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)
.

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.