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The Last Holiday Concert is a heartwarming holiday tale by Andrew Clements. Like his other books, this is a school story, and the focus is on that yearly tradition well known to so many families with elementary school kids: the holiday concert.  Mr. Meinert, the music teacher at Palmer Intermediate School has lost his job due to budget cuts. His students, including popular sixth grader, Hart Evans, aren't aware that they'll be losing their choral director, however, so for them it's business as usual. They don't take chorus - or their upcoming holiday concert - seriously at all. Hart even goes so far as to amuse himself during rehearsal by shooting a rubber band at the ceiling. When he hits Mr. Meinert, however, things take a surprising turn. Next thing he knows, Hart is in charge of the holiday concert, and it's up to him whether the sixth grade chorus will sink or swim in front of its audience.

Before this year, the only Andrew Clements book I had read was Frindle. This year, I added No Talking, Troublemaker, The Landry News, and About Average to my list, and it has been a real pleasure getting to know an author who writes such wonderful realistic school stories. The Last Holiday Concert combines a lot of the signature elements I have come to associate with Clements's work. The story provides the point of view of the main child character as well as of some of the key adults in his life. Family scenes appear now and then, when necessary to the plot, but most of the action takes place within the school setting and focuses on Hart's relationship with Mr. Meinert. Though putting a student completely in charge of a holiday concert seems like an unlikely thing for a teacher to do, Clements makes it really plausible by putting so much realism into the book. Hart and his classmates behave as real kids do, and Mr. Meinert's thoughts and actions humanize him as something more than just that strict chorus teacher the kids don't really like. As in his other books, Clements promotes change in his main character by taking  him out of his comfort zone and presenting him with a true challenge.

The ending of the story is definitely heartfelt, and the way Clements describes the kids' concert is dramatic enough to bring a few tears to the eyes of the reader, especially if that reader is an adult who works with kids. This is a bit of a spoiler, only in the sense that I'm telling you something that doesn't happen, but I was pleased to see that the story's happy ending didn't tie up every loose end. Mr. Meinert never gets his job back. Hart makes a difference, for himself, and for Mr. Meinert, but Clements keeps us grounded in reality by avoiding that It's a Wonderful Life - esque ending, and the book is stronger for it.

The Last Holiday Concert is not just a Christmas story, and the events of the story closely mirror holiday celebrations at many public elementary schools, so this would be a good non-denominational read-aloud for diverse elementary school classes. Those who have also read Clements's The Landry News will note some parallels between Hart's experiences with Mr. Meinert and Cara's with Mr. Larson - it might be interesting to compare and contrast the two relationships to understand better how Clements builds his stories. Whatever the time of year, and whatever the subject matter, you truly can't wrong with a novel by Andrew Clements. I look forward to exploring more of his backlist in 2013, and I can't wait to read more of his future school stories as well.

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Spin Control by Niki Burnham. December 28, 2004. Simon Pulse. 256 pages. ISBN: 9780689866692

Do Over by Niki Burnham. September 26, 2006. Simon Pulse. 240 pages. ISBN: 9780689866692

In these last two books in the trilogy now compiled as Royally Crushed, Valerie continues to experience the ups and downs of her relationship with Prince Georg. In Spin Control, she believes she has been dumped, so when she heads home to Virginia for Winter Break, she goes on a date with David Anderson, only to discover that she loves Georg more than ever. In Do Over, she returns to Schwerinborg to reconcile with Georg, and to work on gaining confidence in his feelings for her, even if they can’t always demonstrate their affections where the press can see. Before the end of the trilogy, Valerie also sees her dad start dating again, and finally finds a way to come clean with her friends about her mother’s newly revealed homosexuality.

I know this trilogy is not the best-written in the world, but I really loved reading it. The ultimate outcome was fairly predictable, but the emails between Val and her friends in Virginia, and her awkward uncertainty around Georg, as well as the cattiness of the girls in her Schweringborgian school, all made for great entertainment. I was distracted repeatedly by references to Heath Ledger, who has died since the publication of these books, but the Google books preview of the new edition shows that this problem has been corrected with several passing references to Ledger resting in peace. The only other thing that felt vaguely out of place was the fact that Val and her friends email rather than text or send Facebook messages, but I am sure there are teenagers out there somewhere for whom this is still the norm, so it doesn’t ruin the books by any means.

All in all, these are light reads, even at their most serious moments, and they provide insight into all the drama of first relationships without ever becoming too weepy, or losing hope that the ending would be happy. The series was definitely worth finishing, and I’ll be looking for more from Niki Burnham, starting with her latest book for teens, Shot Through the Heart. 

Read my review of the first book in the Royally Crushed trilogy, Royally Jacked, here.

I borrowed Spin Control and Do Over from my local public library. 

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Say What? by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  February 10th 2004. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. 96 pages. ISBN: 9780689862557

This realistic fiction chapter book by Margaret Peterson Haddix introduces six-year-old Sukie, seven-year-old Reed, and nine-year-old Brian, three kids whose parents seem to have suddenly lost their minds. Usually, when the kids do something wrong, they can predict the warning they will receive from their parents, but lately, Mom and Dad have been giving the wrong warnings for the wrong offenses. When Sukie kicks Brian, Mom says, “Waste not, want not” and for running in the house, she gets asked, “If your friends jumped off a bridge would you jump off a bridge, too?” At first the kids speculate that their parents have been replaced by robots, but when they learn the truth, they decide it’s time to give the adults a taste of their own medicine.

Say What? is a funny slice-of-life family story that is ideal for parents and kids to read aloud together. It focuses on simple everyday issues of discipline, communication, and listening skills that come up in every family, and puts a new spin on them, opening up opportunities for lots of fun discussions about how families work. The text is simple enough that new chapter book readers can read it independently, but the plot is also interesting enough that adults will stay invested in it as well. Each of the three children is a well-developed character with a unique personality. Reed’s active imagination, Brian’s bossy older brother persona, and Sukie’s sweet innocence complement each other perfectly, and the siblings’ teamwork is one of the story’s best features.

The best audience for this book will be kids who like gentler books that stick close to home. Readers who enjoy the Princess Posey, Martin Bridge, and Ellray Jakes series will feel right at home in this story, and will be pleased (as I was) to learn of Haddix’s other chapter books: The Girl With 500 Middle Names and Dexter the Tough.

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