Today I will be sending out a new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. I usually send the newsletter out every two weeks. However, I've just returned from yet another trip, and so have a three week interval this time. My travels are done for now, and I should be getting the blog and newsletter back to normal. Thanks for your patience!
Newsletter Update: In this issue I have six book reviews (picture book through young adult), two posts with links that I shared on Twitter recently, and a post about another of my daughter's literacy milestones (making up stories). Not included in the newsletter, I shared a news release from Reading is Fundamental about the results of a recent survey. Sadly, the survey found that only 17% of parents make reading a top priority for summer. I'm sure that's not true about readers of this newsletter, thought travel does complicate things a bit.
Reading Update: In the last three weeks I read two middle grade, three young adult and three adult books. I read:
- Varian Johnson: The Great Greene Heist. Scholastic. Middle Grade/Middle School. Completed May 28, 2014. My review.
- Sara St. Antoine: Three Bird Summer. Candlewick. Middle Grade. Completed June 1, 2014. My review.
- Allen Zadoff: I Am the Mission (The Unknown Assassin, Book 2). Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Young Adult. Completed June 5, 2014, on digital ARC. My review.
- Chris Weitz: The Young World. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Young Adult. Completed June 16, 2014, on digital ARC. Review to come.
- Blake Nelson: The Prince of Venice Beach. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Young Adult. Completed June 16, 2014, on digital ARC. Review to come.
- Craig Johnson: Any Other Name (A Longmire Mystery). Viking Adult. Mystery. Completed June 1, 2014, on MP3.
- Jennifer Senior: All Joy and No Fun. Ecco. Adult Nonfiction. Completed June 9, 2014, on Kindle.
- Charlaine Harris: Midnight Crossroad (Midnight, Texas). Ace Hardcover. Adult Mystery (first of new series). Completed June 10, 2014, on MP3.
I'm currently reading In the After by Dimitria Lunetta and listening to Murder in Murray Hill (A Gaslight Mystery) by Victoria Thompson.
You can see the list of books that we've been reading to Baby Bookworm here. It's not complete, because I don't keep very good track when we are traveling, but still gives you an idea. Last night she was pretending to be a baby, so we read several board books. She quite liked new arrival Dinnertime for Chickies by Janee Trasler, the third in this very cute padded board book series for toddlers. In fact, she liked that one so much that this morning she voluntarily put down her Kindle Fire to "read" it on her own. This pleased me. She gets screen time while I ride my exercise bike, and while we're on airplanes, but I'm always happier when she chooses books or coloring instead.
What are you and your family reading these days? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms.
© 2014 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: I Am the Mission (The Unknown Assassin, Book 2)
Author: Allen Zadoff
Pages: 432
Age Range: 13 and up
I Am the Mission is the second book in Allen Zadoff's The Unknown Assassin series (following Boy Nobody, which was renamed I Am the Weapon). Like the first book, I Am the Mission is a fast-paced, suspenseful book in which the reader isn't quite sure who to root for. Book 2 picks up shortly after the conclusion of the first book. The variously-named narrator (we do eventually learn his real name) has gone AWOL from his shadowy government organization, The Program. He is in hiding as a camp counselor when a crew from Homeland Security extracts him. His "Father" figure, the head of The Program, gives him a new assignment, one intended to test his loyalty.
The boy's mission is to penetrate the tryouts for an ultra-right-wing summer camp that is apparently radicalizing teens and assassinate the head of that organization, a charismatic man named Eugene Moore. He is not supposed to actually enter the camp, because a prior operative from The Program disappeared there (and is now presumed deceased). The boy ends up out of communication with The Program, and not sure who to trust. I mean, when you are a secret teenage assassin, who can you trust, really? Happily for the reader, the boy's one friend from the previous book, Howard, makes an appearance.
Like the first book, I Am the Weapon has a premise that may disturb some readers: a teen who has been taught to kill people, quickly and stealthily, and who has no semblance of a normal life. But if you can accept that premise, it's a well-constructed, twisty thriller. The boy does commit one act that I found ... disturbing, I guess, in part because it's clearly a mistake. But he shows hints of humanity, too. Zadoff also provides more background for how he ended up in The Program, and why he is the cold-blooded, fearless killing machine that he is. Fans of the first book will definitely not want to miss this one.
Zadoff has a knack for quick characterizations, like this:
"He has a masterful way of using truisms to support his ideas. One can easily agree with the truth of the surface statements without questioning the ideas themselves." Chapter "It's Moore", digital ARC (The ARC, at least, doesn't have conventional chapter titles. The first sentence of each chapter is formatted as a title, instead.)
He also muses quite a bit in this book on the nature of fear. Like this:
""The part they don't understand..." he says. "If you don't feel fear, you don't feel joy or love. Not in any real way. Without the fear, the risk is gone. And without risk, rewards don't matter. You're left with nothing much at all. You're numb." ("My Name is Francisco Gonzalez", he says.)
I Am the Mission is written in first-person present tense, which helps to keep up the suspense. The narrator is a surprisingly sympathetic character for a stone-cold killer. Attempting to figure him out is perpetually interesting. Recommended for older teen and adult readers for whom the fascinating aspects of the premise outweigh the disturbing aspects. Personally, I couldn't put it down, and eagerly await the next book.
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (@LBKids)
Publication Date: June 17, 2014
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).
© 2014 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: Searching for Sky
Author: Jillian Cantor
Pages: 288
Age Range: 12 and up
I picked up Searching for Sky to skim the first few pages, and couldn't put it down. It's not that it's action filled, but more that the premise and the narrator are irresistible. Fifteen-year-old Sky has lived for as long as she can remember (since she was 2) on a tiny Pacific island. She was raised by her mother, Petal, and her mother's partner, Helmut, along with Helmut's son, River. Since her mother and Helmut died a year earlier, Sky and River have lived alone on the island. Though they worry a little bit about survival, they are happy, and just starting to perhaps have grown-up feelings for one another. Everything changes when a boat arrives one day, and takes the two frightened teens to California. Back to a world that they didn't even really know existed.
There are mysteries in Searching for Sky, as Sky seeks to understand what led Petal and Helmut to the island in the first place. She struggles to reconcile her own memories with the things that other people tell her are true, and begins to realize that not everything was as she thought. She is separated from River, and wants desperately to find him. These issues kept me turning the pages, wanting to understand. Wanting Sky to understand. Wanting to know what would happen to Sky and to River. But the remarkable part of Searching for Sky actually lies in Sky's reaction to the more mundane details. It's fascinating to watch as someone who has never seen civilization tries to understand things like money, lipstick, and the Internet.
I thought that Cantor did a fine job of keeping Sky in character (frequently baffled), even as certain things become more clear to the reader. This is a book that could only have been written in first person present perspective. This aspect of the book reminded me a bit of reading far-future dystopias, in which the characters come across artifacts of our current civilization, and struggle to understand them. Sky struggles to understand just about everything, right down to how to use a toilet (or "Bathroom Tree" as she calls it). For example, one of the first people Sky sees is apparently wearing sunglasses. She says:
"His eyes are hidden by small black shells, and I don't like that I can't see them, that I don't know what color they are." (Page 26)
Sometimes her reactions are humorous:
""Now, come on into the kitchen," she's saying. I follow her into a large open space with a lot of square wood boxes everywhere. "Have a seat at the table." She points to a large, round wood, and I begin to climb up on it. "No, no. On a chair," she says, pulling on another, smaller wood and showing me how she wants me to sit on it." (Page 92)
Sometimes they are profound:
"I think it disappoints her that I refuse to watch the television box with her after dinner. But the few times I've sat there with her, all I've seen are pretend faraway people talking to each other about things that have nothing to do with me. I don't understand why she's interested in them if they're not even here, if they're not even real." (Page 119)
Sky is a strong character, even though her lack of basic knowledge makes her feel foolish and vulnerable at times. I think that teen readers will find her as compelling as I did. Despite the female narrator, I have every reason to believe that teen boys would find this book intriguing, too. In fact, I'm going to put it on the small stack of books that I recommend to my husband. (The previous book I gave him was Matt de la Pena's The Living). I highly recommend Searching for Sky for teens and adults.
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books (@BWkids)
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
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).
© 2014 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.
Looking of more summer book lists? This week you’ll find some fantastic tales for readers in seventh and eighth grade.
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If you work with kids in need, you can find these titles on the First Book Marketplace by clicking on the pictures next to the publisher descriptions of each book.
For Grades 7 and 8
“Shark Girl” by Kelly Bingham
A teenager struggles through physical loss to the start of acceptance in an absorbing, artful novel at once honest and insightful, wrenching and redemptive.
On a sunny day in June, at the beach with her mom and brother, fifteen-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything–absolutely everything–changed. Now she’s counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm, where she knows kids will whisper, “That’s her–that’s Shark Girl,” as she passes. In the meantime there are only questions: Why did this happen? Why her? What about her art? What about her life? In this striking first novel, Kelly Bingham uses poems, letters, telephone conversations, and newspaper clippings to look unflinchingly at what it’s like to lose part of yourself–and to summon the courage it takes to find yourself again.
“Monster” by Walter Dean Myers
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
“The Giver” by Lois Lowry
Jonas’ world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.
“Heist Society” by Ally Carter
For as long as she can remember, Katarina has been a part of the family business – thieving. When Kat tries to leave the life for a normal life, her old friend Hale conspires to bring her back into the fold. Why? A mobsters art collection has been stolen, and Kat’s father is the only suspect. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.
The only solution is to find the paintings and steal them back. Kat’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s history and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.
With its glamorous international settings, intriguing suspense, complicated cons, and even more complicated romance, Heist Society is stealing the hearts of Ally Carter fans everywhere.
“The True Meaning of Smekday” by Adam Rex
When twelve-year-old Gratuity (“Tip”) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on “The True Meaning of Smekday” for the National Time Capsule contest, she’s not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended on the Earth and the aliens – called Boov – abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it “Smekland” (in honor of glorious Captain Smek) and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod? In any case, Gratuity’s story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity’s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion.
Look for our Summer Reading Lists from previous weeks? Click below:
K-2
Grades 3-4
Grades 5-6
Tags: summer, book, lists, book, reading, summer, reading, summer, slide, newsletter
The post First Book’s Summer Book List: Grades 7-8 appeared first on First Book Blog.
Book: Three Bird Summer
Author: Sara St. Antoine
Pages: 256
Age Range: 10 to 14
Three Bird Summer by Sara St. Antoine is a lovely book about the summer that a 12 year old boy spends at his grandmother's cabin on Three Bird Lake in Minnesota.
It's a quiet sort of book about an introspective kid, but St. Antoine manages to touch upon the challenges families face as grandparents age, the aftermath of divorce, and the tentative first steps of boy-girl relationships. There's also a small mystery, and even a treasure map. It's a coming-of-age story, though without major drama.
In truth, the subject matter of Three Bird Summer felt a bit ... familiar, with echoes of Cynthia Lord's Half a Chance and Karen Day's A Million Miles from Boston, and even Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks at Point Mouette. Summer stories all, featuring kids of a similar age range. But the sheer beauty of St. Antoine's writing, as well as her choice to feature a male protagonist, make Three Bird Summer stand out.
Adam is a fine narrator, a little geeky, a little lazy, and baffled by the behavior of girls. His initially reluctant friendship with new neighbor Alice, and the oh-so-gradual dawning of "more than friend" feelings, is utterly believable. Alice and her parents are, perhaps, a tiny bit too good to be true, but I love that she spent the previous summer at a science camp for girls, and that she chafes under the yoke of her over-protective parents. Adam's mother and grandmother are well-drawn, too, with flaws as well as surprises.
Three Bird Summer perfectly captures the feel of a rustic summer lake house. Like this:
"Mom lingered in the kitchen while I hauled my duffel through the main part of the cabin, breathing in the familiar smell of wood paneling and fireplace cinders. Everything was in its usual place." (Page 10)
and
"A cool breeze crossed the water. It felt like the great North was barreling through me with my every breath. Here's what slipped away: schedules, bus rides, the stale smell of the school cafeteria, algebraic equations, Mom and Dad's phone arguments, girl talk, and Grandma's interrogations. Here's what I got in exchange: water sloshing slowly and steadily against the dock like the heartbeat of a great whale. A pair of black-and-white loons swimming into view. Fresh air and a lake that, right then, felt like it was all mine." (Page 16)
Reading the above passage, I could practically feel the tension leaving Adam's shoulders. Three Bird Summer is filled with passages that I wanted to save, long and short. Like this:
"Mom turned around and we began paddling again, but not in a getting-there sort of way -- more like a being-there sort of way." (Page 199)
For the rest, you'll have to read the book. Three Bird Summer is a book to read on your front porch on a warm summer day (or, even better, on a dock floating in a lake in your bathing suit). It's about growing up, the ways that family relationships change, and young love. It's beautifully written, with a strong sense of place, and well-rounded characters. While Three Bird Summer is clearly a book that will appeal to adult readers, I hope that kids find it and love it, too. Despite the male protagonist, Three Bird Summer certainly has as much appeal for girls as for boys. Recommended!
Publisher: Candlewick (@Candlewick)
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
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).
© 2014 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.
By David Denver and Mark Garnett
The latest European Parliament and local council elections, held on Thursday 22 May 2014, has shown, once again, that it would be foolish to make any predictions about political future contests in Britain. The two most striking aspects of the results were the advances made by UKIP and the collapse of Liberal Democrat support.
In the locals, UKIP increased its roster of councillors from 2 to 163 while in the European elections it topped the poll with 27.5% of the vote and netted 24 of the 73 UK seats. The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, lost more than 300 council seats and came fifth in the European elections (sixth in both Scotland and Wales) with a miserable 6.9% of the votes, retaining just one seat. Commentators and (some) politicians alike were not slow to describe these election outcomes as constituting a ‘political earthquake’ in British electoral politics.
However, we believe that features such as diversity, dealignment, and disillusion have emerged more and more strongly in British electoral politics over the past 40 years. This makes us reluctant to offer predictions about future electoral trends and the ‘earthquake’ seen recently.
Diversity is indicated by the fact that (leaving aside Northern Ireland) seven different parties won representation in the European Parliament with the largest number going to a party founded only 21 years ago. In the elections for English councils, while UKIP dominated the headlines the Green Party almost doubled its contingent of councillors (from 20 to 38), while ‘Independents’ of various kinds won more than a hundred seats. Going back 50 years, in the 1964 election the two major parties took 88% of the votes cast. This year, they had an estimated 61% of the ‘national equivalent vote’ in the locals and just 49% of the real votes in the Euro-elections.
Dealignment refers to a long-established trend whereby the sense of attachment to traditional parties that voters used to feel has become progressively weaker. Rather than turning out almost automatically for the party that they (and probably their parents) always supported, they are more likely to weigh up the appeals of the various options available and more willing to switch across parties. That is why the days of two-party dominance look increasingly distant. In the elections of May 2014, by all accounts, UKIP took votes from previous supporters of all three parties while differences in the council and Euro results indicate that a significant proportion of the electorate chose different parties in the two separate contests. It is salutary to recall, too, that just four years ago during the general election campaign Nick Clegg and his party seemed to be the darlings of the electorate and ‘Cleggmania’ appeared to be about to sweep the old two-party system into history. Their performance in May 2014 shows how fickle and fluid electors can be when they lack strong attachments to political parties.
When dealignment is accompanied by widespread disillusion with the parties that have dominated elections since 1945 then the inevitable result is success for minor parties. In the past few years David Cameron’s policies have alienated many traditional Conservatives while the performance of Ed Miliband has been, to say the least, not very impressive. The Liberal Democrats used to prosper in these sorts of circumstances but their participation in a governing coalition with the Conservatives and the difficulties encountered by their leader have ensured that they have attracted more than their fair share of odium.
If the UKIP surge really did make the earth move, then, this was a seismological event waiting to happen. Apart from speculation about the fates of the main party leaders, post-election comment focused on the possibility that UKIP could translate its widespread support into a significant number of seats at the 2015 general election. A major problem here, of course, is the first-past-the-post electoral system which operates strongly in favour of two-party competition. To gain parliamentary representation UKIP will have to channel its resources into specific seats where it seems to enjoy some concentration of support.
The post-election comments of the party leadership showed that they understand this and they will use the local election results as they basis of their calculations. Just as the Liberals did in the past, UKIP hope to build on local success to boost their chances of representation at Westminster. That is one indication of the importance of local elections in British politics. Another, quite different, indication is that a poll conducted after the announcement of the local election results but before the Euro-elections were declared found that support for UKIP had increased. Local elections in Britain have not received a great deal of attention from academics (with a few honourable exceptions) which is why we aim to publish an account of them at a future date.
Finally, will the UKIP surge be maintained through to the next election? Past experience suggests probably not but when earthquakes are going on past experience may not be a very good guide. Nonetheless, the volatility of the modern electorate offers some hope for the major parties. Just as voters are willing to switch away from a party they could just as easily switch back in other circumstances.
David Denver and Mark Garnett are respectively Emeritus Professor of Politics and Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Lancaster University. Their book British General Elections since 1964 was published by Oxford University Press in 2014.
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The post May 2014: a ‘political earthquake’? appeared first on OUPblog.
Book: The Great Greene Heist
Author: Varian Johnson
Pages: 240
Age Range: 10-14
The Great Green Heist is a fun caper novel for middle school students, written by Varian Johnson. It features Jackson Greene, a semi-reformed prankster who sets out, with a talented crew, to ensure that his former almost-girlfriend wins the election for student council president. There are spy novel trappings such as disguises, hidden microphones, and custom gadgets. However, the real emphasis in The Great Greene Heist is on interpersonal dynamics, and the role that the various kids play in the drama.
The Great Green Heist features a diverse cast of characters (as one can see by looking closely at the cover), but it is about the heist (well, more of a scam), rather than being about the ethnicity of any one character. Johnson does a nice job of including small details that let the reader know that the characters come from different backgrounds, without distracting too much from the story. There is one minor character, an administrative assistant in the Principal's office, who is overtly racist, but skin colors are otherwise mainly a background matter. A bigger difference in how Jackson perceives other students involves whether or not they play basketball (and how good they are), rather than what they look like.
In truth, I had a bit of trouble sorting out all of the characters and their relationships at the beginning of the book. I had to go back and skim the first few chapters a couple of times. A relationship diagram / cast of characters might have been helpful. There is a glossary of Jackson's past capers included in the book's end materials, as well as a list of the 15 rules that make up the "Greene Code of Conduct." For example, "Stay cool under pressure. A rattled crew is a mistake-prone crew."
The Great Greene Heist has an intro sure to pull kids in:
"As Jackson Greene sped past the Maplewood Middle School Cafeteria -- his trademark red tie skewed slightly to the left, a yellow No. 2 pencil balanced behind his hear, and a small spiral-bound notebook tucked in his right jacket pocket -- he found himself dangerously close to sliding back into the warm confines of scheming and pranking." (Page 1)
The story is a bit over the top, as is common in caper-type novels, featuring a candidate with basically no redeeming value, and a corrupt principal, not to mention a cooler-than-cool Jackson. I was reminded a bit of the Veronica Mars television series, in a good way. Kind of a quirkier, more interesting school than one might actually find in real life.
I enjoyed The Great Greene Heist, and I think that kids will, too. I especially liked the character of Gaby, a strong girl running for Student Council President. Gaby at one point laments a female friend who prefers watching boys play sports over playing herself, and vows never to be like that herself. I think I would have liked to be friends with her. And I love the fact that Jackson makes it cool to be smart.
The Great Green Heist has become a bit of a poster-book for diversity, in light of the recent We Need Diverse Books campaign. But don't read it out of some sense of making a difference by reading diverse books. No, read it because it's a fun story about smart kids taking matters into their own hands, and bending the rules for a greater good. Recommended for middle school readers, boys or girls.
Publisher: Scholastic (@Scholastic)
Publication Date: May 27, 2014
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).
© 2014 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: Early Birdy Gets the Worm
Creator: Bruce Lansky
Illustrator: Bill Bolton
Pages: 24
Age Range: 2-5
Early Birdy Gets the Worm is billed by the publisher, Meadowbrook, as "A PictureReading(TM) Book for Young Children"
. The end flaps include a User's Guide for Parents and Teachers on using PictureReading books (with pictures telling the story) to support storytelling with young kids. The guide says: "The ultimate goal of PictureReading is to turn over to the child the role of figuring out the plot points and connecting them with a narrative thread as soon as possible." So, something like a wordless picture book that is meant for the child to lead the reading of, instead of the parent taking the lead. An early reader without any words, if that makes any sense.
For me, however, a book has to be judged on how good it is, not on what the intentions are. It needs to be a book, rather than a "parenting resource". And in the end, I liked Early Birdy Gets the Worm as a wordless picture book, but I didn't love it. It's the story of a young bird who is inspired by seeing his mother pull a worm out of the ground to try to do the same thing himself (with less than successful outcomes). Bolton's illustrations are gentle, and convey a mild humor, though his backgrounds seem overly simplistic.
I think that Early Birdy's setbacks will make kids laugh, even as they feel a bit protective of the fuzzy brown chick. For example, he see a bit of pink poking out of a tree trunk and pulls, only to find an irate mouse at the other end. The expressions of the characters are slightly exaggerated, to make sure that kids can follow the story.
I found the conclusion to Early Bird Gets the Worm disappointing, however. He's never able to get a worm himself. He goes back to his nest, and then his mother brings him a worm. The message feels like: Try, but don't worry, if it doesn't work out, Mommy or Daddy will take care of you. And while this is doubtless true in most cases, I found it unsatisfying in a narrative sense.
I will try this one out with my four-year-old daughter. And thinking about this book has inspired me to try to be a bit more interactive when reading with her, to encourage her to tell the story. Early Birdy is definitely cute. But I'll be surprised if Early Birdy Gets the Worm lands a spot on our regular re-reading list.
Publisher: Meadowbrook
Publication Date: May 6
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).
© 2014 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 Big Book of Slumber
Author: Giovanna Zoboli
Illustrator: Simona Mulazzani
Pages: 26
Age Range:3-6
The Big Book of Slumber is as advertised. It's an over-size picture book sure to make any young listener feel cozily sleepy. Giovanna Zoboli's rhyming text, translated from Italian by Antony Shugaar, is soothing and full of whimsey, while Simona Mulazzani's detailed illustrations will reward repeat readings. The premise of The Big Book of Slumber is that a wide range of animals are going to sleep. Most of them are tucked into human-like beds, with blankets and pillows, though a few remain in their natural habitats. Like this:
"Dolphin and tuna have turned out the light.
Nanny goat's tucking kids in for the night.
Rooster and hen are already sleeping --
so why are those baby chicks still up and cheeping?"
The page spread shows the dolphin and tuna underwater, eyes closed. A nanny goat tucks eight baby goats into separate beds, neatly lined up on a lawn. A chicken and rooster nod inside a hen house next door, while a dozen yellow chicks roam about the page.
On another page, several puppies are tucked into bed together, while two camels lie in bunk-beds, with "a moonlit oasis right over their heads",complete with sand and palm trees, right there on the top bunk. There is definitely a surreal feel to the book. But Mulazzani's illustrations are not fuzzy and dream-like, they are clearly defined, despite their quirky content.
This will be a fun book for kids, I think, with lots of animals, big and small, to look for on each page (most but not all referenced in the text). I found the text to be rhythmic without being sing-songy, positively calling out to be read aloud. As an adult, I prefer books that have more plot than this one (which is basically a series of collections of sleeping animals, no narrative). But I think that it will make my daughter laugh, while also helping her to calm down for sleep. And that's a winning combination. This one is going in our bedtime reading pile for sure.
Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (@EBYR)
Publication Date: April 18 2014
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).
© 2014 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.
Today I will be sending out a new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. I usually send the newsletter out every two weeks. However, I've just returned from vacation, and so have a three week interval this time.
Newsletter Update: In this issue I have seven book reviews (picture book and young adult) and three posts with links that I shared on Twitter recently (including a separate roundup dedicated to the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign). Not included in the newsletter, I posted:
Reading Update: In the last three weeks I read one middle grade, one young adult and five adult books. This is not my typical reading breakdown, but as I was on a computer-free vacation, I wanted to read books that I would not feel obligated to review (and that were available on Kindle). I read:
- P. J. Hoover: Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life. Starscape. Middle Grade. Completed May 10, 2014 (printed ARC). Review to come, closer to publication.
- William Campbell Powell: Expiration Day. Tor Teen. Young Adult. Completed May 10, 2014, on Kindle. My review.
- Daniel Suarez: Influx. Dutton. Adult Fiction. Completed May 11, 2014, on MP3. This is an interesting near-future thriller about a secret government organization that hides (and steals) technological innovations.
- Meg Cabot: Size 12 Is Not Fat. William Morrow. Adult Mystery. Completed May 16, 2014, on Kindle (library copy). This is the first book in Cabot's Heather Wells series, adult mysteries featuring a former teen pop star who is the size of the average woman.
- Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner: Think Like a Freak. William Morrow. Adult Nonfiction. Completed May 24, 2014, on Kindle. This is a follow-on book to Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics. Instead of giving interesting examples of data-driven conclusions, however, Think Like A Freak is about teaching the reader to think in an experimental manner.
- Sue Grafton: V is for Vengeance. Putnam. Adult Mystery. Completed May 24, 2014, on Kindle (library copy).
- Maeve Binchy: Chestnut Street. Knopf. Adult Fiction. Completed May 27, 2014, on MP3. This is truly Binchy's last book, a collection of short stories that she wrote over the years, all featuring people who live on the same Dublin Street. Her husband gathered them for publication after her death. I am not generally a fan of short stories (I need long, complex plots and extended time with characters to hold my attention), but I enjoyed listening to these.
I'm currently reading The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson in print and All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior on Kindle. I'm listening to Any Other Name by Craig Johnson (a Walt Longmire mystery).
We haven't been reading to Baby Bookworm as much as I would have liked these days. We took books on our trip, of course, but we've had a lot of long days (we were in Disney World), and she has conked out early on several nights. As you might imagine, I was thrilled when the first thing she asked to do with her babysitter yesterday (our first day back in our regular routine) was read a book. I also found Moldylocks and the Three Beards extremely helpful in keeping myself calm during an interminable wait at Hertz.
What are you and your family reading these days? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms.
© 2014 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: Yeti, Turn Out the Light!
Author: Greg Long & Chris Edmundson
Illustrator: Wednesday Kirwan
Pages: 36
Age Range: 3-5
Yeti, Turn Out the Light! gives a very light touch to the issue of kids who are afraid of shadows in their rooms. Yeti is sleepy. He gets ready for bed, but once in bed he tosses and turns because he is frightened of odd shadows in his room. The odd shadows are each shown, in various page spreads, to be something completely harmless (but odd enough to generate a suspicious shadow). Three bunnies, a deer with three birds on its antlers, an owl sitting on a bear's head, drinking some tea. I each case, the shadow is quite frightening, while the reality is quirky but not at all scary. In the end, Yeti is able to send all of his shadow-generating friends home, and get a good night of sleep.
The rhyming text of Yeti, Turn Out the Light! is catchy and also demonstrates apt vocabulary. This is a book that I can imagine happily reading to my daughter over and over again. Here are a couple of examples:
"So Yeti heads home, eats his dinner, and flosses.
Then he snuggles into bed, but he turns and he tosses."
"Why?" you may ask.
Well I'll tell you, my dear.
Yeti sees shadows
dart rightfully near."
I love a book that can use "dart." Another example uses "wary" to rhyme with "scary." Well-done, I say.
Kirwan's digitally generated images feature a not-so-attractive blue and white Yeti figure. The various animal creatures that Yeti discovers in his house have huge, jewel-like eyes, and an exaggerated sweetness that provides contrast with the homely Yeti. The shadows are masterful, managing to look menacing, despite fitting in well with their ordinary shadow-generators.
The whole story is contrived, of course. Why would there be a deer with three birds on its antlers sneaking into Yeti's house in the middle of the night? But it's that very absurdity that I think will make this book work with shadow-leery preschoolers. Yeti, Turn Out the Light! is the opposite of a didactic book that tells kids not to be scared of shadows. Instead, Yeti shows kids, repeatedly and humorously, that the shadows might well be something benign. I am looking forward to trying this book out on my own preschooler. I expect it to find a place in our regular night-time picture book rotation. Recommended for home and library use.
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Publication Date: August 27, 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).
© 2014 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: Socks!
Author: Tania Sohn
Pages: 36
Age Range: 3-7 (small format picture book)
Socks! is a charming little picture book by Tania Sohn about the joy that young children take in their their socks. Socks! features a young Korean girl and her gray cat. On each page, with minimal text, the girl celebrates a different kind of socks. Like this:
"I love socks!
Socks with polka dots,
and socks with stripes.
Green socks so I can hop...
... and yellow socks so I can play."
The above text spans three page spreads. In each, the girl dances about with her cat, and wears a different pair of socks. The "so I can play" accompanies a picture of a bunch of soccer players, each shown from the stomach down. The cat pokes between what we suspect are the protagonist's legs.
The final pair of socks are "Beoseon! Treaditional Korean socks, from Grandma." Up until that point, though the girl is Korean in her features, the book could be set anywhere.
Sohn's illustrations are what make the book. The girl's joy in her various pairs of socks leaps from the page. We see the texture of the cat, and of the girl's hair, and of the various backgrounds, like the grass of the soccer field. My favorite illustration is one where the girl peeks through a doorway at "Christmas socks!" (stockings). We only see her from behind here, but her posture conveys her giddy excitement.
Socks! is a quick read, but one that preschoolers everywhere (especially girls) will appreciate. Socks! is an import from South Korea. It is available from Usborne Books, but is not available on Amazon. I do hope that libraries find it, however, because it is a tiny gem of a book. I can't wait to share it with my daughter, who gleefully showed off her new socks to me earlier today.
Publisher: Kane Miller
Publication Date: 2014
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).
© 2014 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: Secrets of the Apple Tree: A Shine-A-Light Book
Authors: Carron Brown & Alyssa Nassner
Pages: 36
Age Range: 4-8
Secrets of the Apple Tree is an informational text that uses the "Shine-A-Light" technology to make learning fun for kids. It starts out by showing an apple tree in the summer. When you shine a light behind the page (or hold it up to the light), you can see the image of the apple tree in winter, with bare branches. On the other side of the page, this inside view is shown in black and white, with some explanatory text. This pattern continues throughout the book, as the reader see mushrooms growing on a branch, a squirrel nesting inside the tree, a bug caught in a spider web, etc.
I think that the gimmick of shining a light to see through the page will please preschoolers. My daughter was charmed by this, certainly, though she got a bit bored as the facts continued to mount from page to page. The text is designed for interactive reading with kids. Like this:
"Many animals live
around the tree.
Can you see who
the bird is about
to grab?"
(on the next page)
"Slithering, wriggling worms push
through the soil around the roots.
A tree's roots grow long and deep.
The roots soak up water from rain,
which helps to keep the tree alive."
Every page has a question for kids to answer by shining a light on the page. At the end there's a little glossary of sorts, with more information about the creatures found in and around the tree. The authors encourage further exploration with:
"There's more...
When you find a tree, look all around it and see who you can find.
Remember to look up as well as down."
The see-through illustrations (on the right-hand side of each page spread) are in color, using a palette of woodsy greens, browns, and grays. The left-facing pages are silhouettes, white images against black backgrounds. While neither style is incredibly detailed, the overall impression is pleasing, and the whimsy of the see-through illustrations works well.
Secrets of the Apple Tree does a nice job of encouraging kids to pay attention to nature, to look closely, and see what hidden life they can find. And it's fun, too. I think it would make a nice addition to a classroom library for first or second graders, particularly in apple tree country. Recommended!
Publisher: Kane Miller Book Publishers
Publication Date: January 1, 2014 (first American edition)
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).
© 2014 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: Expiration Day
Author: William Campbell Powell
Pages: 336
Age Range: 12 and up
Expiration Day is set in a dystopian near-future England a generation after fertility levels have dropped precipitously world-wide. Hardly any babies are born anymore, though most people don't realize how bad the situation is, because they parents are able to purchase uncannily lifelike robotic children. These children don't even know (unless some incident occurs) whether they are human or not.
Expiration Day is related primarily as the diary of a girl named Tania, who lives with her parents just outside of London. Tania's diary has somehow been discovered, "encrypted and forgotten, but surviving through uncounted millennia" by someone from a future alien race. His comments and responses to Tania's story are included as brief "intervals" throughout the story. The title refers to the fact that the robot children must be returned to their manufacturer on their 18th birthday - the parents have them only lease.
The world in Expiration Day is reminiscent in tone to that of P.D. James' Children of Men. In Willam Campbell Powell's world, however, the artificial children serve to keep society under control, filling an innate need that people have to form families and pass things along to a future generation (even if that generation expires at age 18).
I found the philosophical underpinnings of Expiration Day thought-provoking. And I quite liked Tania as a character. Parts of the book, which begins when Tania is only 11, drag a little bit, plot-wise. But my concern for Tania's fate kept me reading. The end includes a couple of twists (one of which I'm still trying to wrap my head around), which will keep readers guessing.
One thing that I really liked about Expiration Day was the importance of Tania's father as a character. Not a placeholder, or someone to be rescued, as is a common convention in books, but an intelligent, caring man who puts everything on the line in support of his daughter.
Here are a couple of snippets, to give you a feel for Tania's voice:
"There's a word for legs like mine. Gangly. I count my knees, sometimes, and I know I have just two, one on each leg. But dressed like that, I felt like it was more--a lot more, with different numbers on each leg." (Page 18)
"I love words, though, and I wish I could control them better. Like Humpty Dumpty, to have them line up and do my bidding. So I read, as I said, from Chaucer and Shakespeare, via Dylan Thomas and Rupert Brooke, to Ray Bradbury and Roger Zelazny, and try to see how they get their words to behave." (Page 182)
"Nobody truly dies who shapes another person. Does that make sense, Mister Zog?" (page 227)
Fans of speculative and dystopian fiction, particularly that which questions what makes someone human in the presence of advanced technology (like The Adoration of Jenna Fox), won't want to miss Expiration Day. Tania's participation in a band, and her issues with dating and growing up, are also addressed, and make the book accessible to those who prefer more realistic coming-of-age fiction. For those who need to know, there are discussions about having sex (including a boy who wants to), but no real action to speak of in Expiration Day. This is a book that will stay with me, and made me think. I learned about it from this review at Ms. Yingling Reads.
Publisher: Tor Teen (@TorTeen)
Publication Date: April 22, 2014
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).
© 2014 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: Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail
Author: James Horvath
Pages: 40
Age Range: 4-8
In Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail, a six-dog construction crew gets a job to tear down an old building and build a new skyscraper, all in one day. The adult engineer in me is a bit annoyed at the presentation of the entire construction of a tall building as a one day project. But I do appreciate the thoroughness of the construction details, from clearing away rubble to digging trenches for pipes to pouring concrete to (eventually) painting the interior rooms. There's much here to please construction-obsessed preschoolers. There's also a dash of whimsey added by the dogs (at one point there's a ball-chasing break).
Horvath's rhyming text is accessible for the youngest of listeners, with a fair bit of construction-specific vocabulary. Like this:
"This building is bare,
with strong steel for bones.
We'll need mortar and bricks,
concrete and stones.
"The beams go up fast,
building room upon room.
As the pumper pumps
liquid cement through its boom."
The digitally-generated illustrations are bright and stay mainly focused on the construction site, but there are a few whimsical touches. For example, the one female dog is pink in color, which I'll bet it will be a kid-pleaser in this age range. The scene at the end of the book, when the dogs all swim in the penthouse swimming pool, is the very picture of fun. The illustrations are in general detailed regarding the construction equipment, and engaging in the dogs' expressions.
Fans of the first book, Dig, Dogs, Dig: A Construction Tail, are sure to enjoy this one, too. Recommended for any kid who is interested in dogs or trucks and buildings, boys or girls, in the preschool age range.
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: December 31, 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).
© 2014 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 Baby Tree
Author: Sophie Blackall
Pages: 40
Age Range: 4-8
The Baby Tree by Sophie Blackall is a very well-done picture book about a boy's quest to understand where babies come from. After a boy's parents tell him that a new baby will be joining their family, he asks various people in his life if they can tell him where babies come from. They give him answers like "you plant a seed and it grows into a baby tree" and "a stork brings your baby in the night." Finally, when the boy is thoroughly confused, his parents explain it to him properly. The explanation is age appropriate in level of detail and content, I thought: "a seed from their dad ... planted in an egg inside their mom", etc. An afterword suggests sample text for answering other questions that kids may have. That text mentions body parts by name, but this terminology is not in the main text.
This book does so many things right. First of all, the illustrations are hilarious. The "baby tree" is shown on the cover. Even better is a picture of a hospital chock-full of babies, with a line of swaddled babies (basically heads atop blankets) somehow upright and making their way out the front door. Other aspects of the illustrations are more subtle, but also pleasing. The babies are a multi-cultural rainbow, also bearing a diverse assortment of blankets. The expressions on the faces of the people the boy asks about babies are priceless. The mailman looks positively sheepish as he scratches his head and says something about eggs. (And oh, the baby face peeking out of a bird's egg is adorable.)
The other thing that I like about this book is that even though it's about something (where babies come from), there are lots of other details that are simply true to the life of a preschooler. I know that my daughter is going to laugh when she reads about the boy waking up Dad, then eventually waking up Dad again. And she'll relate to when the boy uses his parents' excitement about the baby to finagle a second bowl of cocopops. Kids have priorities, you know. There are a few tidbits in here for parents, too, as when the teacher gives the briefest possible answer to the boy's question, and then immediately says: "Boys and girls, it's time to wash our brushes." The adult reader can practically hear her thinking: "Because I don't want to get into this discussion here at school."
The fact that the boy's parents tell him their news at a time when they have to rush off, leaving him to ask all of these other people, is a tiny bit contrived. But I will cheerfully forgive Sophie Blackall for that. Because this book is wonderful. In the end, it answers children's questions about where babies come from, simply and honestly. But along the way, it provides delightful, whimsical pictures set against realistic depictions of the life of a preschooler. This is a must-purchase for parents expecting another baby, and for libraries. Highly recommended.
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books (@PenguinKids)
Publication Date: May 1, 2014
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).
© 2014 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: A Pet for Fly Guy
Author: Tedd Arnold
Pages: 32
Age Range: 4-8
I must confess that I have not read the books in the Fly Guy series of early readers, though I believe we have the first one around here somewhere. But I just read the first Fly Guy picture book, A Pet for Fly Guy, and I thought that it was fabulous. It's funny, and it's also warm without being cloying or message-y. And of course, Tedd Arnold's illustrations are a lot of fun.
The premise is introduced easily enough on the first page:
"A boy had a pet fly.
He named him --
FLY GUY!
Fly Guy was the smartest pet
in the world. He could say
the boy's name --
BUZZ!"
Here "FLY GUY" and "BUZZ" are shown as colorful text call-outs by the boy and the fly, respectively.
In the story that follows, Fly Guy and Buzz go on a picnic to the park. Upon witnessing lots of kids playing with their pets, Fly Guy becomes sad that he doesn't have a pet of his own. A search ensues, but finding the right pet for a fly is a bit tricky. Fortunately, a happy resolutions is found at the end.
A Pet for Fly Guy includes both subtle and overt humor. When Buzz and Fly Guy eat lunch together, we see Buzz eating a sandwich, while Fly Guy samples from an odorous trash can. The pets that the other kids bring to the park include a large fish in a tank (pulled along on a wagon) and a protective-suit-wearing kid playing with his porcupine. The possible pets considered include a frog, which chases Fly Guy and tries to eat him.
This is one of those books in which the tight connection between text and illustrations is essential. Nothing needs to be said about the over-the-top pets belonging to the other kids - the pictures tell the story. Arnold's characters, animal and human, all have huge round eyes with tiny pupils, keeping the fly motif consistent. Fly Guy, though small, wears a range of expressions, through his expressions and posture. Arnold's digitally-generated art includes faint scribble-type markings in the background, lending an unusual texture to the brightly colored pages.
Fly Guy's migration to the picture book format seems like a success to me! A Pet for Fly Guy is original, humorous, and kid-friendly. It's sure to be a hit, and will be a nice way to introduce new readers to the Fly Guy universe.
Publisher: Orchard Books (@Scholastic)
Publication Date: April 29, 2014
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).
© 2014 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.
Today I will be sending out a new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. I currently send out the newsletter once every two weeks.
Newsletter Update: In this issue I have four book reviews (picture book and young adult) and two posts with links that I shared on Twitter recently (including a ton of links related to the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign). I also have two posts with content from Scholastic about Summer Reading. Not included in the newsletter, I posted:
I do have more picture book reviews coming up in the next couple of weeks, for those who are interested in those.
Reading Update: In the last two weeks I read two young adult and three adult books:
- Laini Taylor: Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy, Book 3). Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Young Adult. Completed April 24, 2014, on Kindle. My review.
- Amber Kizer: Pieces of Me. Delacorte Press. Young Adult. Completed April 25, 2014. My review.
- Jo Nesbo: The Bat (the first Harry Hole novel). Vintage. Adult Mystery. Completed April 27, 2014, on Kindle (library copy).I found the characters well-developed and the mystery intriguing in this, my first of Nesbo's books. But there were too many digressions for allegorical stories told by the characters for my personal taste.
- Sue Grafton: U is for Undertow. Putnam. Adult Mystery. Completed May 1, 2014, on Kindle (library copy). I'm finding these good exercise bike books, for some reason. I'll be sorry when I finish catching up.
- Jodi Picoult: Second Glance. Atria Books. Adult Fiction. Completed May 3, 2014, on MP3. This book got off to a slow start for me, but I enjoyed it once I became invested in the story. It's a book that will make readers think.
I'm currently reading Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life by P.J. Hoover in print and Expiration Day by William Campbell Powell on Kindle. I'm listening to Influx by Daniel Suarez. Baby Bookworm is obsessed with Moldylocks and the Three Beards by Noah Z. Jones. You can check out the complete list of books we've read to her this year if you are interested to see more. You can see on the list the impact of her recent visit to the library, from which she brought home a host of TV tie-in and Little Critter-type books.
What are you and your family reading these days? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms.
© 2014 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: Pieces of Me
Author: Amber Kizer
Pages: 304
Age Range: 12 and up
I very much enjoyed Amber Kizer's post-apocalyptic survival story A Matter of Days. In Pieces of Me she takes on a very different topic. Pieces of Me is about a high school girl named Jessica who finds her life connected with those of four other teenagers, after a terrible accident.
Stop here if you prefer to know nothing about a book, because I can't discuss this book without telling you what it's about. The truth is strongly hinted at by the title and jacket copy, and becomes clear quite early in the book anyway.
So what happens is that Jessica, who always felt more or less invisible in high school, ends up brain dead in a car crash. Her various organs are donated and transplanted into the bodies of four other teens, three of them local and one from another state. Jessica's consciousness remains tied to these four teens, and in alternating chapters we hear her thoughts on their continued experiences (though she is not able to communicate with them). Eventually, the threads of Jessica that connect these teens bring them together.
I found this to be an interesting premise. The alternating chapters lend a certain suspense to the story, and seeing the characters (eventually) as they see one another helps to give a clear view. There's a fairly overt pro-organ donation message to this book, which is addressed directly in an author's note at the end. There's also a fair bit of detail about what it's like to have a chronic, life-threatening illness such as cystic fibrosis. This is a book that I do think will expand readers' perspectives, giving them a look into the lives of people whose problems may be bigger than their own.
However, as a reader, I personally had trouble with the viewpoint. Each chapter is kind of a mix of Jessica's viewpoint and that of whichever other kid she is inhabiting (or however you would put it). These sections are in limited third person perspective, from each teen's viewpoint, but then Jessica's thoughts are there, too, sometimes. This is probably deliberate, showing how Jessica's consciousness is becoming intertwined with her organ recipients. But I had trouble wrapping my head around it, and tell what thoughts were from Jessica and what were from Samuel, Vivian, Leif, and Misty. Like this:
"The more time we spent here, the more I felt the humble and special appeal it held for Misty. There was peace here. Answers.... Dropping her backpack on the ground, she slid into a massive leather armchair that was surprisingly comfortable." (Page 61, at the library).
Does Jessica know that Misty is comfortable, and she's telling us? Or is it Misty telling us? Probably this is nit-picking, but thinking things like this kept taking me out of the book. There are also some IM exchanges between the (living) kids, full of abbreviations, that I found hard going, though the target teen audience will probably enjoy them.
I did find the end of the book moving, and Pieces of Me definitely made me think. I probably would have found the premise irresistible when I was a teenager, and I do think that teens today will enjoy it, too. The protagonists are all sympathetic, and quite varied, giving a wide range of readers someone to root for. There's a modern feel to the text, too, with message boards, blogs, and of course hospitals. All in all, I think that Piece of Me is well worth a look by librarians who serve teens, even though it didn't quite work for me personally.
Publisher: Delacorte Press (@RandomHouseKids)
Publication Date: February 11, 2014
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).
© 2014 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: Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy, Book 3)
Author: Laini Taylor
Pages: 624
Age Range: 13 and up
Dreams of Gods & Monsters is the final books in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. (See my reviews of Book 1 and Book 2). If you have read the previous books, you will certainly wish to read Dreams of Gods and Monsters. I think that it wraps up the series in a quite satisfactory manner, while leaving the door open for other books set in the same world.
As in all of Laini's books, the prose in Dreams of Gods and Monsters is rich and evocative, particularly when addressing love and longing. The characters are so fully developed that even when they surprise you, you find their change/growth consistent. The world-building in this series is very strong, with this third book in particular making the history of Eretz (and Earth as conceived by Laini) more clear. The plot is full of twists and surprises, including a character newly introduced in the final book who plays a pivotal role.
I will confess that I had to put this book aside about half-way through, and read something else. The characters were facing so much suffering that I needed a break. But once I came back to Dreams of Gods and Monsters, I read eagerly to the end, and was pleased by the interweaving of plot strands as well as the personal resolution for Karou.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes (though in truth one could open this book at random and find something lyrical and worth quoting on nearly every page):
"Out of betrayal and desperation, amid hostile beasts and invading angels and a deception that felt like an explosion waiting to happen, somehow, here was a beginning." (Page 30, Karou)
"So much to rue, but to what end? All unlived lives cancel one another out. She had nothing but now. The clothes on her back, the blood in her veins, and the promise made by her comrades. If only they would keep it." (Page 110, Karou)
""My wife likes to say that the mind is a palace with room for many guest. Perhaps the butler takes care to install the delegates of Science in a different wing from the emissaries of Faith, lest they take up arguing in the passages."" (Page 274, a Professor of Science)
"No one would understand it, but who cares? She'd just glare at them until they went away. That worked in almost any situation." (Page 419, Zuze)
Dreams of Gods and Monsters is a must-read conclusion to the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. If you haven't read the first two books, and you enjoy fantasy novels with strong characters (particularly strong female characters) and lavish world-building, you are in for a treat. Gather up all three books, and immerse yourself in Laini Taylor's world of angels and monsters, battles and resurrections, suffering and love.
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (@LBKids)
Publication Date: April 8, 2014
Source of Book: Purchased it 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).
© 2014 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: Torn Away
Author: Jennifer Brown
Pages: 288
Age Range: 12 and up
Torn Away by Jennifer Brown is about a teenage girl living in a small midwestern town who loses everything in a tornado. I hadn't read any of Brown's novels up to this point, though I was vaguely familiar with them (particularly Hate List, about a school shooting). She is known for taking on ripped from the headlines stories and making them stand out. I found Torn Away to be a definite page-turner, with gripping descriptions of the tornado and the devastation that it caused. It is a rather depressing book, but one that wrung a few tears out of me in the end.
Jersey is likable without being perfect (a bit pudgier than she might like, and one who prefers to stay behind the scenes, rather than be in the limelight). Prior to the tornado, she is frequently irritated by her irrepressible five year old half sister, Marin. She eventually comes to regret not being nicer to Marin when she had the chance. I personally found this point to be hammered at a tiny heavily. But it did make me resolve to be more patient with the irrepressible preschooler living in my own house. And I respected the author's decision not to sugar-coat Jersey's relationship with her sister. Teens are not always kind to their much-younger siblings - this is a fact of life. Other characters, even those that don't survive, are allowed not to be perfect, which is a big part of what makes the book work.
Jersey's experience after the tornado, when she is sent to live with her estranged father and his heinous family, is in some ways worse than the tornado itself. Brown's tone is somewhat matter of fact, rather than overly melodramatic, which helps to keep Torn Away from being too sad to bear. Here are a couple of snippets:
"Had I not know I was standing in my living room, I never would have guessed this was my house. The roof was completely missing. The whole thing. No holes or tears--gone. Some of the outside walls were also missing, and the remaining walls were in perilously bad conditions. One was leaning outward, the window blown and the frame hanging by a corner. Farther away, where the living room and the kitchen normally, met, the house just... ended." (Chapter Four, ARC).
"What the news crews couldn't show was the real damage Elizabeth's monster tornado had left behind. How do you record the wreckage left in someone's heart? I pulled out a piece of gum and popped it into my mouth, then smoothed out the foil. I found a pen on the nightstand and drew a picture of a big stick figure holding a little stick figure." (Chapter Eleven, ARC)
When I was a teenager, I would have adored this book. A natural disaster! A compelling plot full of terrible things happening to someone delightfully ordinary. Complex family relationships. Torn Away has a lot going for it. As an adult reader I enjoyed it, despite feeling the tiniest bit emotionally manipulated. My inkling to read Hate List has increased, in any case.
Torn Away is a book that I think will reach teen readers, and give them (at least for a little while) a new appreciation of their families. And perhaps they'll feel a bit more empathy towards the victims of natural disasters seen on the evening news.
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (@LBKids)
Publication Date: May 6, 2014
Source of Book: Advance review copy from the publisher
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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).
© 2014 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: Zoe's Jungle
Author: Bethanie Deeney Murguia
Pages: 40
Age Range: 3-5
My daughter and I both enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) Bethanie Murguia's two previous picture books about Zoe (Zoe Gets Ready and Zoe's Room: No Sister's Allowed). In this third installment, the irrepressible Zoe and her younger sister Addie pretend that a playground is a jungle. Some tension is added to the story by the fact that Mama has decreed that they'll be leaving the park in five minutes. But as it turns out, five minutes is enough time for a jungle adventure, if you have sufficient imagination.
Alternating page spreads show the jungle that Zoe is picturing, vs. the playground as it actually looks. This may be a bit confusing for the youngest readers (my four-year-old wasn't sure what was going on, the first time we read this). But once they understand the device that Murguia is using, I think that kids will enjoy it. For instance, Zoe crosses over an alligator-filled river on a fallen log. The "log" is revealed on the next page to be a wooden bench, passing near some kids playing in a puddle. Not until the final endpages do we see the full view of the park. (And I must say, it's a very nice park!)
Although this is still clearly Zoe's story, it's nice to see her sister growing a bit bigger, and more able to actively take part in things (this is clear from just looking at the cover). The "Addiebeast" runs away and hides, and the brave explorer Zoe must track her down. Addie's polka-dotted dress is echoed in the Addiebeast's spotted tail.
I also, as a parent, enjoyed the by-play between Zoe and her Mama over when they would leave the park. Zoe goes on a huge rant over how five more minutes is "NOT" enough time. At the end of the rant, Mama just says: "Four minutes!". Zoe slumps over, saying: "Is there no respect for the explorer and her quest?" But then Addie distracts her, and the game is on.
I love the green jungle palette of Zoe's Jungle, and the images of kids climbing trees and riding wild beasts, as well as the images of kids just playing in a playground. Mostly I love that Zoe's Jungle is a celebration of imaginative play, as well as a celebration of sibling bonds. Recommended, and sure to become a Baby Bookworm favorite!
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (@Scholastic)
Publication Date: May 27, 2014
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).
© 2014 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.
Today I will be sending out a new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. I currently send out the newsletter once every two weeks. (I'm sending one day early right now because TypePad has been a bit unreliable of late, and I want to get it out while I can.)
Newsletter Update: In this issue I have four book reviews (picture book through young adult) and two posts with links that I shared on Twitter recently. I also have a post documenting my Baby Bookworm's plan to turn her bedroom into a library.
Reading Update: In the last two weeks I read four young adult and three adult titles. I skewed towards the older age range because most of this reading took place during a cross-country trip that I took (to attend my college reunion at Duke). A high point of the trip for me was a friend telling me that reading my blog had encouraged her to continue reading aloud to her kids. So nice to have the chance to make a difference (and to hear about it)! Anyway, I read:
- Jennifer Brown: Hate List. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Young Adult. Completed April 10, 2014, on Kindle (library copy).
- Meg Rosoff: Picture Me Gone. Putnam Juvenile. Young Adult. Completed April 11, 2014, on Kindle (library copy).
- Ashley Elston: The Rules for Breaking. Disney-Hyperion. Young Adult. Completed April 13, 2014, digital ARC on Kindle. I must admit that I didn't enjoy this one as much as I did the first book: The Rules for Disappearing. But for fans of YA thrillers (including a teen in the witness protection program), this 2-book series is worth a look.
- Stephen Chbosky: The Perks of Being a Wallflower. MTV Books. Young Adult. Completed April 22, 2014, on MP3. I enjoyed this book, but my appreciation was diminished a bit by the fact that I had already seen the movie, and knew how it would end. Both book and movie are well done, though.
- Sue Grafton: S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone series). Berkley. Adult Mystery. Completed April 13, on Kindle (library copy).
- Harlan Coben: Missing You. Dutton. Adult Mystery. Completed April 18, on MP3.
- Sue Grafton: T is for Trespass (Kinsey Millhone series). Berkley. Adult Mystery. Completed April 21, 2014, on Kindle (library copy).
I'm currently reading Dreams of Gods and Monsters, the conclusion to Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone series on Kindle, and Pieces of Me by Amber Kizer in print. Baby Bookworm's policy these days is to immediately ask to be read aloud any new book that comes into the house, from board books through early readers. You can check out the complete list of books we've read to her this year if you are interested to see more.
What are you and your family reading these days? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms.
© 2014 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: Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile
Author: Marcia Wells
Illustrator: Marcos Calo
Pages: 256
Age Range: 9-12 (lightly illustrated middle grade)
Mystery of the Museum Mile is the first book of the new Eddie Red Undercover series by Marcia Wells. Eddie Red is a code name for Edmund Xavier Lonnrot, a sixth grader with a photographic memory and the ability to draw (well) anyone he has seen. When Eddie's talents are inadvertently discovered by the New York Police Department, he is hired to help on a special case involving art theft. He's only supposed to visit some museums and draw the people he sees, under the guidance of a grouchy but protective cop named Bovano. But of course things get more complicated, and more dangerous, than that.
So, ok, there are a couple of points here requiring suspension of disbelief. The NYPD hiring an 11-year-old? Said 11-year-old's parents going along with it? The photographic memory AND drawing skill? But personally, I found it well worth letting those points go and enjoying the ride.
Edmund (or Eddie Red, as you may prefer to think of him) is a solid character. Smart, sure, but realistically insecure about it. Loyal to his best friend, who has pretty serious OCD. Eddie breaks the rules in order to learn more about the case, but he's nervous about that. He's not your young James Bond, able to do everything. He's more your regular kid who has one particular skill. He desperately wants to solve the case so that he can make enough money to remain in his private school.
Eddie is also pretty matter-of-fact about being a young African-American male in the city. The color of his skin isn't a big deal, but it's not glossed over, either. It's an integral part of who he is, and who his parents are. This, together with his white friend Jonah's quirks, makes this a mystery that should feel relevant to a wider range of kids than many. Eddie does have a very mild love interest, which didn't really feel necessary to me, but there's not enough to it to be off-putting for younger kids.
The mystery involves following clues, putting things together, and applying a bit of geometry (Jonah is helpful here). A fair number of scenes take place in Jonah and Eddie's school for gifted kids, which I found interesting.
Here are a few snippets, to give you a feel for Wells' writing:
"People always ask how to spell my name. It's European and looks pretty unusual, but it's easy to pronounce: Lawn-rot. Some family down south owned my ancestors back in the slave days, and the name stuck." (Page 16)
"I try to follow. Sadie, our cat-who-may-be-an-evil-overlord-in-disguise, heads me off. Leaping in front of the kitchen door, she arches her back in a ripple of fur and hisses." (Page 39)
"He remains standing, staring out the window. He has quite a pasta/beer belly packed onto his tall body. This man is what my mother would call a touch cookie. Only he's more like a tough loaf of old and angry Italian break, with too much garlic mixed in." (Page 53)
There are also occasional full-page illustrations, representing Eddie's drawings of important characters in the story. Calo's pencil (charcoal?) sketches are a bit professional to actually be created by a sixth grader, but they are a nice addition to book, fleshing out Eddie's talent and giving readers a glimpse of the characters.
All in all, Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile is a nice addition to the ranks of middle grade mysteries. I look forward to Eddie's further adventures. Recommended!
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (@HMHBooks)
Publication Date: April 1, 2014
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).
© 2014 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: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Pages: 240
Age Range: 12 and up
We Were Liars, e. lockhart's upcoming young adult novel, is fabulous. I couldn't put it down, particularly the last third. On finishing it, I had to go back and immediately re-read large chunks of the book. This is something I never do. Yes, it is that good.
Really, if you are an e. lockhart fan, or a fan of suspenseful young adult fiction of any stripe, that should be enough. You should stop reading here. Because this is NOT a book that you want spoiled. You want to go into it knowing as little about it as possible.
The protagonist isn't wholly likable. She's wealthy, beautiful and spoiled (with heavy parallels to the Kennedy family). She doesn't even know the names of the people who work for her extended family every summer. But it doesn't matter. She is compelling anyway - I promise.
The primary setting, a private island near Martha's Vineyard, isn't one that will resonate with most readers' personal experience. But that doesn't matter, either. Lockhart draws the island so clearly, and the characters so sharply (for good and ill) that you feel like you're there with them.
In terms of mature content, there is some kissing, and some drinking, and some talk of (but no action regarding) sex. But this is a powerful book, and I would not give it to kids under 12.
And honestly, that's all I have to say. Pre-order it, read it when it's available, and try not to read any detailed reviews in the meantime. Highly recommended for teen and adult readers, male or female. I won't stop thinking about We Were Liars for a while.
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (@RandomHouseKids)
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
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).
© 2014 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.
