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Seeing Emily. by Joyce Lee Wong. 2007. Abrams. 288 pages. ISBN: 9780810992580

Emily is a Chinese-American  teenager who is an artist, a good student, and a hard worker in her parents' Chinese restaurant. Though her immigrant parents don't approve of her dating, wearing lipstick, or defying their rules, when Emily meets Nick, she begins trying on different identities and getting a feel for life as Nick's girlfriend. She likes how it feels when he kisses her, until she realizes Nick only sees her ethnicity, not who she truly is. 

The book jacket makes it sound like this is a story about a prim and proper young woman who throws caution to the wind and becomes a rebel in order to impress her boyfriend. The story inside the cover is quite different. This is not a wild romance, or a tale of teenage rebellion. Rather, it is a story about identity, and about coming of age as one's true self. At the start of the book, Emily is struggling to create an "interior self-portrait" for her art class. She is meant to draw an interior space that represents who she is, but everything she draws comes out darker than she expects. As the story progresses, Emily explores that darker side of her personality, not as a meaningless demonstration of her independence in the face of strict parents,  but as a personal journey of discovery. Emily ends up exactly where she belongs, in the end, but not until she has satisfied her curiosity about those sides of her personality she has not yet uncovered.  

I appreciate the subtlely of Wong's style. She addresses many issues in the three sections that comprise Emily's story, but she doesn't draw clear conclusions for the reader. Nick's behavior toward Emily - and his father's reception of her - are certainly examples of pretty egregious racism, but the author lets the reader figure that out based on context clues. She lets us understand, from Nick's words and Emily's reaction to them, that she is uncomfortable in the relationship, and that his behavior is unacceptable, but she doesn't give a lecture to the reader. This kind of open-endedness makes this a great book for discussion about cultural identity, and about the subtleties of human relationships that sometimes make it hard for girls to realize when they're in a bad one. Some readers might be turned off by the uncertainty of not being told what to think about various events. Myself, I had some trouble with the ending, which, while happy, does not tie things up that neatly or satisfyingly. Still, I can't imagine a different ending working better. Wong remains true to her style all the way through her book, and what emerges is a portrait of one girl doing her best to grow up into the person she is meant to be. 

Seeing Emily will appeal to female young adult readers from all backgrounds, especially those who feel at odds with their parents' ideals, and those who have been in relationships with boys who don't really see their true selves. It would also make a great addition to high school poetry lessons. There is a lot of beautiful figurative language throughout the book that would provide interesting opportunities for analysis, while also allowing students to enjoy a relevant and interesting story.

I borrowed Seeing Emily from my local public library. 

For more about this book, visit Goodreads and Worldcat.

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Where I Live. by Eileen Spinelli. 2007. Dial. 112 pages. ISBN: 9780803731226

Diana loves where she lives. A family of birds has a nest over the back door, and her best friend, Rose, lives close enough that they can wave to each other from their windows. When Diana's dad loses his job, and the family decides to move in with Diana's grandpa, Diana just can't imagine what it will be like to live somewhere else. It is only after she says goodbye to her old house and old friends that she realizes that change brings happy things along with the sad.

This short chapter book in verse covers very familiar ground. There are countless children's books about moving, and many of them repeat the same events and emotions over and over again. This story is different, though, because it's not just about the moving process. About half of the book actually occurs before the move, so the reader gets a sense of Diana's life in her old house. Because the reader is invested in her old life, he or she is able to sympathize that much more with Diana when she learns she is moving. This means that Diana's feelings about where she lives - not the move - become the central focus of the story. The book becomes less of a "moving" book and more of a presentation of how our lives are affected by where we live.

The unique language of Spinelli's verse is another notable feature of this book. I picked out several lines and phrases that struck me as particularly evocative and interesting. One such phrase was "purpy flopple," which is the nickname Rose has given to the floppy purple hat she allows Diana to keep as a going away present. This is such a small, silly phrase, yet it's one of the most memorable in the book. I also thought Spinelli did a lovely job writing the moment at which Diana and her family drive away from their old house and Diana watches as Rose gets further and further away.

I watch her from the back window
until she is a tiny speck -
the hardest goodbye of all.
There is also a wonderful description of Diana's little sister, Twink, that sums up her personality perfectly.

Twink's tub water
turn blue...
dark...
dreamy...
like a lake
after midnight.
Twink is always
making stuff like this happen.
Accidentally.

I love these specific moments of insight into the characters. I also enjoyed the friendship between Diana and Rose, where they share each other's diaries and manage to get along despite their major differences of opinion about subjects like astronomy. I also like that, when Diana does make a friend at her new house who likes things that Rose does not like, she does not feel guilty or assume that she is replacing her best friend. This is yet another plot point that separates this book from others on the same subject.

Where I Live is similar to Julie Sternberg's Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, and its tone also reminds me of Lulu and the Duck in the Park and Lulu and the Dog from the Sea. Though it is written in verse, I think it will appeal mainly to girls in grades 2 to 4, especially those with little sisters and fun best friends of their own.

I borrowed Where I Live from my local public library. 

For more about this book, visit Goodreads and Worldcat.

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On his twelfth birthday, the unnamed narrator of this Gary Paulsen novel receives a lawn mower from his grandmother. Figuring he might make a few bucks, he starts mowing a few of the neighbors’ lawns. Soon, though, he finds himself with more lawns than he can handle and a stockbroker helping him reinvest his money. When all is said and done, he has more money than he ever could have imagined and almost no idea how it all happened.

Though I often think of Gary Paulsen as the author of outdoor adventure stories, I’m finding that his recent comic titles about early adolescence are a lot of fun as well. This one is obviously not very realistic, but it is entertaining as well as educational. Readers become invested (ha ha) in the narrator’s story because it’s so unlikely, and so humorously conveyed, but along the way they also learn basic principles of economics. Some of the concepts will go over younger reader’s heads, but middle school kids might actually be able to learn some real math as the narrator tries to figure out his newfound wealth. Reluctant readers will also gravitate toward the swiftly moving plot and small number of pages.

Fans of Gary Paulsen’s other humorous novels - Harris and Me, Liar Liar, Crush, Masters of Disaster, etc. - will eagerly devour Lawn Boy, as will readers who like the zaniness of Tom Angleberger, Louis Sachar, and Frank Cottrell Boyce (whose Millions would make an especially great read-alike for this book.) Teachers with a need for math-related stories might pair Lawn Boy with The Lemonade War, or any of the other titles on my “Do the Math” book list. There is also a sequel to Lawn Boy called Lawn Boy Returns.

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Remembering Mrs. Rossi. by Amy Hest. 2007. Candlewick Press. 192 pages. ISBN: 9780763621636

Annie lives with her father, Professor Rossi, in New York City, where the two of them are mourning the loss of Annie’s mom, Mrs. Rossi, who was a sixth grade teacher. The mourning process is very difficult, especially for Annie, who finds that her dad just doesn’t do things the way her mom would. Both Annie and her dad find solace, however, in a book created by Mrs. Rossi’s sixth graders in which they share their memories of their beloved teacher.

Thanks to Jennifer’s review at Jean Little Library, I recently learned that Letters to Leo, which I previously reviewed, is actually a sequel to this book! Remembering Mrs. Rossi provides the backstory about Annie’s mother’s death, and her fondness for her teacher, Miss Meadows. Though Letters to Leo made perfect sense without this background, I enjoyed fitting the pieces together and getting a better sense of Annie’s personality and circumstances. I also thought it was interesting that each book incorporated documents. In Letters to Leo, Annie writes letters to her dog; in Remembering Mrs. Rossi, Mrs. Rossi’s students write notes, essays, and stories for Annie and her dad.

I think the greatest strength of Remembering Mrs. Rossi is its portrayal of Annie’s emotions. We understand Annie’s grief and longing for her mother, but we also see little glimmers of hope as things begin to settle into a routine once again. We even see moments of happiness as Annie remembers her mother. The story is gentle in its presentation of each emotion, and kids who have lost a parent will no doubt appreciate those careful nudges toward healing much more than any heavy-handed preaching.

My only complaint is about the way the book is divided. The first portion of the story is straight prose from Annie’s point of view, while the second part is the entirety of the book the sixth graders write about Mrs. Rossi. Since Annie reads and rereads the tributes to her mother throughout the story, I thought it might have been a better idea to mix the two segments of the book together, so that the reader could see directly how Annie’s thoughts and actions are influenced by memories of her mother. It was still interesting to read this way, but it wasn’t especially cohesive, and I started losing interest towards the end.

This is an excellent book to recommend to kids who have lost their mom, and also a nice way to inspire kids to help friends or classmates who might be going through a similar loss. I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to read this first book in order to enjoy Letters to Leo, kids who like to know the whole story will definitely want to read both.

I borrowed Remembering Mrs. Rossi from my local public library. 
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No Talking. by Andrew Clements. June 1, 2007. Simon & Schuster. 160 pages. ISBN: 9781416909835

No Talking is a school story about a particularly chatty fifth grade class. Their teachers have been trying since kindergarten to get these kids to stop talking so much during the school day, and they have never been able to do it. This is why they are so surprised when, one afternoon, the entire class falls silent. Little do they know that Dave Packer and Lynsey Burgess have made a bet to see which group - the boys or the girls - can say the fewest words in two days. And little do Dave and Lynsey realize what this experience will teach them about communication, language, and each other.

Clements is a really perceptive author. His observations of school-aged kids are very insightful, and his stories are both realistic and imaginative at the same time. Though his characters are interesting, far more interesting in this book is the school environment itself. By including the points of view of students and teachers, he provides a full, clear portrait of how the school operates, and how the kids' experiment in silence affects that entire system. Too few authors use omniscient narrators in contemporary realistic fiction - Clements's style is a welcome change from the typical first-person or third person limited perspectives. I especially like the way the omniscient third-person narration is able to comment generally on certain characteristics of the individual characters as well as the class as a whole.

Here is my favorite example, from page 19, where the narrator explains about "cooties:"


Statements like this couldn't necessarily be understood or articulated by the kids in the story, but readers certainly understand them, and the entire story becomes richer by their addition.

This book can appeal to both boys and girls and would work well as a classroom read-aloud or book club pick. Readers who enjoyed Frindle and other Clements titles will be drawn to this one, as will fans of books like Regarding the Fountain by Kate and Sarah Klise, and the Secrets of a Lab Rat series by Trudy Trueit.

I borrowed No Talking from my local public library. 
For more about this book, visit Goodreads and

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