleviate some of those worries. Her weekly Safety Club meetings also help. She doesn't let the fact that the only other member left is Jericho - Anna's Sunday school teacher and part of her minister father's college group. But it is in one of these very meetings, that Jericho lets some news slip. News that Anna hadn't heard.
Anna's family is moving to Kansas.
This unleashes a whole new set of worries for Anna. She's prepared for weather emergencies in Colorado, not Kansas. She is going to have to sleep in a house that belongs to a church! She is going to have to deal with cousins.
Little does Anna know that there will be emergencies that will change her family and make her look at the big picture instead of focusing on her own private worries.
Anna Was Here is a charming book that explores family and faith in equal measure. Anna's family is Christian and their faith truly does drive their actions and their interactions. Even if readers are not religious they will be able to identify with the themes of moving, getting past oneself and shifting allegiances. Anna's relationships with her cousins and her conflict with her dad are perfectly age appropriate and it's refreshing to see her grow out of behaviors and into herself. A perfect read for those kids who are fighting the change of growing up, and for those families who are looking for Christian books for kids.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 8/27/2013
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I was scrolling through my blogposts on this here blog because I was SURE that I had blogged
Tuesdays at the Castle back when I read it. No dice. I really enjoyed that one, and you can get Jen Robinson's take on it over
here.
Wednesdays in the Tower starts with an egg. Celie is surprised because Castle Glower doesn't change on Wednesdays, but all of a sudden the school room isn't at the top of the spiral staircase. Celie follows all the way up to a new outdoor room that slopes toward the center where there is a nest with a huge orange egg. Celie cannot believe her eyes, and quickly heads over and lays her hands on the egg. She is surprised to find it hot to the touch. When Celie runs down the stairs to spread the news of the egg, she finds she can't. Nobody is listening to her, and what's more, only she can find that extra staircase!
The nest room isn't the only change that is coming over Castle Glower. There is that mysterious armor gallery that appeared along with its magical tendencies. The fabric room is another new one. Before this, Celie and her family just accepted the castle's changes without really thinking about them, but some of these new changes have them thinking more deeply. Where do the rooms go when they disappear? Why is the castle suddenly becoming more fortress like?
In this installment, readers are treated to the real history of Castle Glower and Sleyne. We learn in real time just as Celie and her family are learning. Maybe some of the tapestries in the castle are more than just decorative. Perhaps they are telling the stories of the castle.
Wednesdays in the Tower really should be read after reading
Tuesdays at the Castle. Jessica Day George doesn't fill in the blanks with backstory, and if you haven't read the first book, you will be slightly off kilter. That said, I really enjoyed the character and world building - Prince Lulath is a favorite of mine. The cliff hanger ending will have readers clamoring for more.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 8/18/2013
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Gordon Korman isn't exactly a newbie in the realm of children's literature. As Canadian kids, we all read This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall and as a librarian I know that he's been publishing solidly all along. But here comes my confession...I hadn't read his books for a long, long time. I am very happy that I picked up the first book in The Hypnotists series. Not only is this book a page turner, but it has humor, big ideas and suspense all rolled into a great story.
Jackson (Jax) Opus is a seemingly regular NYC kid. He's just trying to get to basketball with his best friend Tommy Cicerelli, but the bus just passes them by. In a fit of desperation, Jax jumps out into the bus lane in front of the next uptown bus and stares the driver down until he stops. Jax apologizes upon boarding the bus and implores the driver to get them to 96th Street as soon as possible. The bus takes off and is soon speeding through red lights, passing stops, and terrifying everyone. Once at 96th Street, the driver stops, lets the boys off, and resumes his regular route.
Weird.
Then comes the basketball game. Jax is not evenly matched against Rodney, but somehow he is managing to hold him off. And when Jax wants him to miss, he does.
What is going on?
After a series of seemingly unrelated events, Jax ends up being recruited Dr. Elias Mako, founder and director of The Sentia Institute as a part of their New Horizons program. Dr. Mako seems to come with his own tagline - "Dr. Elias Mako has devoted his life to New York City education and is an inspiration to every single one of us." Anyone who comes into contact with Sentia seems to repeat these same words.
Odd.
But Jax's parents are all for it. Jax learns that he comes from some very powerful bloodlines. Both of his parents families had the gift of hypnotism, and Jax seems to have inherited a rare command of his gift. After spending every extra hour at Sentia, Jax is getting uneasy with the whole thing. He has questions and nobody seems to want to answer them. Being able to hypnotize people seemed like no big deal when it involved extra gravy and hopping up and down, but add some political intrigue and scandal and throw in computers and blackmail, and Jax's abilities could take a very different and dangerous turn.
Korman has written a thriller that will get kids thinking big. How are our opinions formed? How are we influenced? Where would you draw the line when it comes to sticking by your values? The relationship between Jax and Tommy is perfect and laugh out loud funny. Their dialogue is authentic and readers will definitely want more from these two!
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 8/7/2013
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Lauren is a girl who plans things. She checks and double checks. She loves having everything in its place. So it really comes as no surprise that when it comes to love, she has a plan. Lauren has come up with her love plan. This is the summer that she will get Charlie not only to notice her, but fall for her just like she has fallen for him. She knows from taking lots of multiple choice tests in teen magazines that she and Charlie are indeed soul mates. She will get him to notice her through her flowcharted Operation Cell Phone, where she has planned each detail of their "chance" encounter.
The problem is Lauren hasn't even left for the beach and there is a wrench thrown into her plans. Lauren's mom thought it would be fun to invite Chrissy along on vacation to keep only child Lauren company. Lauren likes Chrissy alright, but she certainly isn't part of her plan. And the worst part of it is that Lauren sort of told everyone at school that she and Charlie are already an item.What will Chrissy think when she sees the truth?
Lauren need not worry about Chrissy. It turns out she is super understanding and supportive of Lauren's love plan.
Things start off great. The girls get along famously, and Charlie is indeed at the beach with his friend Frank. Lauren thinks this is just perfect because she can hang out with Charlie and Chrissy can hang with Frank. But Lauren soon learns not only that the best laid plans don't always work out, but that crushing on someone from afar, is indeed different from knowing a person face to face.
This is an easy breezy beach read that gets the desperate tone of first crushes just right. What I like is that Darling gives Chrissy and Lauren agency, and put it right out there that sometimes the boy with all the looks can be lacking in other areas. This is a squeaky clean romance that will have tweensters flipping the pages to find out who Lauren will choose.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 7/28/2013
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I am a child of the 1970s, so of course I saw Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in the movie theatres right when they came out. What kid didn't? I did not, however, keep up with the series and see the other movies. As my neighbor Nick (14yo) always points out, "Stacy, why do you keep saying you saw the first three? You really didn't, you know. You saw Episodes 4, 5, and 6!". Yes, I know. I put this out there to let you know that even though I am not particularly well versed in the new/old Star Wars movies, I got a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of this graphic novel/ illustrated novel hybrid.
Roan Novachez has always known that he is "destined to attend Pilot Academy Middle School and become the GREATEST star pilot in the GALAXY." (p. 1) But destiny seems to take a wrong turn for most of us in middle school, doesn't it? Roan's friends all start receiving their acceptances to the academy, but his letter seems to be taking longer than everyone else's. Instead of following his brother Dav's footsteps into the pilot life, Roan receives his rejection letter from the school. He is devastated.
Soon, however, he receives a letter from the Jedi Academy. Complete with a hand written note by Yoda himself, Roan is invited to attend the school even though most kids are accepted when they are toddlers and Roan himself didn't even apply. It seems rather curious.
When Roan gets to the academy, he really feels like a fish out of water. The other kids been there for a while, and they all seem to be able to use the force in controlled ways. Roan is working on figuring out not only the force, but how to navigate the typical middle school things that all kids deal with no matter what planet they are from. Things like dealing with bullies, figuring out where to sit in the cafeteria, opening his combination lock, and navigating a dance! There are some things unique to Roan's situation as well - trying to understand what the heck Yoda is talking about, wielding a light saber, surviving a camping trip involving Wookies!
This is a fun and laugh-out-loud look into middle school that happens to be situated in a Star Wars culture. Readers needn't be super well versed in Star Wars to enjoy Roan's adventures. The cover will definitely attract younger readers, but I do think that the audience that will get the most enjoyment out of the story are 4th-6th graders who are wading into similar waters.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 7/23/2013
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"I'm obsessed with abandoned things." So begins LaFleur's quiet and enchanting book about friendship, family, choice, ghosts and history.
Siena's family is about to abandon Brooklyn for the beaches of Maine. Siena doesn't really mind. There's not much tying her to Brooklyn anymore. Her once deep friendship with Kelsey has fizzled since Kelsey no longer seems interested in Siena's dreams or imaginings. And honestly, Siena is a little frightening about what has been happening to her lately.
She has always had vivid dreams, but now these dreams are creeping into her waking hours. Scenery seems to shift and she finds herself viewing history, when she should be seeing what everyone else is seeing. Maybe Maine will help?
The move is not for Siena, however, but for her little brother Lucca. Lucca used to be a run of the mill little kid...sticky and loud. But now Lucca is silent. Siena's mom is desperate for anything that will give her son a voice again.
Once Siena is in the new house, she just knows that there are ghosts. What's more, is that Lucca seems to sense them too. She has no sooner unpacked her collection of abandoned things, when her vivid dreaming and visions start again. Only now Lucca is scared, and Siena promises him that she will get to the bottom of things.
When Siena finds an old lost pen high up in her closet, pieces of the past come forward and help her to understand not only her dreams and her visions, but her family as well.
This is a lovely slow reveal of a book that will delight detail oriented readers. LaFleur weaves the story together with invisible strings that form a delicate pattern that becomes clear in due time. Each character is fully developed and the past and the present storylines never compete with each other; rather they complete each other.
Simply captivating.
"Haven't you ever had anything you loved doing, Mom?...Something that was worth getting in real big trouble for?" ( Will Asher - arc p. 200)
This is a world where people either have a Talent or are simply Fair. Talents can range from the ability to knit anything at a quick pace (Mrs. Asher) to the ability to spit with choreographic grace and accuracy (Zane).
Cady lives in an orphanage in Poughkeepsie New York with Miss Mallory. Each of them has a talent that drives their lives. Cady has a talent for baking. She can size up a person and know exactly what kind of cake to bake that will bring them the most possible happiness. Miss Mallory has a talent for making matches, which has led to her matching countless parentless children with the right families. Even though Miss Mallory has attempted to match Cady in the past, it has never been the perfect match. The tug in her chest hasn't been enough to place Cady with the right family.
Meanwhile, in town, the Owner of the Lost Luggage Emporium has been on a lifelong quest. He believes that a piece of lost luggage holds the secret to his success. He has been trying to track down the powder blue St. Anthony suitcase that he lost 53 years prior. The loss has turned him bitter, and Toby who works with the Owner, is subject to his random temper and tirades.
Also in town are the Asher family. The aforementioned Zane hasn't always yielded his talent for good, and the words of his school Principal haunt him, as his misguided attempts to help his family bring him nothing but trouble. Zane's sister Marigold is desperately searching for her own talent, as she tries to keep not only Zane, but little brother Will (who has a talent for disappearing) out of trouble.
Add a bake-off, recipes, attempted adoption, archeological crime, a mysterious wordless stranger, a wayward ferrt and an in-and-out narrator dressed in a gray suit, and you have
A Tangle of Knots. I know I haven't done the best with plot summary, but that is because Graff's story defies description. Story-lines dance and weave, short chapters keep the forward motion, and the reader finds him/herself trying to predict what will come next. That said, I can't help but throw in the idea of the mash-up/remix with titles like
Savvy,
The Westing Game and
Pie coming to mind. Not bad company to be in. While A Tangle of Knots most definitely pays homage, I do think Graff has made this all her own. The moment I finished reading, I wanted to go back and re-read to fit the pieces together.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 7/21/2012
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June has been content living with her mother on the shores of Lake Champlain, spending her time baking and selling sweets at the Stillwater Marina, and swimming with her friend Luke. This summer she is dreaming of what pie she is going to enter in the Champlain Valley Fair. It seems pretty ideal, yes?
It is pretty ideal except for Eva. Eva has just moved in with June and her mom. It's not like June didn't know that her mom was gay, but having Eva living with them is making June uncomfortable. After all, June and MJ have always had a rhythm, and Eva just doesn't fit. Now that Vermont's civil union law has passed, Eva and MJ are even talking about getting married!
But not everyone in their town is happy with the idea of civil unions. In fact, someone even had the nerve to put a "Take Back Vermont" sign on their front lawn. June isn't even sure what that means, but she doesn't stick around to find out. After Eva tears up the sign, June takes off with Luke to see the secret blueberry bushes that he found up by the jumping cliff. June can't wait to come back the next week to pick some for her pies. Before she and Luke leave, however, June's friend Tina's brother Sam and some of his friends show up. Sam calls June a "lezzie" for being too scared to jump off the cliff, and June starts to wonder if Sam put up the sign on her lawn. And does Tina feel the same way her brother does?
Soon the "Take Back Vermont" campaign starts to take off in town. Folks stop coming into the marina, and June starts to worry about her mom. But there are others who are willing to stick up for June, Eva and MJ, and June starts to realize that she needs to stick up for her family as well.
Overall this is a coming of age story that easily could have turned into a didactic piece about marriage equity. Gennari has managed to balance the discussion with June's struggles with friendships, her blossoming crush on Luke as well as the everyday growing pains that families go through. I am always on the look out for LGBT books to put in our collection, and honestly ones that fit the tween audience are hard to come by.
My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer fits nicely into not only the LGBT collection, but into tween summer reads as well.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 5/5/2012
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Stella is spending the summer living with her Great Aunt Louise on the Cape. She is going to help Louise tend to the summer cottages adjacent to her little house. Louise isn't a big one on emotion, and Stella is surprised when after talking to Louise about her mother and blueberries, Louise wraps her in a hug. This pleases Stella, because she loves the idea of ties between people. Since her own mother isn't exactly dependable, Stella likes the even nature of Louise and her clean house and tidy garden. She even is trying to find a way to get along with foster kid Angel, who Louise took in thinking could keep Stella company. The two girls couldn't be more different, and Stella can't imagine why Louise thought having two girls was a good idea.
The thing is, Louise is older and she's not well. Angel and Stella make a gruesome discovery when they come home from school one day, and they have some heavy choices to make. Can they make a go of the summer on their own? Should Angel run? What will happen if folks find out they are living without any adult supervision? And what are they going to tell George - the local who is supposed to help Louise take care of the rentals? Most importantly, what are they going to do with Louise?
The girls decide to make a go of it, and have to figure out a way to get along. Their differences turn out to be a good thing as Stella could use some fire and Angel could use some forethought. Readers see the girls deal with bills, finding food, lying about Louise's whereabouts, and dealing with their own guilt. All of this is wrapped up in Sara Pennypacker's rich prose, describing the Cape, the cottages, the beach, as well as the interconnected nature of life. "I like to imagine the ties between us as strands of spider silk: practically invisible, maybe, but strong as steel. I figure the trick is to spin out enough of them to weave ourselves into a net." (p.1)
Readers will be left wondering what they would do if they were ever in Stella and Angel's predicament. Honestly at first, I was wondering who I would give this book to. It's clearly not for the same audience as
Clementine. There are heady issues in
Summer of the Gypsy Moths, and at times the bigger ideas are a little scary. Ultimately, however, this is a story of friendship, survival and hope, and thoughtful tweens will be ready for the serious nature of Stella and Angel's situation.
The town of Cantonsville has it's fair share of weirdness going on. Not only are there rumors of the Man-Bat, but there's the witch lady on the other side of the woods, the legend of Crazy Ike, and one day when Minty and Paz are hanging out, Minty sees a creature in the woods followed by a flash! Minty crashes through the woods trying to find it. She loses the creature but finds a strange tree. It seems to be murmuring and when Minty reaches in the big hole in its trunk she finds a note that she quickly stuffs in her pocket to examine later.
Minty and Paz are best friends with some pretty big roller derby dreams. Minty, aka Minty Fresh, and Paz, aka Pax A. Punch, have been practicing their moves since they were 8 years old and saw the local team The Catonsville Nine in action. Paz, however, seems to be distancing herself from Minty in favor of things that are decidedly not roller derby: things like hanging out at the pool with Isabelle, and wearing glittery nail polish and barrettes. Minty's summer is definitely not going how she planned.
When Minty is walking down her street she sees that mysterious flash again and takes chase. This time she ends up at a model home next to the witch's house on the other side of the woods where she finds a boy. His name is Raymond and he apparently lives there. Like Minty, he knows about the secret filled tree, and like Minty he is in need of a friend. Soon the two are skulking around town, finding secrets by good old spying. But some secrets cannot be stuffed in a tree and forgotten. Some secrets bubble up and create a big mess before they can be made better.
Standiford has written an ideal summer read for the middle grade set. Perfectly paced and tightly written,
The Secret Tree is filled with mystery, family, friendship, and long summer hours. Readers are bound to start looking at people and trees through new eyes.
Highly recommended.
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 8/10/2010
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As fellow readers, I am sure that some of you have experienced this. The
siren song of a book simply from title and cover art alone. This was my initial experience with
The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter. Now, I have enjoyed Potter’s
work in the past, so I wasn’t worried at all about experiencing the dreaded feeling of, “but I
wanted to like this book!” that happens when readers fall for covers and titles sometimes. From the creepy dark haired young children staring out with their older blond brother wrapped in a scarf and holding a cat, to the bare feet hanging from the tree, I was simply intrigued.
Upon opening the arc, I was greeted with Chapter 1 followed by a bit of foreshadowing of the upcoming chapter: “
In which we meet the Hardscrabbles, unearth a triceratops bone, and begin to like Lucia even more.” The Hardscrabbles are siblings Otto, Lucia and Max, who all live in the town of Little Tunks with their artist father Casper. Their mum is simply gone. She had been there, then she wasn’t. As in most small towns, the rumours began to spread…especially when Otto gives up talking aloud (he has invented a sort of sign language that he and Lucia use) and takes to wearing his mum’s scarf everywhere.
Casper is a peculiar sort of artist in that he paints portraits of royalty…exclusively exiled royalty. Casper says, "...
there is something extraordinary about the face of a person who has fallen from greatness. They remind me of angels tossed out of heaven who are now struggling to manage the coin-operated washing machine at the Scrubbly-Bubbly Laundromat" (arc p.23) As you can imagine, exiled royals are not big on settling up their bills, so the Hardscrabbles don't live a luxurious existence by any means, and it means that their father is often traveling to wherever it is that the exiles are.
Usually when their dad goes away, the children stay with kooky Mrs. Carnival from down the way, but this time Casper tells them that they are to stay with their cousin Angela in London. Lucia especially is quite excited about this turn of events, and some time in London would be great if cousin Angela were actually at home. Stuck on their own in London, the kids come up with a plan that doesn't involve staying back in Little Tunks with Mrs. Carnival. Instead of trying to head home, the kids go on another adventure to find their Great Aunt Haddie in Snoring-by-the-Sea.
It turns out that not-so-old Haddie is renting a castle folly that is chock-full of its own secrets, including the entrance (a Tyrolean traverse), a parent castle (named the Kneebone Castle), and some pretty interesting rats.
I don’t want to go too deeply into the plot and get all spoiler-y. Suffice it to say there are some twists and turns that will make readers want to start flipping back through the text looking for clues. From the beginning where readers are told that the narrator is one of the Hardscrabbles, but not which one, to the very big reveal, Potter has woven together a plot that flows pretty seamlessly. The characters are all well developed (I grew particularly fond of Otto) and their personalities will draw readers in. This is the kind of book that captures readers at the beginning and keeps them in its thrall all the way through. Emily Reads captures the essence in her haiku review found
3 Comments on The Kneebone Boy, by Ellen Potter, last added: 8/11/2010
I love Tuesdays at the Castle and really enjoyed Wednesdays in the Tower! They are some of my favorite books! Nice to see someone else liked them!
This one is high up on my TBR pile. Glad you liked it!!