Thursday, April 20, 2023
The Grace of Wild Things, by Heather Fawcett
Sunday, April 16, 2023
The Talent Thief, by Mike Thayer
When two meteors collide one night in the skies above her, Tiffany feels like something significant has changed in her life. Inexplicably, she finds herself gifted with talents that she never imagined possessing. She gains the ability to sing like queen bee Candace, the talent to sink three-point shots like smoldering Brady, and even the ability to do card tricks like her grandmother's old friend in the nursing home. But the magic comes with two caveats: it is temporary and it requires that Tiffany steal it away (the person who had the talent becomes normal while Tiffany possesses it).
With such magic, Tiffany could really fix things and make everything right. But the ethics of the power vex her. Very quickly she realizes how much harm she can cause to others. And while there are instances when hurting others might feel justified (stealing Candace's voice before a performance so she flubs it), it is never nice. And moreover, what does it say that you can only get ahead by stealing from others? In the end, Tiffany comes to realize that being successful comes as much from self-confidence and the support of others as it comes from any talent.
A fine fantasy novel that approaches the morality of playing fair. I was put off by the character of Tiffany who never really felt authentic to me and by the setting (planetarium? really?). I also found the characters rather thin. But I appreciated the nice age-appropriate development of a theme that allowed Tiffany to explore the pitfalls of her incredible power.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Rare Birds, by Jeff Miller
While waiting at the hospital, Graham meets Lou who coincidentally is also waiting with her family for a donor heart to come. With their shared situation, Lou and Graham bond easily and they discover a shared love for birding. Going through Graham's mother's old things back home, they find Mom's birding journal and learn that she had been on a quest for a rare bird called a Snail Kite that she never found. Determined to complete his Mom's quest in her honor as she waits for a donor, he and Lou set out on an adventure to find the Kite.
A lively middle grade adventure story that manages to cover two separate topics (organ transplants and ornithology) with a good mix of information and entertainment. While the two main subjects are unrelated, I thought the birding helped to lighten the otherwise heavy nature of the medical stuff (especially given the story's rather heavy ending). I was a bit annoyed at how passive Graham was and it soured me a bit on his character. And I would have preferred if Nick had gotten some sort of comeuppance for his meanness. However, the birding stuff was great and may encourage a few young people to pick up a pair of binoculars.
Saturday, April 08, 2023
Whispering Alaska, by Brendan Jones
A sweet and actually pretty fresh story that mostly defies its genre. We have the dead mother, but don't dwell on her. There's the pandemic, but that's mostly background. There's a mild supernatural element, but it is largely ignored. And the eco theme, while central to the story, is toned down. The ultimate solution is a compromise (i.e., responsible stewardship of resources) and while overly optimistic, does portray the types of win-win solutions that generally have underlaid real life conservation success stories. I might in fact criticize the story for not really pursuing any of these themes in any major way, but that decision leaves the book more digestible and less didactic. What results is sufficiently educational with a light touch and has little bits of stuff (emotions, interpersonal relationships, magic, and adventure) to excite the reader.
Sunday, April 02, 2023
The Roof Over Our Heads, by Nicole Kronzer
Family is family and the one thing that has kept Finn's family together is this old mansion. So, when the new artistic director for Beauregard announces that they can no longer afford to maintain the property and need to sell it, the family comes together with a plan to save it. It is a family dream to stage a historical murder mystery about the original inhabitants of the mansion -- the Jorgensens -- in the house itself. But with the dire need for funds, the plan is now extended to host a special dinner for VIPs at $1000 a plate as part of an exclusive televised performance. That's all well and good until things start going wrong.
Mix into all of this a complex web of subplots worthy of Downton Abbey and you get the whirlwind of this novel. There's romance and intrigue, coming to terms with the past, and a main protagonist who sorts his entire life out in 340 action-packed pages. With a huge cast of characters it can be hard to keep up with everything that is going on, but the story is forgiving and coaches you so you don't get completely lost. There are many things to like about this book. I particularly enjoyed the mash-up of manor home posing with modern sensibilities as the cast (largely made up of high school drama kids) are forced to live in character as upstairs and downstairs inhabitants of the play. Great fun!
Saturday, April 01, 2023
Then Everything Happens at Once, by M-E Girard
And things are about to get a lot more complicated because this is March 2020 and news stories about a virus sweeping the world are just starting to pick up. With Baylee's complicated love life, she doesn't have much time to pay attention to any of that (although having school get cancelled helps give her time to focus on sorting things out). Even as lockdown is declared, Baylee can't really conceptualize the weight of the matter, despite repeated entreaties from her Mom and the authorities.
During the early days of the Pandemic, I had wondered what sort of YA stories would come from it. This sort of dazed-and-confused romance makes a certain amount of sense. Baylee's an interesting protagonist. Aside from cheating on Alex, she's actually very candid. While she's articulate, her mind is truly confused by all of the novel things that are occurring to her: first love, first kiss, and first sexual experience. Putting it all in the context of lockdown raises the stakes a bit and Baylee proves largely (and realistically) incapable of adapting to the restrictions. As an adult, it's hard for me to be sympathetic to her selfishness and to the degree she puts her family (and her vulnerable little sister in particular) at risk by her quarantine violations. However, it felt authentic and even if it made me dislike her, I recognized that as a sign of my degree of investment in the story.
Sunday, March 26, 2023
That's Debatable, by Jen Doll
Tag doesn't have to worry about paying for college. His family is wealthy enough that scholarships are not a major consideration. But doing well in debate is the sort of extracurricular asterixis he needs to impress admissions committees. It's certainly what is driving the other students on his school team to do well. The problem is that he doesn't care. He isn't even sure he wants to go to college. And the debates have become just as meaningless to him. In debates you have to argue the side that you are given, but Tag is done with that. He wants to argue the position that he believes in, the position that is right. Even if it means his team loses.
When a crisis and some quick thinking throws Millie and Tag together into an unusual situation, two opposites find that they share a love for the same things. And while debate will always be important to them, they find that maybe the feelings they have for each other are just as important.
A lovely romance with a lot to say about taking a stand for what you believe in and a really great introduction to the arcane world of Lincoln-Douglas Debates -- a subject that I knew absolutely nothing about before I read this book. I enjoyed that education, I was caught up in the (occasionally over-the-top) drama, and I loved the message.
Friday, March 24, 2023
This is How I Roll, by Debbi Michiko Florence
One day she meets Koji, a boy who is helping landscape her Dad's restaurant. He seems nice but her best friend warns her that he has a reputation. Rather than dissuading her, the news simply makes her curious (and then cautious about telling her friend anything more about him). She and Koji become friends and he takes her to meet his Mom who turns out to be an amazing cook. She offers to teach Sana what she knows about Japanese cuisine. Soon, Sana is sneaking over to Koji's house in order to take lessons from Koji's Mom (and to see Koji as well!) and he even helps her put together YouTube tutorials about kawaii sushi. All of this Sana has to keep secret from her parents, even though she knows that all this sneaking around will lead to nothing but trouble!
A predictable and formulaic middle reader with a determined heroine and an unusual hobby. While Sana makes a number of ostensibly dangerous choices, the entire environment of this book feels very safe secure. Yes, Sana is hanging out with strangers without her parents' knowledge, but this is terribly tame stuff by children's book standards. Predictably, she gets caught and (similarly predictably) she gets off pretty lightly. Even the romance is safe and chaste (some hand holding and one furtive kiss). The ending is saccharine and very tidy. Nothing remarkable, but pleasant enough to read and appropriate for tweens.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Lolo's Light, by Liz Garton Scanlon
Suddenly, nothing feels safe or secure. Withdrawn into grief, Lolo cuts herself off from her friends and it struck with panic attacks at school. She becomes convinced that the spirit of Lolo still lives and imagines she can see the light of that spirit shining from her neighbor's windows when she walks by.
A poorly timed science project in which the class incubates and hatches chickens stirs up the worst of her fears and anxieties. Millie becomes obsessed with taking care of the eggs and their incubation and grows inconsolable when some of the eggs fail. Her parents, the science teachers, and a counselor all attempt to help, offering different perspectives on life/death and reconciling to it.
Stories about grief don't generally allow much room for maneuver in the plot. It's pretty much a given that you'll work through the stages of grief and come out at the end of the story in a state of acceptance, prepared to move forward. It's an inward journey and can get really dull, unless it is particularly well-written. In this case, the challenges are compounded by the author's decision to tell the story in third person voice. Millie is sad. Millie is angry. Millie won't tell people how she's feeling. It's an incredibly passive way to experience her emotional state and one that is very hard with which to connect. I couldn't get invested in her story.
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Remember Me Gone, by Stacy Stokes
But something is not quite right. Lucy keeps having flashes of memories that don't make sense and periods of time for which she can't account. People are giving her vague answers and tell her things that can't be true. Someone's hiding something and going to great pain to do so, and it's almost as if someone like her father has been wiping her memories. However, Lucy knows that her Dad would never practice on an unwilling person. It all seems to center around the mines and the mayor. Lucy and the mayor's nephew, Marco feel that they are tantalizingly close to uncovering the mystery, but plagued by the sense that they may have been in this same place before.
A wonderful edge-of-the-seat thriller that mixes just the right amount of suspense and paranoia to keep you hooked. Lucy and Marco have great chemistry (even though the novel never slows down enough to give them space for romance) and a series of creepy antagonists keep readers on their toes. Things get a bit strained towards the end as Stokes tries to wrap everything up and some of the explanations didn't make much sense, but the adventure is so much fun along the way that you want to just let it go so you can enjoy the ride. Great read!
Saturday, March 11, 2023
I Was Born for This, by Alice Oseman
She's finally saved up enough money to travel to London to see them perform and spend a week hanging out with Juliet, another fangirl. She's sure that it will be amazing and she's going to have a great time because every time she's hanging out with The Ark, she feels all the love the band gives out.
After five years, life as a member of the band in The Ark is wearing Jimmy down. Secretly suffering with anxiety and panic attacks (which his PR people keep under wraps), he struggles to get through days of pointless interviews and photo-ops. He longs for the days when he could just go out on the street and not get accosted by some vapid fangirl who allegedly "loves" him. How can they when they know nothing about him? With the record company pressuring them to sign a more restrictive contract, he feels more and more pressure to just step away. And as they return to London to finish up their latest tour, the band is falling apart.
In the week that follows, nothing turns out quite like either Angel or Jimmy planned. Being in a band or being a fan of the band isn't what they imagined. And as their plans come apart, both of them are forced to confront the fact that they aren't loving the one person they need to love -- themselves.
With a ethnically and gender-diverse cast that is Oseman's signature, she explores fame and the people who put people there, the fans. Despite such an unoriginal topic, Oseman has a surprisingly large amount of original things to say about it. And a cast of characters who are not only diverse but original, vivid, and (at times) outrageously funny makes this a great read.
Thursday, March 09, 2023
Justine, by Forsyth Harmon
Justine is not a terribly good role model. She teaches Ali how to memorize produce codes and bag groceries, but also how to purge to stay thin and how to shoplift from stores. Apathetic and bored with her own life, Ali doggedly follows Justine's example in every way. It ends badly and on a tragic note.
This is a very short story (135 pages, nearly half of which are illustrations) and a quick read. It's not really a story per se, but more a series of journal entries, with ink line drawings of common everyday objects (a Coke can, a bag of potato chips, a gas station sign. etc.). The banality of the drawings and the story itself is part of its charm. Ali's life isn't particularly big or important to the world, but it is a complex swirl of emotions and feelings for Ali herself, most of which she is unable to process or contextualize. It's a tragedy, but not one that Ali really cares much about.
Wednesday, March 08, 2023
Girls at the Edge of the World, by Laura Brooke Robson
For the elite Royal Flyers themselves, their chances are slightly better than average. So, when a vacancy appears, many apply. For most of the applicants, getting a foot in the door would improve their chances of survival. For Ella, she knows she is doomed regardless and she doesn't care. She's joining the Royal Flyers for an entirely different reason: to exact revenge by killing King Nikolai.
As the storms progress, and the prophecy unfolds as it was foretold, social unrest breaks out and palace intrigues start to emerge. There is tug of war between Nikolai and the faith's leader, mass poisonings, and acts of arson. However, in the end, everyone's plans get thrown off and things take their own course.
I loved the immersive world building. While I found it a little distracting, I even enjoyed the faint Russian and Finnish references in the novel. However, the ending is a rushed mess in which so much of what is built up in the story gets tossed aside. It keeps us on our toes but so little of what happens in the end is actually built during the story. The storms, the revenge, the struggle over the crown, competition for the king's hand, and even the planned murder weapon become irrelevant for how the story wraps up. And a romance that is barely hinted at during the bulk of the story becomes determinant in the end.
Saturday, March 04, 2023
Afterlove, by Tanya Byrne
But then Ash is suddenly struck down in a hit-and-run and dies on New Year's Eve. As the last teenager to die in the year, she is assigned the role of "reaper" to help guide the recently deceased to the beach and to Charon's waiting boat to take them to the afterlife. Life as a reaper, while ostensibly similar to Ash's life before, has its own set of rules. Key amongst them is that, while people can see you, you don't look like you did before. Only those who are about to die can see the real you. She is also warned away from visiting friends, family, and (especially) Poppy. But Ash can't resist the temptation and when she goes anyway she is hit with a rude shock when Poppy can actually see her!
An interesting paranormal romance with a split personality. The first half plays out as a typical teen lesbian romance, with a lot of struggling over whether to come out to their families. There's some lovely character building here between mother and daughter, and we get a real strong sense of the tension between Ash's intense feelings for Poppy and her loyalties to her family. It's thus a big shock in the second half where the focus is entirely on Ash's superficial relationships with her fellow reapers and the doomed romance with Poppy. The family is barely mentioned and her mother is forgotten. Moreover, the second half is not even that interesting. The potential drama of finding out that your girlfriend is about to die is not really developed. Another potential flash point with a head reaper Deborah (and a really easy potential replacement for Mom) remains a cypher -- an utterly wasted character. The story disappoints.
I did love the not-safe-for-Florida cover art though!
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Wishing Upon the Same Stars, by Jacquetta Nammar Feldman
As is typical in a middle reader, there's plenty going on in this book: Yasmeen has to learn how to dance, Yasmeen's sister goes to the National Spelling Bee, grandmother comes to live with them, and so on. With fairly simple age-appropriate explanations of the intifada, a faint hint of a romantic interest (but not even a kiss), and a story of largely well-behaved young people, this novel has little to object to.
The key message is about forging true friendships based on loyalty and kindness. Through determination and a fair amount of bravery, Yasmeen stands up for what she wants: to have the friends she wants to have, to be so the things she wants to do, and to be the person she wants to be. And while everything comes together a bit too neatly and the book's ending stops just short of solving the Mideast Crisis, it's a charming story of young people trying to break free of their parents' prejudices.
Saturday, February 25, 2023
Meant to Be, by Jo Knowles
But having children to play with presents new challenges. When Ivy makes an unintentionally insensitive remark to her new best friend Alice, she's surprised at Alice's angry response. And when she quickly apologizes, she's hurt when Alice doesn't immediately forgive her. In fact, nowadays it seems that Ivy can't say anything without offending someone. Maybe life really was better out in the country! But with some guidance from her older sister, the superintendent of the apartment, and some other adults, Ivy learns some valuable lessons about being patient and loving with one's friends.
I didn't remember Ivy so well from the original book, but she is fleshed out as a resourceful and intelligent (and perhaps overly precocious?) nine year-old. Her primary talent and love is cooking and she shines in her clever ability at coming up with substitutions when she lacks specified ingredients. That talent extends to her ability to solve the problems in her interpersonal relationships as well, bootstrapping her way through her challenges. The author claims to also be addressing Ivy's anxiousness, but I really didn't notice much of that. She's a bit emotional, but not in a way that seemed particularly remarkable for her age.
Friday, February 24, 2023
Where You've Got to Be, by Caroline Gertler
And that isn't the only thing that is changing. At home, her sister's just been cast in the lead role for The Nutcracker and now their parents are totally centered around her sister's needs. Feeling ignored and self-pitying, Nolie starts "borrowing" objects that don't belong to her: a necklace, a package of candy, and her grandma's antique compass. When she gets caught, Nolie realizes that she's in too deep and, amidst all this change and challenge, that she's lost sight of who she is and who she wants to be. Seeking guidance in her faith, she tries to atone and fix things.
A nice conduct-of-life middle reader with a large agenda of issues to address (including sibling rivalry, changing friendships, bullying, and even anti-Semitism). It comes together a bit too abruptly at the end, but the right notes are struck. Ultimately, strong family ties, forgiveness, and making good choices are the path to a solution. I would have liked to see more done with Nolie's interesting new BFF Serena, but there was a lot of material to cover in the story.
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Lifeling, by Kirsty Applebaum
A quirky timeless story that reflects on the value of life within the bounds of a family of memorable characters. I enjoyed its original juxtaposition of magic and mundane. At times the story seems to be a medieval fairy tale and then someone pops up with a cell phone or a car to shake things up! I loved the premise of Lonny's magic and the severe conundrums it presents. And finally, the cast is wonderful. However, I was less taken with the storytelling, which I found uneven and difficult to follow.
Sunday, February 19, 2023
Why Would I Lie? by Adi Rule
At the start of her senior year, she's definitely on track to do so and to become the class valedictorian. But then a new boy named Jamison comes to the school. And he's amazing. He's transferred from an elite French school, does virtually everything, excels at everything, and seems just about...well, perfect.
Viveca is suspicious about his claims. Too many things seem implausible, too many coincidences are convenient, and too many things don't line up. Viveca knows all about liars. Her father's ruined his life (and hers) through pathological lying. She learned long ago that little he said could be trusted and she has had to deal with the consequences of his dishonesty as her father has lost jobs and friends along the way. So, while it seems like every teacher and student in the school is willing to accept Jamison's stories, Viveca eyes him suspiciously. Confronting and exposing Jamison, however, proves to be difficult and as she tries to do so, he goes on the offensive and attempts to discredit and destroy Viveca's reputation. Without much social support, she quickly finds out how vulnerable she is to her peers and the fleeting loyalty of her teachers.
In the end, Viveca learns that no one can really destroy your life. That is something only you can do. However, it is a lesson she'll only learn once she's lost everything she thought mattered.
If you can read this lightly and without getting too invested, this is probably a pretty enjoyable book, but I found myself growing more and more infuriated at the set-up. The level of bullying, Viveca's inability to defend herself, the connivance of the adults, and the nastiness of Viveca's peers was all pretty upsetting. There is a good message about Viveca's need to gain some perspective, develop empathy, and work on her social skills, but the level of cruelty is a bit much for me. The ending, where justice is (thankfully!) served is far too brief, not nearly satisfying enough, and surprisingly rushed for what we've endured in the reading.
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
This Raging Light, by Estelle Laure
And that's probably one of the bigger problems with this story, which pulls me back and forth between really caring for this girl and hating her various mistakes. It would help if there was something interesting about the guy to like. At no point in the book did I get the sense that the two of them even liked each other. There's no heat at all between them. Allegedly the boy has been in this super serious relationship for the past two years and then, despite the fact that Lu and him have known each other for ever, suddenly he can't live without Lu and he's ready to dump the previous Love of His Life. Nope.
This was Estelle Laure's first novel and she's written plenty of good ones since. It's been nothing but up since this one!