How to use this Page

Book: Boy Nobody
Author: Allen Zadoff
Pages: 352
Age Range: 12 and up

Boy Nobody is a tense thriller about a 16-year-old boy who has been trained as an assassin. The first person narrator (we don't learn his real name until late in the book, but let's call him Benjamin) was kidnapped by a shadowy organization, apparently part of the government, after a boy named Mike killed Benjamin's parents. Benjamin was trained to execute meticulously planned missions. For each mission, he is inserted into a school, where he befriends some key student. His target is someone close to that student, such as a parent. His job is to kill the target. 

Benjamin has a distinct voice. Not knowing much about the premise of the book, I thought at first that he was supposed to be some sort of alien. He calculates his every move and reaction. Like the scene below, in which a bunch of kids are hanging around after a baseball game.

""Your best kicks ass and takes names," Jack says, and he punches my shoulder again.

This time the big man doesn't move. But the other players are looking at us. 

Two punches on the arm. A way of asserting dominance.

Dominance is a threat. It must be dealt with.

I run a checklist in my mind:

I can let him punch me. Choose a lower status.

I can retaliate in equal measure, with equal force.

I can escalate. Assert my dominance.

Which should I choose?" (Chapter: I Pick Up a Baseball Bat)

He's like a human computer, the ultimate, unquestioning tool for killing people. But when the next student that Benjamin is supposed to befriend turns out to be the smart, extremely attractive daughter of the mayor of New York City, things become a bit more complicated than usual. Like this:

"Because my mind is thinking the wrong things. I should be thinking about finishing my assignment, but I'm thinking about the curve of Sam's neck, the corner of her lip, the way her breasts swell against the fabric of her dress." (Chapter: I Slip into the Bathroom down the Hall)

There is certainly violence in Boy Nobody, though I didn't find it gratuitous. (I mean, the book is about an assassin. The fact that he kills a few people should not be surprising.) There's a hint of a James Bond feel to the violence, and to the couple of sexual incidents (which are not described in detail). 

The teen assassin is an interesting premise for a young adult novel. Kind of takes teen alienation to a new and toxic level. Imagine having to go into school after school, reinventing yourself each time, figuring out the social dynamics on the fly? Now imagine doing that with no parents behind you (just two controllers who communicate via technology), and no one to confide in. Even if he didn't have to kill people, Benjamin would still be about as alienated as it gets. 

Boy Nobody is fast-paced, with lots of short paragraphs leaving white space in the text, and plenty of action to move the plot forward. Benjamin is a unique character, his damaged mind revealed through is first person narration (and his actions). Sam is also surprising and intriguing. And a nerdy computer geek comes into Benjamin's sphere, adding a bit of humor and humanity. 

While the main plot in Boy Nobody wraps up neatly, quite a few details are left unexplained. I don't know whether or not Zadoff intends to write other books about Benjamin, but he has certainly put the elements of a bigger picture in place. Personally, I hope that there are more books - I'm interested to see where this story goes. In the meantime, I recommend Boy Nobody for teen and adult readers who enjoy thrillers, and aren't put off by the idea of reading one told from the assassin's perspective. Boy Nobody is well worth a look!

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (@LBKids)
Publication Date: June 11, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: Mousenet
Author: Prudence Breitrose
Illustrator: Stephanie Yue
Pages: 416
Age Range: 8 and up 

Mousenet is a middle grade novel written by Prudence Breitrose and lightly illustrated by Stephanie Yue. The premise has oodles of kid-appeal. Mice have learned to read, and to use human computers (though it takes a whole team of mice to accomplish anything using a full-size PC). When a quirky inventor in Cleveland invents a teeny, tiny laptop (dubbed the Thumbtop), mice spring into action. They enlist the inventor's niece, Megan, in their quest to put "a Thumbtop in every mousehole" so that they can stand beside humans as the next intelligent species.  

The mouse society and hierarchy in Mousenet is fully fleshed out, and quite entertaining. The mice have figured out a way to travel by Greyhound bus (though this remains rare). They use sign language to communicate. Because they have eyes everywhere, they are able to intervene with humans in surprising ways. They have their own, hidden internet (Mousenet). They are based in Silicon Valley, for a completely logical reason. This whole shadow society of secretly smart rodents calls to mind books like Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (which I now want to re-read) and Malcolm at Midnight. 

The early part of the book is told from a third person (er, mouse) mouse perspective, which I particularly enjoyed. In fact, I found it a bit jarring when, in the middle of chapter two, things shifted to Megan's perspective. After that, things shift back and forth between mouse and human viewpoints. Here's an example of the mouse point of view:

"The mice felt more hopeful about picking up clues to the megging's wildness later that afternoon, after the big female had spent some time doing things to food that they'd never seen happen in this kitchen--slicing, steaming, chopping, mixing. When the girl and her uncle came in to eat, the mice looked anxiously at their inventor to see how he'd react, because the dishes that the big female had put on the table didn't look at all like his usual dinner, which tended to be either delivered or thawed." (Chapter 2)

I understand that it wouldn't have been possible to tell the entire story from the perspective of the mice (or certainly it would have been quite difficult), but I personally enjoyed the mouse point of view more than Megan's. Megan is a perfectly nice character, with passions and quirks of her own, but the mouse viewpoint is more unique. 

Anyway, the plot in Mousenet moves along quickly. There isn't really a bad guy in the book, but Breitrose finds other sources of conflict (like the need to keep the existence of the mouse society hidden). I particularly liked the way the author developed the relationship between Megan and her step-cousin Joey, slowly and with friction along the way. 

My one complaint, story-wise, is that I felt that the author's anti-global warming message came on a bit too strong at times. Not that there's anything wrong with the message itself, but towards the end of the book it comes perilously close to dominating the story. By making environmentalism a central trait of Megan's character, the author keeps things in hand, but only just barely. But I have admittedly very finely honed radar when it comes to messages inserted into fiction. Most young readers delving into Mousenet today will probably be fine with this aspect of the book. 

Yue's black and white pencil illustrations are generally small in size, and are found about once per chapter. I found them helpful in visualizing Megan (who has unusual hair that's hard to describe), and of course in picturing the intrepid mice. There are also mouse silhouettes included atop the large-format first letter of each chapter. Emails integrated in with the text also add visual variety. Together, these visual elements of the book help make it non-intimidating to younger middle grade readers. 

Mousenet has a premise that kids will find hard to resist, coupled with strong characters, and a "working together to save the world" ethos. There is humor as well as high tech. Oh, and there's a sequel, Mousemobile, coming this fall. Kids who enjoy stories about secretly intelligent animals, and/or who find the idea of a mouse using a computer delightful, will definitely want to give this one a look. Suitable for ages 8 and up (or younger, especially if read aloud).  

Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children (@DisneyHyperion)
Publication Date: November 8, 2011 (picture book edition released February of 2013)
Source of Book: Review copy from the author

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

...I wrote about Aaron Hartzler's Rapture Practice:

Capital-b Belief is something that I have immense respect for, but I’ve never felt like I’ve succeeded in completely wrapping my mind around it. Maybe it’s one of those You Know It If You Feel It things? But this book, despite the vastly different life experience that it depicts—...when I say we believe that Jesus is coming back, I don’t mean metaphorically, like someday in the distant future when the lion lies down with the lamb and there is peace on earth. I mean literally, like glance out the car window and, “Oh, hey, there’s Jesus in the sky.” There will be a trumpet blast, an archangel will shout, and Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds.— has come the closest to helping me understand something that I’ve spent years trying to grasp.

Loved it.

Oh.

OH.

OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS BOOK.

And I have no idea how to write about it.

Ten pages in, I was all, "HEY, COOL! THIS IS SO WICKER MAN-Y! I LIKE."

Then, I came to the end of the first part. And my eyes got all big and round and I was all (much more subdued, but no less blown away), "Oh, hey, this is VERY Wicker Man-y."

And then, partway through the second segment, I thought, "Wow. Hello, Cloud Atlas."

After that, I stopped thinking about anything except the story—stories—in front of me, and I read and read and read until there were no more pages to read. And I was crying.

I still feel dazed.

It's not going to be for everyone. I GUARANTEE that some readers are going to want to throw it at the wall. (Perhaps you have already done so?) But something about it resonated with me. It's not just that I'm impressed by the structure—I am—or that I love Sedgwick's writing and skillful atmosphere creation—I do—or that I was blown away by how each segment was so different, but how (even discounting the physical details: the names, the flowers, the hare) each one was also so clearly part of a larger whole.

All of those things are a part of why I loved it, but there was something... BIGGER, yet less tangible beyond that. I think it was that even though the premise doesn't jive with my own personal, in real life worldview—I'm one of those who can't wrap my mind around anything beyond conceived/born/live/die/dead*—that the idea of these two people finding each other over and over again was genuinely, heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

Even though [SPOILER] it was a tragedy almost every time.

But, compared to the love that began—and ultimately ended—their story, the tragedy that followed them felt inconsequential. [/SPOILER]

Or something.

As the footnote below explains, I have a hard time with the metaphysical.

It's just a gorgeous, gorgeous book.

So good that it has apparently made my brain implode.

____________________________

*Which reminds me of a conversation I had years ago:

Family Friend Who Is Way Into Astrology: And so since you have so much Libra in your chart, that means that etc., etc....

Me: I dunno. I just have a hard time buying the idea that I am who I am because of where the planets were when I was born.

FFWIWIA: Oh, that's just because you're a Gemini. You're all about the intellectually concrete.

Me: So I don't believe in astrology because... I'm a Gemini?

FFWIWIA: Yes.

Me: But...

____________________________

Author page.

____________________________

Amazon.

Publisher.

____________________________

Book source: ILLed through my library.

Book: 1, 2, 3 ... By the Sea: A Counting Book
Author: Dianne Moritz
Illustrator: Hazel Mitchell
Pages: 36
Age Range: 3-6 

1, 2, 3 ... By the Sea is a nice little counting book written by Dianne Moritz and illustrated by Hazel Mitchell. The story is a bit more advanced than that of many counting books, making this more a book for preschoolers and kindergartners than for babies and toddlers. 

A boy, his mother, and his dog bike to the beach for the day. As the day progresses, they count things. Like this:

"Big waves tumble onto shore...
crashing,
splashing.
We chase FOUR."

The "FOUR" is shown spelled out, but partially overlaid with a big number 4. 

I also liked:

"Surfers surf and do surf tricks...
lunging,
plunging.
We watch SIX."

I like when books for young children use strong, descriptive verbs.

Mitchell's illustrations bring the oceanside setting to life. They remind me a bit of Marla Frazee's illustrations in All the World (and that is a huge compliment), with a similar color palette and level of detail (though without the poetry of Liz Garton Scanlon's text). Mitchell doesn't convey quite the same diversity in characters that Frazee does, but some of that is due to differences in subject matter.

The beach in 1, 2, 3 ... By the Sea evokes small-town, coastal Maine to me, with shingled homes nearby, and a crusty fisherman teasing the boy with a lobster. (Although you'd have to be on a pretty serious peninsula to get a  perfect sunset over the water in Maine.)  

If you have a child who loves beaches (and what child doesn't), and is learning to count, 1, 2, 3 ... By the Sea would be an excellent choice. If you can find it, anyway. It's available from the publisher, but otherwise not all that widely distributed. Which is too bad, because this slim paperback would slip quite easily into one's beach bag this summer.  

Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers
Publication Date: January 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Sixteen-year-old Ash Fisher is the son of a vampire and a human, and as far as he knows, the only twin-blood in Black City. Because of his human blood he's allowed by law to live in the city proper, rather than behind the wall in the Darkling ghetto. He lives with his human father, making ends meet by selling his venom to human Haze addicts, and worries every single day, that this will be the day that the Trackers discover that he and his father are harboring a Darkling... a crime punishable by death. But how could they refuse? She's Ash's mother, and she's dying.

Sixteen-year-old Natalie Buchanan, meanwhile, is the daughter of Black City's Emissary: the woman in charge. The Buchanans have just returned back to the city after months in the capitol, a move precipitated by the savage murder of her father by a Wrath-crazed Darkling. 

Full-blooded Darklings are barely second-class citizens; the few that live in the city are defanged and work as servants, and all of them—Ash included, despite his human blood—are required to wear ID bracelets at all times. ID bracelets that mark them as property of their human 'owner'. Not wearing the bracelets is punishable by death.

Any action judged a 'grievous crime against the state' is punishable by death, regardless of species.

Romantic relationships between humans and Darklings are punishable by death, regardless of species.

You've probably already guessed where the story is headed, and you aren't wrong: but that's not to say that there aren't some twists along the way. Since the prose stylings are neither squee-inducing nor remotely offensive, it'll be the plotting, the characters, and the world-building that attract or repel readers: and as Black City has a lot in common with other recent bestsellers, it should be pretty easy to figure out whether or not you should pick it up.

If you enjoyed the format of Marie Lu's Legend, then Black City might work for you: in this one, as in the Lu, the main characters alternate narration duties. And, as in Legend, the heroine is associated with the dictitorial government while the hero is, well, not part of the resistance, but certainly not held in any sort of esteem by the ruling class. Also, despite the vampires, I'd slot this one firmly in the science fiction arena.

If you like vampire apocalypse stories a la Emily McKay's The Farm or Julie Kagawa's The Immortal Rules and The Eternity Cure, then Black City might work for you: unlike both of those examples, in this case, the vampires are the subjugated class, but along with the action and the romance and whatnot, it deals with similar themes of racism and xenophobia. Black City actually takes that aspect of the story further, and makes some direct parallels to WWII with the aforementioned ghettos, with concentration camps, and with the ongoing experimental vivisection (i.e. torture) carried out in the name of research.

Like so many paranormal romances—though, as I said, this is more science fiction than fantasy—our characters do experience instalove, which I well know is definitely a dealbreaker for many. It, like Stephenie Meyers' 'imprinting' also turns out to be the sort of instalove that removes agency from the characters, which is another problematic element for some readers. In Richards' defense, she threw a hella-great twist into the mix of that plotline: even with the clues she dropped, I only saw HALF of it coming. 

LONG STORY SHORT: WILL YOU LIKE IT? IT DEPENDS.

WHAT DID I THINK? Aside from a few issues—I found it bothersome that Natalie kept going on and on about how a Darkling killed her father, when she KNEW VERY WELL that that wasn't the entire story, because, you know, SHE WITNESSED THE WHOLE THING GO DOWN; the pacing got bogged down in the middle with all the 'DOES HE LIKE ME?' 'OH GOD SHE LOOKED AT ME AND I'D BE BLUSHING IF I COULD BLUSH' 'LET'S MAKE OUT' 'OH GOD WE JUST MADE OUT' 'IS OUR LOVE WORTH THE RISK?' and so on; there was some of that 'HE'S SO DANGEROUS BUT I LOVE HIM' that skeeves me out; the ex-boyfriend is such a complete d-bag that he comes off as a moustache-twirler—I approved of the plentiful gore and the creative vampire mythos (multiple species, various cultural traditions).

I'll be reading Phoenix to see where it all goes.

____________________________

Author page.

____________________________

Amazon.

Publisher.

____________________________

Book source: Finished copy from the publisher.

Book: Itch: The Explosive Adventures of an Element Hunter
Author: Simon Mayo (@SimonMayo)
Pages: 432
Age Range: 12 and up

Itch is a young adult thriller featuring an unusual hero. Itchingham Lofte (aka Itch) is a total science geek. His passion is collecting elements from the periodic table. When a fellow collector shares a very unusual rock with Itch, Itch soon finds himself, and his family, in grave danger.

Itch is in many ways a classic YA thriller. There are chases. There are over-the-top bad guys. There is a need for the hero to be brave. But there is also science. Instead of using conventional weapons, Itch turns to the elements when he's in a tight corner. He gets excited about watching a sample analyzed in a lab. He burns off his eyebrows in the first chapter, in a mishap with phosphorus. His sister Chloe and best friend/cousin Jack (short for Jacqueline) are more regular (and more mainstream popular) than Itch, but the hero's journey here belongs to the science geek. 

Itch, written by an English radio presenter, is set mostly in Cornwall. There's definitely a British feel to the book. Take this little exchange, from Chapter 1:

""Hello, Itchingham," said his mother. "Still no eyebrows, then."

There should be a law against parents using sarcasm, thought Itch as he poured his cereal." (Page 13)

I don't know about you, but I hear Itch's Mom with an English accent there. 

In addition to the details about the elements, there is quite a bit of information included in Itch about copper mining. And, just to keep things interesting, a bit about surfing. Who knew that surfing was a major pastime in Cornwall? Not me. But all of this is quite refreshing, together making Itch stand out from the pack. 

I did find the start of the book a bit slow, but the action picks up after a bit, and the end of the book is both fast-paced and high-stakes. Not realistic, perhaps, but definitely high-stakes. 

A sequel will be published in 2014. As Mayo left a couple of threads cunningly unresolved, I (and many others) will be waiting eagerly to find out what's next for Itch. With its green and black cover and blurb from Anthony Horowitz, Itch's target teen boy demographic is fairly clear. But I think that anyone who enjoys thrillers with teen protagonists could appreciate Itch. And I think that teachers and librarians will be happy to see a book that not only doesn't avoid but actually embraces science. Not science fiction, not high tech, but pure science. Rather refreshing that (despite the arsine gas accident and associated vomiting). Itch is well worth a look. 

Publisher: Splinter (@SterlingKids)
Publication Date: April 2, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

...I wrote about M.M. Vaughan's The Ability, which wasn't a perfect match for me, but will very likely please younger fans of Roald Dahl.

In Out of the Easy, Ruta Sepetys had me at hello. It begins:

My mother's a prostitute. Not the filthy, streetwalking kind. She's actually quite pretty, fairly well spoken, and has lovely clothes. But she sleeps with men for money or gifts, and according to the dictionary, that makes her a prostitute.

Seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine doesn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps. She's known that for years, and even though she still works at the same brothel as her mother—cleaning rooms, mind you—and even though she's on good terms with Willie Woodley, the woman who owns it, she's independent enough that she's kept her own apartment since she was eleven years old.

She works part-time at the bookstore below it, and she dreams of going to college. But when Josie dreams, she dreams big: she wants out of New Orleans, to start over somewhere up North, somewhere where she can reinvent herself—where no one knows who she is or what her mother does.

LOVE: THE DIALOGUE. Out of the Easy is set in 1950, and Sepetys' characters sling slang without sounding phony or overblown, and the dialogue zings back-and-forth like in an old movie. The characters speak in distinctive voices, and unlike in Strands of Bronze and Gold, those differences in vocabulary, rhythm, and diction are affected by economic class, vocation, and education, rather than being purely dictated by the color of one's skin.

LOVE: JOSIE. Her narration has a touch of the noir hero: deadpan, world-weary, and with an understanding of ironic humor. Unlike a noir hero, though, she is open about being emotionally affected by... things that are emotionally affecting. She's smart, she's canny, and rather than blushing and wanting to melt into the ground in embarrassing situations, she treats them as opportunities—I cheered out loud when she turned one around by becoming an impromptu blackmailer, and I swooned during another when she threw herself into a cute boy's lap to save herself (and him, to a degree) from some catty mean girls. 

LOVE: HER MOTHER. Well, no, actually, I loathed her mother. But I loved that she wasn't the Pretty-Woman-hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold, I loved that she wasn't secretly sympathetic, or selfless or particularly smart. She was completely self-absorbed, and while her behavior makes her come off as rotten and somewhat stupid, it's important to remember who's telling the story: Josie isn't exactly an objective party. The other women who work for Willie are a mixed bag of funny/serious/witty/quiet/ruthless/rude/mothering/mean/sensitive and everything in between, and it's easy to imagine that if another person had told the story, Louise would have come off as more human. Maybe. Then again, SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST TERRIBLE.

LOVE: THE BOOKS. Josie works in a bookstore, and she and her best friend Patrick have an ongoing game where they predict what sort of book customers will want. There are references to Dickens and Keats, Capote and even L'Engle. And, tangentially, Poe: Josie ends up with a dead man's watch—THAT'S RIGHT, ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE, SHE INVESTIGATES A MURDER—under her floorboards, and she swears she can hear it ticking, ticking, ticking. Which, of course, evokes The Tell-Tale Heart.

LOVE: EVERYTHING ELSE. Sepetys is true to the era and her characters in how Patrick's story plays out; the romance is sweet and heartfelt; the details about 1950s life and culture work themselves in fluidly; Josie wants what she wants so badly that I was never quite sure about how far she'd go to get it; and while the ending certainly has some fairy-tale elements, there's enough bitter in the sweet to keep cynics (like me) from getting all up on their high horses.

Oh, I loved this book. As it's got the same combination of fantastically-rendered historical atmosphere—the dialogue is TO DIE FOR—and mystery elements, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it to fans of Judy Blundell's What I Saw and How I Lied.

____________________________

Author page.

____________________________

Amazon.

Publisher.

____________________________

Book source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book: Splish, Splash, Splosh!
Author: David Melling (@DavidMelling1)
Pages: 22
Age Range: 2-5 

Splish, Splash, Splosh! by David Melling is a medium-sized board book with padded cover (part of a series from Tiger Tales Books). It's an appealing counting book featuring Splosh the duck (a character first introduced in a book published in the UK) and his nine duck friends. 

The text is bouncy and read-aloud-able, with rhymes for each pair of numbers. Like this (across two page spreads):

"ONE fluffy duck goes waddling
one day.

TWO fluffy ducks have found
a place to play! 

It's a fun book to read aloud. But it's Melling's illustrations that will delight toddlers. We see Splosh in an inner tube, hesitating to jump in to the pool. We see the other ducks, in swim caps, goggles, and even flippers bouncing around, bumping into one another. We see Splosh balanced in his inner tube, which hangs from a tree (after a diving board mishap), and a clearly irritated bird poking a hole in said inner tube.

The illustrations are just the right mix of silly and simple. There's a plain white background, and little texture to the illustrations. Melling's focus is all on the ducks, their swim paraphernalia, and the pool. And, on the last page, water splashing everywhere.

Splish, Splash, Splosh! would be a great bathtime book for two-year-olds, or just a fun counting book for slightly older preschoolers. The padded cover and brightly colored letters in the title will catch the eye of young children, who sense immediately that this is a book for them. The sturdy construction, not to mention the quiet humor, will appeal to parents and librarians. 

Publisher: Tiger Tales Books (@TigerTalesBooks)
Publication Date: March 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey (@RickYancey)
Pages: 480
Age Range: 13 and up 

I enjoyed Rick Yancey's Alfred Kropp books (see reviews here and here), but somehow never made it through the first Monstrumologist book. Still, when I started seeing rave reviews of The 5th Wave, I simply had to read it. I purchased it on Kindle on publication day, and read it within 36 hours. In case this isn't already obvious from the huge marketing push, The 5th Wave is going to be big. I predict a movie, or movies (there are two other books planned). 

But let's talk about the book. The Fifth Wave is set in a near-term post-apocalyptic world in which aliens have decimated most of the world's population. The devastation occurred in waves. In the first wave, an electromagnetic pulse took out electricity, engines, computers, etc. The second wave toppled the population centers on the coasts. The third wave sent a deadly plague throughout the world, killing 3.5 billion people.

But the fourth wave is the one that shakes 16-year-old survivor Cassie to the core. Because the fourth wave reveals that the aliens can look just like humans. Which means that she can't true anyone. Well, except for her five year old brother, Sammy. But Sammy has been taken away from her, and it's up to Cassie to find him.

To say that The 5th Wave is suspenseful is an understatement. The narration shifts (via sections of the book) between Cassie and three other characters. This allows Yancey to ratchet up the suspense via the traditional cliffhangers, as well as through conflicting information. The 5th Wave is a book that readers will puzzle over, asking questions like "How can that be true?" and "But why would they do that?" and so on. It is certainly a book that readers will think about whenever they put it down. If they can put it down. 

Although the primary action reaches a resolution at the end of The 5th Wave, I was left with questions. It seems like these may or may not be resolved in the remaining books, but I can't share them here without risk of spoilers. I also felt that the choice to include narration from 5-year-old Sammy's point of view wasn't completely successful, even though it wasn't written in the first person. I understood why this was necessary (to convey certain information to the reader), but it's not easy to make narration as seen by a five-year-old feel authentic in a YA novel. Still, this was only a brief section of the book.

Cassie's voice, in the other hand, totally worked. And having the chance to see Cassie via the viewpoint of other characters clarified her image for the reader. She is delightfully sarcastic. While she doesn't really see her own bravery, she is otherwise insightful (if not always polished in her language). Like this:

"That's the hard part, the part that, if I thought about it too much, would make me crawl into my sleeping bag, zip myself up, and die of slow starvation. If you can't trust anyone, then you can trust no one. Better to take the chance that Aunt Tilly is one of them than play the odds that you've stumbled across a fellow survivor. That's figgin' diabolical." (Page 9)

"The unofficial boss of the camp was a retired marine named Hutchfield. He was a human LEGO person: square hands, square head, square jaw. Wore the same muscle tee every day, stained with something that might have been blood, though his black books always sported a mirror finish." (Page 58)

"We told the stories of our lives before the Arrival. We cried openly over the ones we had lost. We wept secretly for our smartphones, our cars, our microwave ovens, and the Internet." (Page 61)

I've always thought that I would really miss the Internet if there was an apocalypse. This sounds shallow, perhaps. But there's something about constant access to any sort of information that you might need that is very comforting. Now that we're used to that, I think it would be very hard to let go of. I was pleased to see Yancey touch on that. He also (and this is something one rarely sees mentioned in post-apocalyptic stories) addresses Cassie's worry about her dwindling tampon supply. Extra points for this realism coming from a male author. 

I found Yancey's post-apocalyptic world to be a bit harsher in the details than some, though the world-building is also pushed to the background a bit relative to the action. You mostly just get occasional snippets like this:

"You know how you can tell when you're getting close to one? The smell. You can smell a town from miles away." (Page 39)

There are also some grim scenes involving the use of children to dispose of bodies. Although there isn't a lot of language, and only a fairly tame romance thread, I think that these scenes make The 5th Wave more of a high school book than a middle school book. There are, as you might expect in a post-apocalyptic book about an alien invasion, plenty of guns and other weapons. 

Fans of post-apocalyptic novels will not want to miss The 5th Wave. It's a book that will make readers think, both in a "what's going on?" sense and in a larger "what is it that makes us human?" sense. It could be an interesting book for discussion with teen readers, with some parallels to the Holocaust, and the open questions that I wondered about after finishing the book. My only complaint is that I wish I had waited to read this after the second and third books were published, so that I could have immersed myself even more fully in Yancey's post-Arrival world.

Highly recommended for teen and adult readers.  

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (@PenguinKids)
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Source of Book: Purchased on Kindle

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Author: Cat Winters
Pages: 400
Age Range: 13 and up 

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters is detailed, atmospheric historical fiction involving a ghost. In October of 1918, Mary Shelley Black is forced to travel from Oregon to her aunt's home in San Diego after her father is arrested for helping World War I draft dodgers. She faces the terror of the Spanish Flu epidemic, and is soon enmeshed in the local craze for spirit photography (in which photographers claim to be able to photograph ghosts). Mary Shelley is largely skeptical. However, when her soldier boyfriend Stephen is killed, she learns that ghosts do exist.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds has it all: a richly detailed historical setting; suspense; complex characters; and a puzzling mystery. It's not an upbeat book - the dark cover image picture above is representative of the overall mood of the story. But then, it wasn't an upbeat time. 

My favorite thing about this book was the way that Winters layered in the historical context. Everything feels organic to the story, and it's impossible to ever forget exactly what time period you are reading about. People are wearing face masks all the time, to guard against the flu. The eat onions and garlic (believing these to be protective), and cast sharp glances at anyone who utters a single cough. Anti-German sentiment runs so strong that people have burned any books or music they might have of even remotely German origin. And, in a time of epic loss of loved ones, between the flu and the war, Spiritualism runs rampant. Occasional black and white photographs included in the book add to the depth of the historical context.

Mary Shelley is a strong character. She is intellectual at a time when women aren't supposed to be interested in learning. She is loyal to what her aunt considers to be a fault. She worries about her fate, but avoids being bitter. She craves books, when her family's books have all been burned. She's even brave enough, in the middle of a flu epidemic, to volunteer at a home for wounded soldiers. 

Here's a snippet of the text, to give you a feel for Mary Shelley's voice:

"While my bathwater roared through the downstairs pipes, I wandered around my new room with the compass, checking to see whether the walls behind the gilded paper contained any metal strong enough to move the needle. And for a short while, the lure or scientific discovery blotted out the sea of masked faces on the train ride south, the purplish-black feet rattling the back of that cart, my father getting punched in the gut in front of my eyes, and the first boy I'd ever loved fighting for his life in a trench in France." (Page 25)

The plot regarding Stephen's ghost is decidedly creepy, and not for the faint of heart. But people who enjoy chilling ghost stories will not want to miss it.

The flu details (ambulances racing away with neighbors, caskets piling up outside funeral homes) actually reminded me of more modern apocalypse novels, in which broad swaths of the population succumb to plagues. And because In the Shadow of Blackbirds is based on actual events, it's in some ways more scary (making one wonder would happen, and how people would respond, if a drug-resistant virus came around today). 

In the Shadow of Blackbirds is dark in tone, and complex in plotting and structure. But for those readers willing to invest the time, it is both rewarding and illuminating. It's a book that made me very happy NOT to be living in 1918. It's also a book that I won't soon forget. Highly recommended for teens, and anyone who enjoys historical fiction or ghost stories. 

Publisher: Amulet Books (@AbramsKids)
Publication Date: April 2, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Monday is a great day to say thanks and report nice news... THAT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! is spending it's 2nd week on the New York Times Bestseller list at #5 and the Indie Bestseller list at #6! Here's a nice review of THAT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! in Bookpage. I'm excited to report that GOLDILOCKS & THE THREE DINOSAURS is a finalist for a Kentucky Bluegrass Award, which will be voted on by kids

Summary:
Temporary. That one single word best describes my life these last few years. I'm working at a temporary job until I can finally break free. I'm my little brother's temporary mother since our mom doesn't give a crap about either of us. And I'm the temporary girl all the guys want to get with because I give it up so easily. According to the rumors, at least. But now I'm the temporary girlfriend of Drew Callahan, college football legend and all around golden guy. He's beautiful, sweet, and he's hiding way more secrets than I am. He's brought me into this fake life where everyone seems to hate me. And everyone seems to want something from him. The only thing he seems to want though is Me. I don't know what to believe anymore. All I know is, I think Drew needs me. And I want to be there for him. Forever.

My thoughts:
I'm on a New Adult kick lately and at $.99 on Kindle, I couldn't pass this one up. I'd heard really great things about it, and I wasn't disappointed. Fable is a girl with a reputation, though the rumors aren't exactly true. I really liked her right from the start. And Drew is broken in so many ways. While I quickly figured out one of the ways, another threw me for a loop—in a good way. It added the perfect amount of conflict and set up book two. The dynamic between Fable and Drew is incredible. Drew asks Fable to pretend to be his girlfriend for a week, while he goes home for Thanksgiving. Fable doesn't know Drew's motive, but since he pays her a lot of money, she doesn't really care. 

At first, Drew and Fable are faking their feelings for each other for the benefit of Drew's family. But very quickly, the feelings become real, and they are both fighting against them. Warning for those who don't like explicit sex scenes: Murphy tells all in this book. If you blush easily, this may not be the book for you. That aside, the romance is great. I'll definitely be checking out the next book in the Drew and Fable series, Second Chance Boyfriend.

Just for fun: Would you—or have you ever—pretend(ed) to be in a relationship with someone?

Book: Night Light
Author: Nicholas Blechman (@NBlechman)
Pages: 48
Age Range: 3-5 

Nicholas Blechman's Night Light is a counting book that makes practical use of die-cut technology to increase interactivity. Night Light uses transportation-themed examples, which also makes it particularly preschool boy-friendly. Alternating page spreads contain only a number, a question, and some number of die-cut openings, against a black background. Like this:

"1 LIGHT,
SHINING BRIGHT?"

up to

"10 LIGHTS,
FUELING FOR
A FLIGHT?" 

The location of the die cut openings on the right-hand page and the color shown through each hole are hints as to what lies on the next page. In the first example, a fairly large, white circle resolves, when the page is turned, into the light on the front of a"TRAIN". The die cut opening is cleverly repurposed on the now left-hand side of the page into a tunnel opening from which the train has just emerged.

I think that preschoolers will have fun guessing what lies on the next page, as they look at the question pages (though most will be pretty tricky to guess the first time around). They'll also enjoy figuring out what Blechman has mapped to the die cut holes on the solution pages. As an adult reader, I was quite impressed with the artist's use of space and proportions to line these openings up correctly in two different pictures, one a mirror image of the other. For example, the holes that show three lights on a taxi cab end up corresponding to the mouths of three people hailing the taxi. 

I also liked the professional graphic arts feel of Blechman's digitally created illustrations. He uses a slightly muted color palette, and demonstrates a pleasing use of symmetry in most of the illustrations.  

Night Light offers kids several opportunities to count up to each number. First they can count the die cut holes on the black pages. Then they can count the lights on the transportation item revealed when each page is turned. And then they can look to their left and count the back sides of the die-cut holes. It's educational without feeling educational.

The last page goes back to number 1, with a cozy night-light, and shows all of the items from the other pages as toys in a boy's room (while he reads Night Light in bed). This is only misleading in that I don't see Night Light as a quiet bedtime book. I see it as a book that preschoolers will read more actively, first with parents, and later alone, as they practice identifying the vehicles, and counting up lights. It would make a great addition to any preschool classroom library, or the perfect birthday gift for a three or four year old. Recommended.  

Publisher: Orchard Books (@Scholastic) 
Publication Date: April 30, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: Starring Jules (As Herself)
Author: Beth Ain
Illustrator: Anne Keenan Higgins
Pages: 160
Age Range: 7-10 

Starring Jules (As Herself) is the first book in a new early chapter book series by Beth Ain. I've been hearing good things about this series, and after reading the first book, I think that Jules is going to join the ranks of Clementine and Ivy and Bean as early chapter book staples.   

As you can see on the cover image, seven-year-old Jules is full of joy. As the book begins, she sings a jingle about fizzy ice cream to her family in a cafe, catching the attention of a casting director for a mouthwash commercial. After that, realistic and over-the-top worries about her audition mix with friendship dynamics, as we spend a week in the life of Jules. 

Jules makes witty lists. She rails against the former best friend who has become too interested in sparkly, girly things. She loves turquoise. She defends her four-year-old brother (and does n-o-t call him by vegetable names, like some protagonists we know). She has a mother who is an artist, and a father who is a chef. While I don't find her quite as authentic as Clementine, she's more dramatic, and I think that kids who pride themselves in not being mainstream will particularly enjoy her. 

Here are a couple of examples of Jules' voice:

"To me, Teddy is kind of like a bouncing Super Ball. The kind that bounces so high and crazy you have to cover your head once you've let it go just so it doesn't hit you when you aren't looking. Right now, the bouncing ball is coming right for Charlotte, and Teddy bumps right into her as he comes to a stop." (Take Two)

"Both my parents talk about palates a lot, but when my dad says it, he means taste buds, and when my mom says it, she means colors. Sometimes, wonder if they know they are not talking about the same thing." (Take Three)

Fun, yes? 

The advanced  copy that I read of Starring Jules (As Herself) didn't have most of the illustrations yet in place. But if the picture on page 3 of Jules and her little brother, Big Henry, blowing bubbles in their milk is any indication, the illustrations will be as lively and vivacious as the cover image (though the interior art is not in color). Jules' quirky sense of style comes across (striped leggings, sneakers, a short skirt, and a polka-dotted shirt), as does her apparent need for constant movement. I look forward to seeing the final version, with all of the pictures. 

From talking with parents of voracious new readers, I have the impression that there is a boundless need for early chapter books with strong characters and relatable adventures. Starring Jules (As Herself) will be a welcome addition to the genre, with a likable, energetic heroine. Kids who enjoy school plays, and are enraptured by the idea of being on television, will be particularly pleased with Jules. The second book in the series, Starring Jules (in Drama-Rama) will be out in late August, just in time for the new school year.  

Publisher: Scholastic (@Scholastic) 
Publication Date: March 1, 2013
Source of Book: Advance review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More!: Poems for Two Voices
Author: Carole Gerber
Illustrator: Eugene Yelchin
Pages: 32
Age Range: 4-8 

Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More!: Poems for Two Voices is a picture book designed to be read aloud by two people, alternating portions of each poem. Written by Carole Gerber and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin (Breaking Stalin's Nose), Seeds, Bees seems tailor-made for classroom use. It gives kids the chance to perform poetry out loud, in pairs, while also containing quite a bit of informational content about plants and insects. 

Each poem is told from the perspective of two plants or creatures, using different colored text for each part. Lines meant to be read by both participants use both colors, switching letter by letter, including the titles. Indentation is also used to make it clear which lines belong to which reader. 

There is often a bit of humor incorporated into the poems. For instance, a new green shoot asks a bunny to stop blocking its sunlight, and the bunny says "Relax. That doesn't matter. / You'll be gone in just one bite." Two plants lament the feel of snails leaving "icky, sticky trails." I do think that this humor will work well for kids reading the poems aloud in class. 

The nature of the informational content necessitates the occasional use of relatively difficult vocabulary words, though Gerber clearly tries to keep this to a minimum. But we still get stanzas like this:

"We'll gather all their nectar
and also pollinate,
with little tongues and little feet.
            Want me to demonstrate?" 

(the last line is recited by the second person).  

Yelchin's graphite and gouache illustrations are a riot of colors and textures. He often repeats a key texture from the plant or creature of interest as part of the background. So, for example, the texture of the sky reflects back the pattern of the bunny's fur. His insects and flowers tend to be large-scale on each page, really bringing the subject matter to life. 

In truth, information poetry isn't really my personal cup of tea. But I think that Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More! could be very useful in first through third grade classrooms, due to its combination of perform-ability, bright, realistic illustrations, and informational content. Many kids are fascinated by plants and bugs, making Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More! a great companion book for units on nature, gardening, spring, etc. This would be a good choice to gift to your child's classroom, or for library purchase. 

Publisher: Henry Holt (@MacKidsBooks)
Publication Date: February 5, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the author

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Cowboy Up!: Ride the Navajo Rodeo
By Nancy Bo Flood
Photography by Jan Sonnenmair
Wordsong (an imprint of Highlights)
$17.95
ISBN: 978-1-59078-893-6
Ages 8-12
On shelves now

Sometimes I think half my job simply consists of making lists. Not that I’m complaining. I love lists. I love making them, and checking them, and adding to them. Lists let the organizational part of my frontal lobe feel needed and wanted. Still, once in a while you get stuck on a list and it’s hard to move. For example, just the other day I was asked to come up with a list for Kindergartners of books that talk about Native American tribes. Some of the books, I was told, would also have to talk about American Indians living today. Now I don’t know anything about you. I don’t know if reading this review you’re a teacher or a librarian or an interested parent or my mom. Whosoever you might be, you are still probably very aware that asking for nonfiction titles for very young children on Native Americans is akin to asking for the moon and the stars above. Half the stuff on library and bookstore shelves is woefully out-of-date and offensive while the other half is written for kids ten-years-old and up. The pickings for small fry are slim. Enter Cowboy Up! Ride the Navajo Rodeo. The rare book that is both poetry and fact, with content for both big and little, here we have a title that finally fills that gap. Best of all, you don’t have to be looking for school or specialty fare to enjoy this one. Like wild bucking stallions and bulls that could impale you without so much as a snort? Welcome to the world of Navajo rodeo.

“Can’t sleep. Can’t eat. Mind keeps figuring, figuring, figuring – how tight to hold, how far to lean, how hard to squeeze to stay on top.” That’s just a sample of the thoughts going through a person’s head before the Navajo rodeo. Though it has its roots in places like Arizona and Texas, rodeos can be found all over the Navajo Nation and are family affairs. Setting her book during the course of a single rodeo day, author Nancy Bo Flood plunges readers into what might be an unknown world. We see children near bucked from woolly riders (sheep), adults flung from broncos, women who sweep the barrel racer events, steer wrestlers, and, best of all, bareback bull riders. Saturating her text with facts, background information, and tons of photographs, this is one title that will prove tempting to kids already familiar with the rodeo world and those approaching it for the very first time.

It’s a challenge facing any work of standard nonfiction for kids: How do you prefer to present your material? In this particular case, Ms. Flood has a wealth of information at her fingertips regarding the Navajo rodeo circuit. Trouble is, you can fill your book to brimming with the brightest and shiniest photos that money can buy, but if you’ve long blocks of nonfiction text you might lose your readership before you’ve even begun. Now in this book Ms. Flood presents her material over the course of a single rodeo day. It’s a good format for what she has to say, but the downside is that there are sections at the beginning that aren’t all that thrilling. If kids are coming to this book to see some high-flying riders, they’ll have to first wade through explanations about the announcer and the arena. That’s where the poetry comes in. Sure, there are big blocks of explanatory text before the action begins, but Flood tempers each two-page spread with not just photos and explanations but also poems. The advantage then is that younger children can read the poems while older ones get something out of the nonfiction sections. Win win!

It sounds strange to say but in many ways the book that to me feels the closest to the format of Cowboy Up! is Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz. Both books find that the best way to get kids to swallow a spoonful of nonfiction is with a bit of first person narration. With that in mind, the poems in Cowboy Up! offer great promise. Each one is written in the first person and could easily be considered short monologues. The small child auditioning or the teacher who wants to do a theatrical presentation with readily available material would do well to take these poems and use them freely. Now granted, the poetry can be touch-and-go at times. I’ve a friend who personally cannot stand free verse in children’s books because to her it just looks like the author took a paragraph and broke it up into arbitrary lines. I happen to like free verse, insofar as I like any poetry, but I admit that the ones found here varied widely in terms of quality on a case-by-case basis.

Much like the poetry, the photography in this book can vary. Some of the shots (created by photographer Jan Sonnenmair) are brilliant. I’m quite fond of the image on the jacket as well as shots of riders mid-air (one hand waving freely about their heads), the portraits (love those endpapers, though the decision to flips the images was a poor one when you consider library processing techniques), and even one of a rainbow rising behind the honor guard. On the other hand, there are times when it feels as though the book ran out of the good photographs and had to rely on some of the lesser variety. For example, there’s a shot of an announcer that looks like it appears twice in two pages, only flipped. This is a rare occurrence, but it happens early enough in the book that a reader could be forgiven for wondering if more duplication is bound to happen.

When I think of books that talk about contemporary Native Americans today, the pickings for kids are slim. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian isn’t exactly meant for the 12 and under crowd. Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky is pretty good, if a bit poetic (this might have something to do with the fact that it’s a book of poetry). And the book Native Americans: A Visual Exploration by S.N. Paleja covers a lot of ground, but only in brief. No, the whole reason Cowboy Up! even works is because it’s not trying to be about anything but how particularly cool this kind of rodeo is. This is Navajo life in the 21st century. So forget depressing texts that cover the past with all the interest of a phone book. Flood and Sonnenmair have culled together a look at the just-as-interesting present, and given it a format that will stand it in good stead. Cowboys and cowboys-to-be everywhere, stand up and rejoice. Your rodeo is here.

On shelves now.

Source: Final copy sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

• Bill Pickett: Rodeo-Ridin’ Cowboy by Andrea Davis Pinkney, ill. Brian Pinkney

• Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz, ill. Robert Byrd

• Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School. Edited by Timothy P. McLaughlin. Illustrated by S. D. Nelson.

• Bull Rider by Suzanne Williams

• The Cowgirl Way: Hats Off to America’s Women of the West by Holly George-Warren

Professional Reviews: Kirkus

Interviews: ReaderKidz

Misc:

• A lesson hard learned.  When searching for this book on any online site, I advise you to search via the ISBN 978-1-59078-893-6 rather than typing in the words “Cowboy Up”. Let’s just say that the bulk of titles you’ll find with the same title are a bit . . . ah . . . saucy.

• Download a free activity guide here.

Book: The Originals
Author: Cat Patrick (@seecatwrite)
Pages: 304
Age Range: 12 and up 

The Originals is a young adult novel about three identical-looking girls forced to live a single life. One of them goes to school in the morning, another in the afternoon, and the third goes out in the evenings. Whenever one of them is out of the house, the other two have to remain hidden at home. No one can suspect that Elizabeth Best is actually the combined front for Lizzie, Betsey, and Ella. Their mother has her reasons for making them live like this, they believe. But as the girls approach their 17th birthday, two of them fall for different boys at school, and their carefully constructed existence begins to crumble. 

I found this an intriguing, if not entirely plausible, premise. Like Lizzie's boyfriend, Sean, I didn't fully understand why the girls would put up with living such an odd, segmented life. But Patrick sprinkled in enough suspense regarding the mother's secrets, another look-alike in a different city, and possible enemies tracking the girls down, to keep me up late reading. 

In truth, much of The Originals reads more like a young adult romance than the speculative fiction / suspense suggested by the premise. This is not a bad thing. I liked Lizzie and Sean's relationship - particularly a chapter in which they just spend the afternoon at his house. She meets his mother. They take pictures of each other. He loans her socks. It's all very ordinary and sweet. But it's definitely a contrast to the girls' normally bizarre and stressful situation. 

Lizzie is a strong character. Her situation magnifies typical teen self-reflection. She isn't always sure who she is, except in relation to her sisters. She bubbles over with anger sometimes, but has a delightfully snarky humor, too. Like this:

"And I hate chicken," I add, which is among the most untrue statements ever uttered. But I'm still mad at her, and I'm boycotting chicken to prove it. Or at least I'm telling her I am; you never know what'll happen when dinnertime rolls around." (Chapter Eight)

Patrick does a good job of giving the three girls distinct personalities, despite their outward similarities. Their interactions with one another come across as surprisingly realistic (given, you know, the not so everyday setup). Lizzie's relationship with Sean is a little ... rose-colored, but nice to see. 

The Originals is an enjoyable romp, with an unusual premise, and an interesting perspective on a teen's developing sense of self. It's a bit of a romance / speculative fiction hybrid, falling on the tamer end of the spectrum relative to books like Altered, Yesterday, or Beta. I think it could be a bridge book for younger teens, preparing them for some of these other books. There's no sex or violence in the Originals (only some kissing, a not-particularly-scary kidnapping, and some sneaking around behind the mother's back). Which, now that I think about it, is kind of refreshing. The Originals is well worth a look. 

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (@LBKids)
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Source of Book: Advance review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: Windblown
Author: Edouard Manceau
Pages: 32
Age Range: 3-7 

Windblown by Edouard Manceua is a concept book, part book about shapes, part book about animals, and part cumulative text. Several tiny scraps of paper are blown, one by one, onto the early pages of the book (as shown on the cover). Then a chicken declares ownership of the scraps, which are magically assembled to form a chicken's head.

"They're mine!" said the chicken.
"I saw them lying around!"

A fish takes exception to this, having cut the paper into pieces before the chicken saw them lying around. The pieces are used to form a fish in the picture. Then a bird claims to have made the paper, and so on. Each animal goes further back into the process of creating paper, even as the illustrations show the same shapes used to render the different animals.

Some of the illustrations work better than others, but it's a nice trick that the same seven shapes can be used to draw several different creatures. At the end of the book, the author suggests that the reader use the shapes to do something else. 

Both text and pictures are quite minimalist in Windblown, making it rather remarkable that the author is able to do so much with so little. We have counting, shapes, animals, and (in a very simplified fashion) the process by which paper is made. All in a book in which all of the illustrations are made with only minor additions to the seven basic shapes (most of which are circles). 

Windblown is a book that could work for very young children, who just like to look at the shapes. But I think that the primary audience is probably kids who are learning how to draw. You could use it as a predecessor to books that more directly given drawing instruction. I can also imagine tracing the shapes and cutting out copies, so that my child could move them around herself. (Librarians beware - I can also imagine kids let loose with scissors just cutting the shapes right out of the book.) 

For those looking for something a bit different, with a modern art sort of flavor in picture book form, Windblown is well worth a look. Recommended for home and for preschool use. 

Publisher: Owlkids Books (@OwlKids)
Publication Date: April 9, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Reader Gut Reaction: Kirby Larson is a familiar face to many of us old-school bloggers, since she's been to many a Kidlitcon and SCBWI conference. Her first book about Hattie Brooks, Hattie Ever After, introduced us to a (dare I use this hackneyed... Read the rest of this post

A Girl Called Problem
By Katie Quirk
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
$8.00
ISBN: 97800-8028-5404-9
Ages 9-12
On shelves now.

Who says that mystery novels for kids all have to include the same tropes and settings? I tell you, half the time when a kid comes up to a reference desk asking for a mystery they think what they want is the standard white kids in suburbia model perfected by Encyclopedia Brown and his ilk. They’re wrong. What they really want is great writing and a good mystery with a twist they don’t see coming. So I will hereby give grand kudos and heaping helpfuls of praise to the librarian/bookseller/parent who hears a kid ask for a mystery and hands them Katie Quirk’s A Girl Called Problem. This book is a trifecta of publishing rarities. A historical novel that is also a mystery set in a foreign country that just happens to be Tanzania. Trust me when I say your shelves aren’t exactly filled to brimming with such books. Would that they were, or at the very least, would that you had as many good books as this one. Smart commentary, an honestly interesting storyline, and sharp writing from start to finish, Quirk quickly establishes herself as one author to watch.

The thing about Shida is that in spite of her name (in Swahili it would be “problem”) you just can’t get her down. Sure, her mom is considered a witch, and every day she seems to make Shida’s life harder rather than easier. Still, Shida’s got dreams. She hopes to someday train to be a healer in her village of Litongo, and maybe even a village nurse. In light of all this, when the opportunity arises for all of Litongo to pick up and move to a new location, Shida’s on board with the plan. In Nija Panda she would be able to go to school and maybe even learn medicine firsthand. Her fellow villagers are wary but game. They seem to have more to gain than to lose from such a move. However, that’s before things start to go terribly wrong. Escaped cattle. Disease. Even death seems to await them in Nija Panda. Is the village truly cursed, just unlucky, or is there someone causing all these troubles? Someone who doesn’t want the people of Litongo there. Someone who will do anything at all to turn them back. It’s certainly possible and it’s up to Shida to figure out who the culprit might be.

The trouble with being an adult and reading a children’s work of mystery fiction is that too often the answer feels like it’s too obvious. Fortunately for me, I’m terrible at mysteries. I’ll swallow every last red herring and every false clue used by the author to lead me astray. So while at first it seems perfectly obvious who the bad guys would be, I confess that when the switcheroo took place I didn’t see it coming. It made perfect sense, of course, but I was as blindsided as our plucky heroine. I figure if I honestly as a 35-year-old adult can’t figure out the good guys from the bad in a book for kids, at least a significant chunk of child readers will be in the same boat.

Now I’ve a pet peeve regarding books set in Africa, particularly historical Africa, and I was keen to see whether or not Ms. Quirk would indulge it. You see, the story of a girl in a historical setting who wants to be a healer but can’t because of her gender is not a particularly new trope. We’ve seen it before, to a certain extent. What chaps my hide is when the author starts implying that tribal medicines and healing techniques are superstitious and outdated while modern medicine is significantly superior. Usually the heroine will fight against society’s prejudices, something will happen late in the game, and the villagers will see that she was right all along and that she’ll soon be able to use Western medicine to cure all ills. There’s something particularly galling about storylines of this sort, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that Quirk was not going to fall into that more than vaguely insulting mindset. Here is an author unafraid to pay some respect to the religion of the villagers. It never dismisses curses but acknowledges them alongside standard diseases. Example: “Though Shida was certain Furaha should take medicine for malaria, she was equally certain she should guard the spirit house that night. Parasites were responsible for some sicknesses and curses for others, and in this case, they needed to protect against both.”

Quirk is also quite adept at using the middle grade chapter book format to tackle some pretty complex issues. To an adult reading this book it might be clear that Shida’s mother suffers from a severe form of depression. There’s no way the village would be prepared to handle this diagnosis, and Shida herself just grows angry with the woman who stays inside all the time. You could get a very interesting book discussion going with child readers about whether or not Shida should really blame her mother as vehemently as she does. On the one hand, you can see her point. On the other, her mother is clearly in pain. Similarly well done is the final discussion of witches. Quirk brings up a very sophisticated conversation wherein Shida comes to understand that accused witches are very often widows who must work to keep themselves alive and that, through these efforts, acquire supposedly witchy attributes. Quirk never hits you over the head with these thoughts. She just lets her heroine’s assumptions fall in the face of close and careful observation.

All this could be true, but without caring about the characters it wouldn’t be worth much. I think part of the reason I like the book as much as I do is that everyone has three dimensions (with the occasional rare exception). Even the revealed villain turns out to have a backstory that explains their impetus, though it doesn’t excuse their actions. As for Shida herself, she may be positive but she’s no Pollyanna. Depression hits her hard sometimes too, but through it all she uses her brain. Because she is able to apply what she learns in school to the real world, she’s capable of following the clues and tracking down the real culprit behind everyone’s troubles. Passive protagonists have no place in A Girl Called Problem. No place at all.

Finally, in an era of Common Core Standards I cannot help but notice how much a kid can learn about Tanzania from this book. Historical Tanzania at that! A Glossary at the back does a very good job of explaining everything from flamboyant trees to n’gombe to President Julius Nyerere’s plan for Tanzania. There are also photographs mixed into the Glossary that do a good job of giving a contemporary spin on a historical work.

Windows and mirrors. That’s the phrase used by children’s literature professionals to explain what we look for in books for kids. We want them to have books that reflect their own experiences and observations (mirrors) and we also want them to have books that reflect the experiences and observations of kids living in very different circumstances (windows). Mirror books can be a lot easier to recommend to kids than window books, but that just means you need to try harder. So next time a 9-12 year-old comes to you begging for a mystery, upset their expectations. Hand them A Girl Called Problem and bet them they won’t be able to guess the bad guy. In the process, you might just be able to introduce that kid to their latest favorite book.

On shelves now.

Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

• A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer

• A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

• Burn My Heart by Beverly Naidoo

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare

Notes on the Cover:  Now was that so hard?  We ask and we ask and we ask for brown faces on our middle grade fiction and still it feels like pulling teeth to get it done.  Eerdmans really blew this one out of the water, and it seems they spared no expense.  The book jacket is the brainchild of Richard Tuschman who you may know better as the man behind the cover of Claire Vanderpool’s Newbery Award winning Moon Over Manifest.  Beautiful.

Other Blog Reviews: Loganberryblog

Professional Reviews: A star from Kirkus

Misc:

• This is utterly fascinating.  In this post author Katie Quirk talks about the process that led to the current (and truly lovely) cover.

• And here’s the story behind the book itself.

• And Ms. Quirk shares what a typical day for Shida might look like in this video.

Book: Lenny Cyrus, School Virus
Author: Joe Schreiber
Illustrator: Matt Smith
Pages: 288
Age Range: 9 and up 

Lenny Cyrus, School Virus is a middle grade novel about a geeky middle school boy who figures out how to shrink himself down to the size of a virus. Instead of calling the news cameras, Lenny uses this scientific breakthrough to insert his miniaturized self into the body of Zooey, a girl he's had a crush on for five years.

The story is told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of Lenny, Zooey, and Lenny's best friend, Harlan. These alternating viewpoints are necessary, given that, you know, Lenny can't see what's going on outside of Zooey's body for much of the story. The voices of the three kids aren't incredibly diverse, but their situations are so different that I only once had trouble remembering who was narrating a given chapter (this was late in the book, where the chapters become quite brief as the action ramps up). 

Despite the characters being in middle school, Lenny Cyrus, School Virus feels like a middle grade novel. The plot is a fun ride, though it does require a certain suspension of belief. Lenny and Harlan are able to communicate by cell phone, for example, while Lenny is miniaturized to the size of a virus. The other viruses and cells and what-have-you inside of Zooey have faces and personalities and active social lives.

[Personally, the detail that I found most implausible was that Lenny's parents could be high school sweethearts, and both have IQs above 187. How could there be two super-geniuses like that in one high school? And if there were, how could they be normal enough to function and marry? But that is a quibble.]

There are crushes, and one ludicrous attempt at a kiss, but there's no serious dating or anything like that. There is bullying, but even that is rendered more in humorous than serious vein. (Remember that scene in A Christmas Story where Ralphie beats up the bully? Yeah. Like that.)

Schreiber's writing is witty, albeit with a scientific bent. I flagged quite a number of passages. Like:

""Are you crying?"

"What? No. No. I'm just ... sweating."

"From your eyes?"

I gazed at her, unable to speak. I was only eight years old, but I knew true beauty when I saw it. She had smooth hair that swung down past her shoulders and the kind of scratchy voice that made it sound like she'd just stopped laughing or was about to start again. Behind her glasses, her eyes were that mure methylene blue that you only see in perfectly balanced chemical solutions." (Page 4, Lenny)

And this:

"The moment they saw us--saw me--a predatory glint flashed through Mick's expression. Anybody who doubts that middle school is like a Discovery Channel documentary on natural selection just hasn't been paying attention." (Page 10, Lenny)

And finally (though I could go on):

"He can't help it. You try growing up with two Nobel Prize-winning scientists sitting across the breakfast table from you. Lenny doesn't like to talk about it, but he's at least as smart as his mom and dad, probably smarter. And let's face it: You can't be that smart without being extremely dumb in other ways. It's like the universe strapped this jet-pack on his back, then Gorilla-glued his sneakers to the floor. He's constantly reaching out too far and falling flat on his face." (Page 13, Harlan)

I especially loved that last bit, about the jet-pack and the Gorilla glue. But lots of other passages made me smile, too. 

Lenny Cyrus, School Virus includes occasional black and white illustrations by Matt Smith. Small drawings of each narrator mark the start of each chapter, and are helpful in conveying the different personalities of the three kids. Other illustrations bring to life Lenny's inner-world mission. The funniest, I thought, was of a curvaceous molecule located inside Zooey's ovary - but I really can't describe it. An astrovirus who befriends Lenny is pretty cute, too. 

So what we have here is, yes, another quasi-science-themed book featuring a smart but geeky male hero (see also Itch by Simon Mayo). But Lenny Cyrus, School Virus is a lot of fun. The shifting perspectives also, I think, help to make the book both boy and girl-friendly. Which is quite an accomplishment for a book in which a pivotal scene takes place inside of an ovary. 

Lenny Cyrus, School Virus is not going to be for everyone. But if you know any middle grade or middle school-age kids who like science and/or adventure, and have a good sense of humor, I think they'll enjoy this book. Definitely worth a look for library purchase, and especially recommended for a young friend of mine who lives in Newton, MA. 

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (@hmhkids)
Publication Date: April 2, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked
Author: Jarrett J. Krosoczka (@StudioJJK)
Pages: 280
Age Range: 8 and up 

I'm a huge fan of Jarrett J. Krosoczka's Lunch Lady series of graphic novels for early middle grade readers. So I was interested to see what he would do with a middle grade novel. The Frog Who Croaked is the first book in the new Platypus Police Squad series. As I expected from Krosoczka, it is quite entertaining.

The Frog Who Croaked is a noir-ish detective story, liberally illustrated by the author, and aimed at readers 8 and up. As you might gather from the title, the primary protagonist, Rick Zengo, is a platypus. Even more unusual in middle grade protagonists, Zengo is an adult, albeit one who still lives at home with his parents and sometimes acts like a 10 year old.

As The Frog Who Croaked begins, Zengo is about to head off for his first day of work as a detective with the Platypus Police Squad. He is partnered with a gruff veteran detective named Corey O'Malley. The two experience friction, due to their vastly different approaches to crime-solving. But, as they investigate the case of a missing frog (a respected teacher who may have been involved with the illegal fish market), they come to value on another's strengths. 

Krosoczka's writing style is a kid-friendly version of hardboiled detective fiction. The violence and cynicism are toned down to be kid-appropriate, and there isn't any profanity. Humorous substitutions occur throughout the book, like characters drinking root-beer floats instead of beer. But in tone, The Frog Who Croaked feels like noir fiction. Like this:

"This is the city. Kalamazoo City.Population: 75,000. By day, it's a bright, vibrant metropolis, the kind of city where dreams come true... But it is a different city once the sun goes down. The criminal element, asleep by day, haunts certain dark corners at night. Especially the run down old docks on the south side of town, perhaps the darkest corner of all." (Page 1)

The illustrations weren't final in the version of the book that I read, so I'll just say that the frequent black and white illustrations help make The Frog Who Croaked accessible to younger readers. They also fill in certain details that are not always directly spelled out in the text (as one might expect from someone with a graphic novel background).

For example, Krosoczka often neglects to spell out exactly what animal each character is (there's a wide range, not just platypuses). He implies it through descriptive text sometimes (like a boy who "scuttles" away), but often leaves the reader to determine this via the pictures. I wonder if this technique is a subtle lesson in taking diversity as it comes. We don't always need to spell out characters' "ethnicity". Either way, I like it

I also like that while there are human aspects to the characters' behavior (it would be hard to write the book otherwise), Krosoczka also includes animal-specific details. Like this:

"Zengo brushed his mouth plates, polished his bill, and then opened the vanity mirror, selecting one of the neatly placed bottles of fur product. He squeezed a dab out onto his webbed flipper and with a quick flip of the tufts of his coiffure, he was ready for his day." (Chapter 1)

There's a funny moment in which one of the Zengo laments working "at a snail's pace", and gets a disgusted look from a passing family of snails. 

Zengo himself is a well-developed character, enthusiastic about his job, struggling to feel independent while still living at home, and just beginning to be aware of the advantages that his well-off upbringing has conveyed. He talks when he shouldn't, and makes mistakes that a more politically seasoned detective would be able to avoid. And he is deeply suspicious of the city's magnanimous benefactor, Frank Pandini, Jr. Zengo's relationship with his partner evolves plausibly, and not too quickly.

The Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked is a great introduction to the detective novel genre for middle grade readers (or book-resistant middle schoolers). It has enough pictures to lend plenty of scaffolding for younger readers, but also doesn't shrink from using relatively advanced vocabulary words ("facade", "animosity"). It has distinctive characters and settings, and a nice mix of deadpan humor and ridiculous details (like the cops using boomerangs instead of guns). In short, The Frog Who Croaked is a lot of fun. Recommended for readers 8 and up. 

Publisher: Walden Pond Press (@WaldenPondPress)
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Source of Book: Advance review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Reader Gut Reaction: The Diviners is a tome. There: I said it. I have to admit that my first reaction was to be a little gobsmacked at the size of the hardback library edition. But once I started reading, I got so absorbed in this supernatural... Read the rest of this post