Perspective

In my lifetime I have lived through several wars, but my perspective is very different from that of my grandparents who lived through different wars.  I am accustomed to multiple points of view, there has always been dissent, it would be an anomaly for the country to be completed united in the war effort.  I have not had rations, or shortages, or victory gardens.

But Margaret, in Mary Downing Hahn's Stepping on the Cracks. has grown up with these things.  Her brother is off fighting the war and a blue star hangs in their window.  Margaret is cautious, careful, and shy.  Her best friend Elizabeth is exactly the opposite. Like Margaret, Elizabeth's brother is also fighting the war.  Both girls miss their brothers, but they are convinced that this war is necessary.  The Americans are the good guys and we had to fight the war to stop Hitler.  Everyone is happy to do their part, to give up new bikes at Christmas and to comply with rationing. Besides, at the end of the war both brothers will come back safe and sound.

But as time goes on, and as the girls interact more with Gordy (a boy in their class), they start to wonder if things are so simple.  In their neighborhood blue stars are changing to gold stars-some boys aren't coming home.  Yes, Hitler needs to be stopped, but is war really necessary?  Can any war be a good war?  Did all those boys really want to be soldiers?

I love that this book was able to transport me back to that 'simpler time' everyone always talks about, but it didn't just stay at simple.  Margaret and Elizabeth face hard issues.  Issues that we still face today when our country goes to war.  And it is a good reminder that the regular struggles of 6th grade still happen, even in wartime.

Serving on the homefront...that's kids stuff.  

Joy

Hope your holiday season is filled with joy and well stocked book shelves!

Exciting Opporunity

When I worked at summer camp my boss would often say, "I have an exciting opportunity for someone."  And we would all volunteer because exciting opportunity sounds like something...well, exciting.  Eventually we caught on that 'exciting opportunity' meant something like carting firewood from one end of the camp to the other or plunging a clogged toilet so we stopped volunteering.

But what if those 'exciting opportunities' had actually been exciting.   We probably would have kept volunteering, we may have even fought for those spots.  Well that's exactly what Reynie does when he sees an add in the paper, "are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?"  After a series of bizarre tests, including an offer to cheat, a test where the answers are hidden in other questions, and a maze,  Reynie is selected to go see Mr. Benedict.

And thus begins the adventure in Trenton Lee Stewart's  The Mysterious Benedict Society.  Reynie is not the only gifted child to have passed the test.  He is joined by George aka Sticky, Katie, and Constance.  Together they must find out whats behind the great emergency and uncover the hidden secrets of The Institute.

I have been wanting to read this book for quite awhile now so I was glad to see it on this years Reading Olympics list.  It was definitely worth the wait.  Not to mention it was the perfect book for a rainy Saturday.  A nice thick tome with quirky characters, a beautifully developed storyline, and just a hint of intrigue.

Resisting...that's kids stuff.  

Identical

I have always been fascinated by twins.  I often tease my husband that he is a terrible twin (he has a twin sister).  They don't look particularly alike, they didn't wear a ton of matching outfits, and they never had a secret twin language.  I imagine that identical twins would have done all of those things.  Maybe that's what you get when you grow up watching Mary Kate and Ashley (and yes, I know they're not identical).

But Missy and Claire are identical.  They're cousins and their parents just say it's a strong family resemblance.  But Missy and Claire have sleepovers every weekend.  They text each other constantly, and it feels like they can read each other's minds and sense their emotions.  Like they have some connection much deeper than cousins.  So when Missy gets a school project about hoaxes she decides to pass Claire off as her long lost identical twin. 

It starts as a hoax, a way to earn points in Science class but when the video is posted on the internet nobody can deny that Missy and Claire are identical.  It goes way beyond a family resemblance.  But how can that be?  The girls are cousins not twins.  Their birthdays are 8 weeks apart.  You can't fake a birthday. 

Thanks to the internet, the video spreads like wildfire.  And then something unexpected happens.  And that something changes everything.  I would love to tell you what it was but...spoilers! Caroline B. Cooney's three black swans has completely earned the label of 'thriller.'   

Uncovering a hoax...that's kids stuff. 

PS black swans: events that are hugely important, rare, and unpredictable, and explicable only after the fact.  

Muli bwanji

William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer wrote a book called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.   I LOVED it.  I loved it so much I can't even think of something cute to say or a clever intro  I just want to rave about how much I LOVED this book.  SO much.  SO SO SOO much.  I really really really loved it.  And you should all read it. ASAP.

William grew up in a small village in Malawi. He and his friends love to build things.  William especially has a knack for taking things apart and seeing how they work.  He uses this knowledge to fix things.  Soon William and his friends are fixing radios for other villagers.  But then the famine comes.  Crops die and people are starving.  William's family no longer has the money to send him to school.

But William doesn't give up.  He reads all the science books he can from the local library.  And even though he's not in school anymore he doesn't give up on his dream of bringing electricity to his house.  Using mainly materials found in the junkyard, William is able to build a windmill.  That windmill brings power to his house.   And that's only the beginning.

This book is beautifully written, but it's made even better because this is a true story.  William actually did all of these things.  And I loved being transported back to Africa.  William's tribal language was very similar to what I was learning when in Africa.  Muli bwanji, nshima, the rhythm of the language, the quality of the interactions and the support of the tribe.  This book made me feel...I guess the closest word would be homesick.  I am thrilled that this is a Reading Olympic's book.  Everyone should read this book.

Powering your village...that's kids stuff. 

PS If you want to know more about William's achievements/see how you can help go to movingwindmills.org

Comme Ci, Comme Ca

I took four years of french.  Three years in high school and one in college.  Comme ci, comme ca (ok or so-so) is one of the few phrases that I remember.  To be fair, my teachers were excellent, I've just never been good with languages.

The fairies, excuse me, samll persons with wings in Ellen Booream's Small Persons With Wings speak multiple languages, French being one of them, so it seemed appropriate to dig up whatever remnants of my French knowledge were left floating around my brain.  And, I have to be honest, comme ci comme ca was the perfect expression to remember because, for me, this book was just so-so.

Mellie is 13 years old and has been teased at school ever since she told everyone that she had fairies living with her at home (which was true but who would actually believe that).  Add a little extra 'fluff' and you've got yourself the nickname Fairy Fat.  When her grandfather dies and her family moves to his inn it seems like the perfect opportunity to start over.

Until fairies take over the inn and Mellie finally learns why her family interacts with fairies when no one else does. It sounds exactly like the kind of book I would love.  But I didn't.  I actually found it quite hard to keep reading, I just never engaged with this book.  It didn't grab my attention and pull me into the story.  But it wasn't terrible...it was just...so-so.

Fairies...that's kids stuff.  

Helmet?

Growing up, my mom had one rule that was absolutely non-negotiable.  This rule applied not just to my brother and I but also to any neighborhood kid who came over.  The rule: You must always wear a helmet.  Doesn't matter if it's a skateboard, scooter, or bike; if you are riding something you will wear a helmet.  She would send my best friend back to her house to get a helmet if she came without one.

As a kid it was a little annoying, one more step between me and my bike; not to mention it was embarrassing when she sent my friends back home.  As a grown up (well more grown up than I was) I see the wisdom in her decision and I can recognize she made the right call. Barbara Park's Nick Harte Was Here only reinforces that.

You see Phoebe's brother, Mick Harte died because his bike skidded on a rock and he flew off hitting his head.  If he had been wearing a helmet, he would have lived.  This isn't a spoiler, you learn on page one that Mick has died.  As it says, "So this isn't the kind of book where you meet the main character and you get to like him real well and then he dies at the end."

This is a story of grief.  It's not an uplifting story or a fun read, but it's an important story.  The more I work middle schoolers the more I am convinced that they need a variety of rich texts and authentic stories to draw from.  No, it isn't a fun happy book.  But it's a good one.

Wearing your helmet...that's kids stuff.  

Teacher Swag

Confession time.  I actually hate most teacher books/teacher movies.  They gloss over all of the hard work and frustration and just present some shiny version of what school is like.  I especially hate the way they portray students.  As if students are these one dimensional beings who are terrors one day and then the magic teacher comes and now they're angels.  Real life is much more messy.

So I put off reading because of mr.terupt as I was afraid it would be another sappy teacher story.  I was pleased to find that this book is written from the students perspective-all of them.  It bounces from Jeffrey to Anna to Lexie and so many more.  But what really sold me on this book was the way Rob Buyea captured the students personalities.

For example, Peter says, "If the bathroom pass is free, all you have to do is take it and go.  This year, the bathrooms were right across the hall.  It's always been an easy way to get out of doing work.  I can be really sneaky like that.  I take the pass all the time and the teachers never notice.  And like I said, Mr. Terupt was a rookie, so I knew he wasn't going to catch me."

Later Peter sums up the main dilemma in my teaching career, "Peter, that's not funny,' Mr. T said to me.  'Someone could have  been injured.  You're lucky you didn't hit anyone in the eye.  Go sit down.'  I sat down.  It was no big deal. If you'd been there, you'd agree, it was superfunny."   I can't tell you how many times I needed to hold in my laughter because a student did something inappropriate that was indeed, superfunny.

In the end this is one teacher story I can wholeheartedly recommend.  I find myself forced to agree with the the review on the cover.  Because of Mr. Terupt really is "the masterful story of one teacher who changes everything."

Finishing 5th grade...that's kids stuff.  

What's Your Superpower?

As a former camp counselor and current teacher it's safe to say I have lead a fair amount of icebreakers.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept of an icebreaker it's basically a quick game or silly questions designed to make a group of people who haven't met before feel comfortable around each other.

One of the most common icebreaker questions is "If you could have any superpower, which one would you want?"  Flying is a popular answer, as is reading minds or super strength.  But I think the most popular answer, and the one I always went with, was the power to be invisible.

That's exactly what happens to 15-year old Bobby Phillips in Andrew Clements Things Not Seen.  One night, he goes to sleep-totally normal.  The next morning he wakes up invisible.  Now this sounds like a dream come true, and at first-it is.  Bobby does all the things I would want to do if I became invisible, listen in on conversations, scare your parents, etc.

But then it gets complicated.  See you can only miss so many days of schools and it's not like Bobby's mom can write a note saying "sorry Bobby wasn't at school today, he suddenly turned invisible."  And while being invisible sometimes feels powerful but it can also feel lonely and isolating.  There's also this small, slightly awkward, detail: Bobby is invisible, but things he touches stay visible.  So in order to stay invisible he has to be...naked.  His clothes will still show up.

Desperate to get out of the house Bobby bundles up, gloves, hat, scarf and sunglasses-so no invisibleness peeks through-and heads to the library.   There he has the (mis?) fortune to bump into Alicia, who doesn't notice he's invisible because she is blind.  Together can they solve the mystery of Bobby's invisibility?  Or will he be unseen forever?

I loved this book. I loved Bobby, I loved Alicia, I loved their parents.  This was a great one.

Giving back your superpower (or not)...that's kids stuff.  

What now?

When I was in middle school, historical fiction was my absolute most favorite genre.  Since then I have become more partial to fantasy, but I still have a fondness for historical fiction.  So I was excited to see Ann Rinaldi's Numbering All the Bones on this years Reading Olympic's list.

Eulinda is in a difficult spot, put more accurately her whole life has been a difficult spot.  See her mother is a slave but her father is the owner of the plantation.  Because of that she gets certain privileges, she has learned to read and write, she stays in the plantation house-not the slave quarters, but her master will not formally acknowledge that she is his daughter.  Without that she is still just a slave in the South.  But then the Civil War ends. 

From our vantage point it's easy to think the Civil War has ended, the Emancipation Proclamation has been signed, problem solved.  But the reality was far messier.  For all of its faults the plantation was Eulinda's home.  Her younger brother has been sold away and her older brother is gone, having left to fight for the North.  

Eulinda feels like she has limited options.  That is until Clara Barton arrives.  Numbering All the Bones was an exceptional work of historical fiction not only because Eulinda's story is captivating and captures the essence of struggles that actually happened, but also because it inspired me to learn more about actual historical figures- like Clara Barton.  

Creating a new life in a new world...that's kids stuff.  

What a Life

I enjoyed reading Gary Paulsen's books (Hatchet, The River, etc) when I was growing up, but they were never my favorites.  Many of my classmates (at that time) and students (today) LOVE these books and are desperate to get their hands on as many as possible.

But even these most dedicated fans don't know that the ideas for Hatchet and the rest of Paulsen's outdoor survival books came directly from Paulsen's own real-life experiences. Guts tells the true story of Paulsen's own life experiences.  He also includes how these experiences factored into writing the books.  So, for me, that made Guts fascinating on two levels, one his life is remarkable, and two, I got a sneak peak into how he crafts his stories.

Rather than try to summarize I would like to share two of my favorite quotes from the book.

"We  have grown away from knowledge, away from knowing what something is really like, toward knowing only what somebody else says it is like.  There seems to be a desire to ignore the truth in favor of drama."

[describing hunting using a bow and arrow] "There's a frustration index with arrows that you don't have with guns.  If a gun is aimed correctly and held steady and the trigger squeezed correctly, the bullet will almost always strike where it is pointed.  An arrow can be aimed correctly and held properly and released exactly right and still miss the target completely because of wind or a tiny branch sticking in the way or, apparently, just bad luck."

Real-life adventures...that's kids stuff 

Them

We all know about them.   You know, those people.  They wouldn't like it, they wouldn't wear it, they wouldn't do that.  I'd like to say that this group mentality and the need to fit into that group ends in middle school, but any adult readers of this blog know that that's not true. 

But every now and then you get someone who doesn't care about them.  Not just says they don't care, but actually honestly does not care about what 'they' think.  This is Stargirl in Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl.  When she transfers from homeschooling to the local high school she causes quite the stir.  

How do you even react to someone who is so other, who is so 'not them?'   The students at Mica High can't seem to figure it out.  First they are confused by her, then they love her, then they hate her, then they love her again.   Her ukulele and prairie skirts aren't even the strangest things about her.  She sings happy birthday to everyone, she sends anonymous cards, she genuinely does not notice what other people think of her.  

Stargirl does participate in a few 'normal' aspects of high school life (with her own spin on them of course). She's a cheerleader and she has a boyfriend -Leo.  Even though Stargirl is the title character the book is from Leo's perspective.  He's caught in the middle.  On the one hand, he's enamored by Stargirl, he sees all of the delightful things about her.  On the other hand, Leo cares about 'them,'  and he sees that 'they' do not always respond kindly to Stargirl-and, by extension, him. 

If I had to sum up this book in two words I would say, 'delightfully quirky.'

Being you...that's kids stuff.  

Survivor

Confession time.  I am  HUGE Reality T.V. fan.  I know, I know it's not quality programming, it's mindless entertainment, etc etc.  But what can I say?  I love it!

Growing up one of my favorite shows was Survivor.  I loved the idea of mastering the elements, surviving off the grid with nothing but your wits and and simple tools.  Sherry Shahan's Death Mountain reminds me that to really master the elements and survive off the grid you need skills.  Skills I definitely don't have.

Through a series of missteps Erin ends up hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with Mae, who is basically a stranger to her-Mae and her brother picked up Erin when she was hitchhiking.  A thunderstorm pops up and suddenly the girls are cut off from everyone and way off the trail.

Luckily, Erin has camped a lot with her grandmother and knows some basic survival skills, like how to build shelter, read a map, and make a fire.  Unfortunately, their supplies are limited to a few snack foods, a handful of matches, and a map woefully lacking in detail.

Will Erin and Mae be able to make it out?  I'm definitely not going to tell you (hello, spoilers!), but this book is absolutely worth a read.  It's the perfect size, I could read it in one sitting (and you're gonna want to), there's enough detail to make me feel like I am also lost in the mountains but not so much that you would need to be a survival expert to keep up.  And, don't worry, there's so much more than just hiking.

Outwit, outlast...that's kids stuff.  

Pulls at Your Heartstrings

When I was in school I participated in every band option available.  Concert band? check.  Marching band? Check.  Pit Orchestra? Check.  Symphonic Band? Check.  Jazz Band?  Check (I didn't say I was good at all of them-I just said I participated).  So it was easy for me to identify with Steven (even though I played piano and flute and he's a drummer) in Jordan Sonnenblick's Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie.

Steven takes private drum lessons, is in the school band, and the elite All-City Jazz band.  Besides the fact he can't figure out girls at all and his bandmates stuck him with the nickname Peasant, Steven's life is going pretty well.  That is until his little brother Jeffrey falls off a stool in the kitchen and gets the world's biggest nosebleed.

The nosebleed seems unusual because it is unusual.  Jeffrey goes to the hospital because of his nosebleed and he comes back with a leukemia diagnosis.  And just like that everyone's life is turned upside down.  Band practices go from being fun to being the only sane, safe spot in Steven's life.  His mother and brother are traveling two and from Philadelphia multiple times a week for treatment, his father has checked out, bills are pilling up and so is Steven's homework.

I'd love to give you a sense of how it all turns out but that would be a spoiler.   You'll just have to read it yourself.  As the kids say (actually I have no idea of the kids are still saying this or not) this book gives you "all the feels."

Being a protector...that's kids stuff.   

Look, Loons!

My family, specifically my mother and her siblings, loves loons.  Every year we go camping by a lake in the Adirondacks and every year someone will say, "I think I heard a loon."  And then everyone will rush to the lake hoping to get a glimpse of this amazing creature.   So at this point we have the loon t-shirts (loonatic), loon stuffed animals, and, of course, a loon call.

This year I will have to bring Cynthia Lord's half a chance to add to the collection.  Lucy's family moves to a lake house in New Hampshire and, of course, that lake has loons.  The next door neighbor Grandma Lilah is the head of the loon patrol (I can just see my family forming a loon patrol on our next camping trip) and records the daily comings and goings of the loons.

But half a chance is really about Lucy and her photography.  Lucy's father is a professional photographer and Lucy always wonders if her work will every be good enough to even come close to what her father does. Lucy befriends the neighbors, Noah and Emily, and together they work on completing a photo contest Lucy's father is judging.  If Lucy enters a fake name, maybe her father will finally recognize her talent...or she'll know once and for all that she isn't good enough.

For the contest, they need to submit one photo that best shows a list of words/phrases.  I'm feeling inspired to do that photo contest myself (maybe that's my next instagram project).  The words are, "your name, design, three feet, secret, collection, skip, holding on, sticky, journey, beyond reach, heading home, at the shore, exit, left behind, lines, a closer look, wonder, unexpected, on its own, a new day, at the crossroads, out of place, texture, hope, now and then, lost."

Taking a chance (even half a chance)...that's kids stuff.  

Aren't You a Little Young

Growing up, one of the things that bothered me the most was when someone said, "aren't you a little young for that?"  UGH!!  It always made me so mad.  I think that's a pretty universal feeling.  We all want to feel capable of whatever we set our minds to regardless of age.  

I think that feeling is why we are so drawn to stories that have a young protagonist.  Look at Harry, he saved the wizarding world when he was still in his teens.  Katniss won the hunger games (more than once) and spearheaded a revolution.  The Pevensie siblings became kings and queens of Narnia before they even finished school.  So it's no wonder that the Alex Rider series is so popular.

Alex Rider is only 14 years old, but he is already a spy for MI6.  Not that he had much choice in the matter, read about the first book in this series here.  Point Blank picks up shortly after Stormbreaker left off.  But here's the great part.  You don't have to read Stormbreaker to understand Point Blank.  They're each separate adventures (kinda like James Bond).

In Point Blank Alex is sent to infiltrate a very prestigious private school.  So prestigious they only have a handful (aka less than 10) of students at a time and the fees are over $15,000 a term.  Right away Alex realizes that there is something suspicious about the other students.  They're all exactly 14 years old, they all have wealthy powerful parents, and somehow they all seem to have the same mannerisms.  Could they be brainwashed?  Or is there something more?

Point Blank is filled with everything a good spy novel needs.  An effortlessly cool yet supremely talented spy (that's Alex), creepy locations (that's the school), a villain who is simultaneously terrifying and intriguing (not gonna tell you, you'll have to read the book yourself), and plenty of ingenious gadgets.

Going undercover...that's kids stuff.  

What Just Happened

You know how a lot of Disney movies will start with something really peaceful and happy and then all of a sudden tragedy strikes?  Like The Lion King, Up, Bambi, Frozen, basically all of them.  Well Cynthia Kadohata's Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam is kinda like that.

Cracker! opens with Cracker (the dog) living a life of bliss with his human Will.  And, if you're anything like me, you will wonder, 'how do we get to Vietnam from here?'  Well cue Will's family moving to an apartment that doesn't allow pets and a heart wrenching, punch in the gut scene, where handlers come to take Cracker to military training while a sobbing Will looks on.

Once your emotions recover from that tear-jerking moment you will meet Rick, a generalist who knows he doesn't want to work in his family's hardware store but doesn't know what he does want to do so he ends up enlisting, after all there is a war going on (Vietnam).

Turns out, dogs were used in Vietnam to sniff out booby traps and hidden fighters.  You guessed it, Rick and Cracker are paired up and together they are shipped off to Vietnam or as Rick puts it, "to whip the world."

My favorite part about this book is that it flips from the human to the dog point of view.  Kadohata has perfectly captured what I think a dog would be thinking and feeling.  It was an absolute pleasure to read the sections from Cracker's point of view.  But make no mistake, this book is about a war.  So though it is an excellent book, if booby traps and military life aren't your thing then maybe this book isn't for you.

Becoming a team...that's kids stuff.  

At Least We're Not...

Like many people, I am troubled over the increasingly hateful rhetoric of this campaign season.  I am saddened by people's comments in facebook newsfeeds and other online forums and it leaves me wondering how we got here as a nation.  We read an excerpt of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea and I found myself thinking, "at least we don't live in North Korea."

Then, as I continued my quest to read all of the Reading Olympic books before the competition, I moved on to Jennifer Nielsen's A Night Divided. This tells the story of Gerta, a girl who is suddenly left with half a family when the Berlin wall goes up overnight.  Her father and brother had left to find an apartment in West Berlin when the wall went up, so just like that they are separated.

As I read about Gerta's life I was astounded by her principles, the way she was able to hold on to her dream for freedom-even with the Stasi hounding her every move.  I was saddened by the way the government disrupted Gerta's friendships, caused her family distress, and created a climate of fear. I think the most heartbreaking scene is when Gerta sees her father across the wall and knows there is no way she can get to him.  Her father pantomimes a song they used to sing complete with motions.  At first she thinks it's just a reminder of happier times, but then she wonders what if it's something more?

Our country isn't perfect, but at least it isn't East Berlin....or North Korea.

Fighting for freedom...that's kids stuff.  

Nature or Nurture?

Sometimes I meet a student's parent and all of a sudden everything makes sense.  It's why they (whoever they is) made the saying "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."  We all get things from our parents-that's how DNA works.

But I've also experienced the opposite.  When we were dating my husband was a ripped jeans and stained hoodie kind of a guy.  He wasn't interested in anything fancy from food to clothes.  So imagine my surprise when I first met his parents and found them to be fashion forward with an impeccably decorated condo and we ate dinner by candlelight. When we met my husband and I were both working at a summer camp (he was working/living there year round) and that environment shaped who he was.

I always come down on the side that it's a little bit of both.  But then I read Masterminds by Gordon Korman and I started to re-think that.  Masterminds focuses on a set of adolescents being raised in Serenity, New Mexico-the most perfect town in the world.  Honesty and integrity are the most important things.  So you would expect kids raised in Serenity to be perfect kids.

But what if there's something else....something you can't see at first sight.  There can't really be perfect kids?  Can there?

I want to say soo much more about this book-I couldn't put it down.  But anything else would be a HUGE spoiler.  So all I can say is read this book yourself. You won't regret it.

Self-Discovery....that's kids stuff.  

Wait...this is a Science Book

It's no secret I am not a science person.  I took Chemistry for Living in college (because I heard a rumor the final lab was making ice cream) and I must have an answer key whenever I am helping students with science otherwise I'm no help at all.

Science fiction, on the other hand, is a bit of a different story.  So even though I was skeptical, how could I not be with a title like Tesla's Attic, I ended up really enjoying this story (even with the science references).

Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman's Tesla's Attic tells the story of 14 year old Nick.  It picks up right as Nick, his father, and brother are forced to move to Colorado after their old house burns down.  As if that transition wasn't hard enough the boys are on their own as their mother was killed in the fire.  Searching for some normalcy Nick holds a garage sale and tries to sell off all the weird junk that was in the attic.

Turns out that weird junk was designed by the famous scientist Nikola Tesla so the toaster isn't just a toaster and that old camera is so much more than an old camera.  That junk units Nick with a core group of friends and leads them all into an adventure of epic (think armageddon) proportions.

So I may not be a science person...but I will definitely be reading the next two books in this trilogy.

Finding use for junk...that's kids stuff.  

42

The answer to life, the universe, and everything.  I didn't know about this until I entered college and was assigned to peer group 42.  One of my groupmates quickly said, "awesome we're in the group that's the answer to life, the universe, and everything."  "Huh?" I said.  And thus revealed to everyone that I had never read A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  

But more than that I had never really thought about the meaning of life.  Jeremy Fink and I had that in common.  In Wendy Mass Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Jeremy is about to turn 13 and so far his biggest life struggle has been grieving the loss of his father.  But when he gets a package in the mail-a box his father had prepared before his death-his now has a bigger problem. 

You see the box says, "the Meaning of Life: For Jeremy Fink to open on his 13th Birthday."  The problem is that the box has 4 different locks which means Jeremy needs to find 4 unique keys in order to open the box.   

While searching for the keys Jeremy starts to wonder if he'll ever find them.  Which leads him to try to figure out the meaning of life on his own. Well, not quite on his own, his best friend Lizzy is there to help him.  Their quest takes them on quite a ride from flea markets, to antique dealers to the police station.  

Does Jeremy ever find the meaning of life?  Will he ever be able to open the box?   Guess you'll just have to read it. 

Finding the key...that's kids stuff.  

Our Lives are Different

I live in a fairly monochromatic area.  By which I mean, it's mostly white people where I live.  So when I went to Zambia it was quite a change to now be the only white person around.  I was the only white person on the bus, in the store, or walking down the street.

When I read Linda Sue Park's A Long Walk to Water I so identified with the main character when he said, "Salva had seen more white people in the last few hours than he had seen before in his whole lifetime." I also appreciate the frankness about race both in A Long Walk to Water and in my time in Zambia.  People look different and it is ok to acknowledge that.  The problem is when people start thinking one look is better than another.  They're different.  Not better and certainly not worse.

A Long Walk to Water goes back and forth between the stories of Nya, a young girl who needs to make the long walk to the stream twice a day every day to get water, and Salva-a boy who is separated from his family when the rebels attack his school.  Each story is both heartbreaking and triumphant.  This book truly is a gem in a small package.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Fetching water...that's kids stuff.  

New

Happy Fall Y'all.  Sorry, couldn't help it.  I love fall and since today's book is all about new things I thought I would wish you a happy start to the fall season (which happens to be my very favorite).

Raina Telgemeier's Smile is a comic book about a 6th grader named Raina, and as you can probably guess from the cover-Raina needs braces.  But when she falls while running with her friends the braces get a lot more complicated.  So, as readers, we get to follow Raina through the whole braces/retainer/head gear process.  Which means we get to see her all the way through high school.  I loved that about this book!

I can already hear your main questions, "you mean this whole book is about a girl getting braces!?"  Yes and no.  Braces were a big deal in Raina's life so she talks about them throghout the book.  But more than that it's a look at Raina's life during the time she had her dental drama, which happens to be a pivotal, awkward, and dramatic part of her life (for more reasons than just the braces)
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Ok brace yourself (haha) for a cheesy line.  This book lived up to its name as I definitely had a smile while reading it.

Showing your smile...that's kids stuff.  

Evening is Coming

Ok, I get it it's a bad pun.  And no this isn't a Game of Thrones post (those books are amazing but they are definitely not for this age range).  But with a title like Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, I couldn't help myself.

This is the second installment in Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series.  A full year has passed since Kendra and Seth last visited their grandparents.  In that time the threat of the Evening Star (an evil group trying to conquer places like Fablehaven) has become stronger so the Sorenson's have invited three experts to help.

While these experts search for an extremely powerful magical artifact hidden somewhere on the vast property, they are also training Kendra and Seth.  If they are going to take over Fablehaven some day, they will need all the training they can get.  But can all three of these experts really be trusted?

Rise of the Evening Star takes us even deeper into the magical world of Fablehaven.  I just love learning more about this enchanted place and am very much enjoying this series. But, as with everything, there is a balance.  The more the children explore and get to know this hidden magical world, the more real and serious the danger becomes.

Learning who to trust...that's kids stuff.