Annie on My Mind

Garden, N. (1982). Annie on my mind. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

Eliza, Liza, meets Annie at a museum in October of her senior year.  The 17 year old girls begin a friendship.  Liza goes to a private school that is having struggles with their funding and being the student council president she is expected to maintain a higher standard and be above reproach.  As she struggles with suspension for not following the “spirit of the rules” at school her friendship with Annie continues to grow and as the year progresses Liza struggles with her feelings for Annie as they deepen.  Both girls contemplate with their feelings for each other and how to express those feelings, but when an opportunity to be alone presents itself they can’t resist.

Garden writes a realistic fiction book about a budding lesbian relationship between two high school girls.  She lets the reader learn about the story through a series of flashbacks from Liza’s point of view as she comes to term with her feelings for Annie and her guilt at the choices she made cost people their jobs.  Throughout the book Garden emphasizes the theme of love with Liza just wanting to let people know she and Annie love each other and no one influenced them and it is not right that they should be judged for who they are.  I would suggest this for 9th grade and up.  

Similar books:

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Keeping you a Secret by Julie Anne Peters

http://dreaminginbooks.blogspot.com/2011/04/interview-nancy-garden-on-annie-on-my.html author interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3aChHmZYac trailer

Lily and Dunkin

Gephart, D. (2016). Lily and Dunkin. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

Timothy James McGrother is a girl.  He has known he was a girl since before he was 5.  He would like to be called Lily Jo.  Lily’s dad is struggling with wanting to protect Lily from teasing, torment, and other hurts by telling Lily to just act normal…be a boy.

Norbert Dorfman sees Lily as he is walking by in a pretty red dress, but later meets Tim in a tree in front of the library.  Norbert does NOT like his name and Tim gives him the name Dunkin based on Dunkin’ Donuts Norbert happens to love eating.  Both kids are struggling with secrets, Tim, wanting to become Lily, and Dunkin, struggling with bipolar disorder.  Dunkin has even more secrets that he is even unaware of. 

Gephart does an amazing job of introducing us to some tough topics of transgender and bipolar disorder.  She used her own son’s struggle with bipolar to write the character Dunkin.  He has moved in with his mom and grandmother and throughout the book remembers his dad, whom they left in New Jersey, and that his dad is also bipolar.  As he starts to not take his medicine regularly, because it makes him feel fuzzy and sluggish, we also meet Phineas, who is a voice in his head.  Lily is allowed to be Lily at home, but in the public she must revert to Tim.  Her best friend Dare, loves her for who she is and wants Lily to be Lily in public.  It is such a great way to see the struggle between who Lily is and who she has to pretend to be.  Even at one point Tim says it’s too torturous to be Lily in public, so the reader really gets the feel of the struggle.  VERY briefly suicide is introduced.  Lesbianism is also hinted at, but never stated.  There is such a theme of struggling with who you are and being who you are throughout the book along with facing your secrets when you are ready. This one is a tough call for me.  I think it would be okay for 8th grade and up.  I struggle not because of the topic, but because of some of the language (g---d---).

Other books by the author:

Death by Toliet Paper

How to Survive Middle School

Olivia Bean Trivia Queen

As if being 12 ¾ isn’t bad enough, my mother is running for president

It’s Perfectly Normal

Harris, R. H., & Emberley, M. (1994). It's perfectly normal: A book about changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health. Cambridge, Mass: Candlewick Press.

This book is an excellent source of factual information for kids to learn about their bodies with chapters like:  What is sex?  Our Bodies Puberty, Families and Babies, etc. Throughout the book we have a sort of guide with The Bird and The Bee in the form of cartoons, but the information given is very straight forward and factual.  The book does cover topics of reproduction, changing bodies, sex, decisions about birth control and abortion, and staying healthy.  The topics are facts and not told in a lewd way. 

Harris has used many resources such as doctors, nurses, and clergy to educate our kids about their sexual health.  The use of a table of contents and index help organize the story to let the book be broken down in categories or chunks to access information that is needed.  Use of cartoon drawings makes the design of the book child friendly, but the information is presented in a factual way and gives the information without a bias. This would probably be best for older children or supervised by an adult for younger children.

Similar titles:

It's So Amazing!: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families (The Family Library)

It's Not the Stork!: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families and Friends (The Family Library)

Monster

Myers, W. D., & Myers, C. (1999). Monster. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Steve Harmon is on trial for being involved in a murder of a drugstore owner.  He is on trial at the same time as another boy, James King, who is accused of being the shooter.  Steve was supposedly the lookout to let them know if anyone was in the store.  As he goes through the trial he sees how this has affected his mom, dad, and brother.  He is a 16 year old boy in prison and realizes he should not be there.  He also realizes how it affects him, and he determines to find out who he is and what he is about. 

Myers does a great job of telling this realistic story through a boy’s diary/ journal and writing it like a script for a movie.  Steve is in a film class at school and decides to tell his story as he would a script for a film he would make.  It is his way to process what is going on and at the same time be detached from it.  He does include entries of his thoughts periodically to tell us what he is feeling.  The ending has a slight twist when his lawyer doesn’t respond to him positively after they win his case and caused me to wonder myself at his guilt or innocence.  Was there more to the story than was told?  Steve says he was not involved and not in the store that day when he is on the stand, but in one part of the book he says what was wrong with buying mints? Which makes me wonder if he was in the store that day.  Great book for middle school and up. 

Books by Walter Dean Myers:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3073.Walter_Dean_Myers#44184

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtlkXnf3-vY WDM interview

The Knife of Never Letting Go

Ness, P. (2008). The knife of never letting go. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Todd Hewitt lives in Prentisstown, where there are no women and 146 men.  In Prentisstown you can hear everyone’s thoughts all the time, and they can hear yours.  Todd is 12 years and 12 months and will turn thirteen in 1 month and will be considered a man.  He is sent to the woods to get apples and that is the beginning of the chaos.  There he runs into silence in the old village of the Spackle.  He doesn’t know what is causing the silence and then he returns to Prentisstown and tells his guardians where they send him away to save him.  He runs back to the forest and discovers the silence was a girl.  He has never seen a girl before and they are now on the run for their life. 

The Knife of Never Letting Go is definitely science fiction.  The book is set on another planet where animals can talk, men’s thoughts are not secret, but women’s are.  Viola has crash landed on this planet with her parents, who died in the crash, and they are scouting for the rest of the people on the larger ship to land.  She has brought with her advanced devices that start fire and medicine for quick healing.  The themes of coming of age and choice are displayed throughout the book as Todd has to choose what kind of man he will become, choosing to rescue Viola and sacrificing his dog, and his age is on his mind constantly as he counts down to becoming a man.  This would be best to use in high school. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj4fowWo7xM book trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeT1ga5ZqFI Patrick Ness Interview

Other books in the series:

The Ask and the Answer

Monsters of Men

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces

Quintero, I. (2014). Gabi, a girl in pieces. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press.

Gabriela, Gabi, is a senior in high school.  She is Mexican American, but looks “too white”, her father is a meth addict, her mother becomes pregnant, and her younger brother, Beto, is not involved much with the family.  Those are some of the things she has to deal with at home.  Her friends are also struggling.  Her friend Cindy gets pregnant and is in big trouble at home and later Gabi learns was raped by a classmate.  Gabi’s friend Sebastian comes out that he is gay and his parents pretty much kick him out and he has to live with his tia (aunt).  Then her tia Bertha comes to live with them to help with her dad, who ends up dying of an overdose, her mom has the baby early and tia Bertha comes back to live with them to help with the baby.  Through it all Gabi finds a boyfriend, Martin, who treats her well, and gets accepted to Berkley, which is her dream college.  All of her pieces come together in the end.

The book shares many issues facing kids today:  LGBT, teen pregnancy, parents with drug abuse, parents passing, getting into college, paying for college, overbearing parents, and teen love are a few.  The book is written in a journal format and you feel like Gabi is speaking to you.  The reader sees everything from Gabi’s point of view and because it is her journal she is honest about her feelings.  I think she is a good role model in the book as far as how she deals with things.  She doesn’t do drugs or drink, she wants to go to college and better herself.  She also struggles with having sex and decides to make sure she is protected so she doesn’t end up like her friend.  In a way this book reminds me of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson in that it is told from a high school teen’s point of view and the topic of rape shows up in both.  I would see this book in a high school.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBshMlkLwqM

Persepolis

Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis. Paris: L'Association.

Marji is a girl growing up in Iran.  She tells of her life before 1980 and what her family and school were like.  In 1980 things changed when she was 10.  She had to start wearing a veil because “women’s hair emanates rays that excite men” (74) and therefore must be covered.  The children at school are also separated by gender, which she doesn’t understand because they are all friends.  She tells of growing up with parents who believe that the right thing should be fought for and Marji wants to demonstrate as well, but as the story progresses she is sent to Austria to be safe because she is a little too outspoken at school. 

Persepolis is a graphic novel drawn entirely in black and white.  The book is separated into sections such as “The Veil”, “The Bicycle”, and “The Letter” etcetera.  Each of the sections has a theme or overall topic that Marji discloses to the reader about her history.  Some of the story of the unrest in Iran and the political language was confusing to me, but I understood overall enough to get the gist of the story.  There were parts of the story that were scary to think about living through those conditions and parts that were so relatable of any girl struggling to grow up.  This is a great memoir based on the author’s life. This book would be best geared for high school.  Middle schoolers would probably be okay with this book, but it also might raise a lot of questions. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9onZpQix_w interview with author

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlzKo2GyseE book trailer

Persepolis 2 -

Here is the continuation of her fascinating story. In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials of adolescence far from her friends and family, and while she soon carves out a place for herself among a group of fellow outsiders, she continues to struggle for a sense of belonging.

Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran. 

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Crutcher, C. (1993). Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.

Eric Calhoune, AKA Moby, is an outcast.  He is fat.  He best friend is a girl, Sarah Byrnes, who is also an outcast.  She is severely burned.  The two of them are inseparable all through middle school and have an us-against-the-world view, even getting in trouble with Mr. Mautz, the principal.  As they transition to high school, Eric is asked to join the swim team and he finds that he enjoys it.  But as he is swimming and training he starts to lose weight, so he eats more to stay fat because he doesn’t want to let Sarah down and he wants her to still feel like he is an outcast like her.  She lets Eric off the hook and tells him to quit overeating.  They are able to stay friends, but her past catches up to her and she stops talking.  As she is admitted to a mental hospital, Eric helps her confront her past and finally break free. 

In Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes Crutcher brings us up and down through his storytelling and by using flashbacks to give us background information on how things got to where they are in the story now. There are parts that are funny, like when Sarah and Eric create a newspaper and it catches the attention of the principal and he pleads the fifth or when he is in a CAT class at school and he tells off another kid.  But there is more seriousness to this book when we realize Sarah’s dad purposefully burned her when she was three and now seems to want to harm her even more or a kid in Eric’s class tries to commit suicide.  Crutcher also brings up subjects about abortion and religion, but he never really gets too deep in or gives a bias.  With Eric telling the story we see his views, but they are not strong and he also struggles with what he believes.  This book would be fine for 7^th and up. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwh0KO0JDYA

Similar Books:

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

Reality Boy

King, A. S. (2013). Reality Boy: A novel. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

Gerald Faust has anger issues.  He has an anger management coach to help him work through his anger, he boxes, and he tries his hardest to not let his “triggers” set him off.  His family started being part of a reality series when he was five.  His mother invited them to come and help him with his behavior, when as the story continues we learn that Gerald’s eldest sister, Tasha, needed the help.  Gerald’s other sister, Lisi, has escaped and moved to Scotland.  Tasha has now moved back in the house and is living in the basement with her boyfriend.  Gerald is in special education class because his mom put him there because Tasha wanted it.  Gerald comes to realize that he has a future and can become someone, not just end up dead or in jail. 

King writes this realistic fiction book and convinces us that we have entered a world of mental illness, but then makes us question if we have.  Gerald has a make-believe world, Gersday, which he goes to when things get bad.  He created this world when he was little and Tasha was trying to drown him or calling him gay or retard.  We also think he may be mentally ill because in the reality show he starts to poop on things to show he is frustrated and consequently gets the nickname “Crapper.”  As the story progresses we learn everything Tasha did to Lisi and him, we learn that his mom confesses how she really never wanted to have Lisi and him, his dad is never home and now comes home and offers Gerald drinks, and we see the dysfunction of the family for what it really is.   This book is for grades 9 and up because of the subject matter discussed and language. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrsnHBc8dmc

Grasshopper Jungle: A History

Smith, A. (2014). Grasshopper jungle: A history. New York, NY: Dutton Books.

Austin is a 16 year old boy who is best friends with Robby Brees.  Austin tells of his history and the history of the end of the world.  Robby is gay and Austin is associated with him and people assume he is also gay, but he is conflicted about that because he also loves his girlfriend, Shannon.  Robby and Austin get beat up and that starts the end of the world.  After the fight Robby smears his blood in the asphalt that the plague strain uses to grow and develop.  The strain takes over human hosts and turns into praying mantis type bugs.  The boys and some others make it to a shelter that was designed to protect them from the bugs, but the rest of the world is unprepared for the Unstoppable Soldiers. 

                   

Grasshopper Jungle is a science fiction book.  At the beginning you think things are going to be normal.  A story about two friends and the struggles they go through as teenagers, but that quickly turns into the end of the world.  The boys unwittingly witness the unleash of man-eating mantises and this book is Austin telling the story of what happened.  Through the story we hear a repetitive strain of Austin tying together his history and how things are interconnected, of roads crossing and re-crossing until it is where he is now.  Smith does an excellent job of giving us just enough normal to believe that this strain could happen, but also enough unrealistic events to know this could never happen.  This book is definitely for high school students. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMBWd_6FwyI trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRu63kxyWtM author interview

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Angleberger, T. (2010). The strange case of Origami Yoda. New York, NY: Amulet Books.

Tommy has decided to research Origami Yoda by making a case file of all the strange stories involving Origami Yoda.  He has each kid write their story of how Origami Yoda helped them.  Tommy is trying to decide if Origami Yoda can actually predict the future and if he should listen to his advice about asking a girl he really likes to dance at the school fun night.  Origami Yoda was created (folded) by Dwight, a really weird guy at school.  No one knows if it is Dwight giving the advice or if Origami Yoda is really giving the advice.  Tommy is determined to find out.

Anglegerger gives us a glimpse into middle school angst and trying to find your place in the world of school.  He does this by telling a story that has Tommy looking for reassurance that the advice Origami Yoda is giving is accurate. The book is created in a “case file” of stories Tommy is collecting from other students who have gotten advice from Yoda.  Some are sceptics and some believe.  The books format and printing makes it look like a journal of papers that are wrinkled and written by different people.  In the end we learn to take chances and that sometimes we can find friends in unlikely places. This book is fine for upper elementary and up although I'm not sure how many high schoolers would read it.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM-JN6D3cAo  book trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA4VJbqFQuw folding origami yoda

Books in the series:

Darth Paper Strikes Back

The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee

The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett

Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus

Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue

The Good Neighbors: Book One Kin

Black, H., & Naifeh, T. (2008). The good neighbors. New York: Graphix.

Rue Silver’s mother has been gone for over 3 weeks.  Her dad can’t function with her mom missing and Rue starts to see strange looking things, but thinks her eyes are playing tricks on her.  As Rue is out one night with her friends her dad gets arrested for murder.  The police think he murdered a student of his and possibly her mother.  Rue’s mother returns, but is it really her mother?  Rue also discovers she is half faerie.  As Rue continues on her quest to find out about her mother and what happened to her she encounters her grandfather, whom she has never met, and other creatures she thought were only myths. 

Black is the master of fantasy.   As she did with The Spiderwick Chronicles she draws us into Rue’s story of human and faerie world colliding.  Rue has grown up not knowing anything but a human life although she does notice things that her mom does that seem somewhat strange, she takes it in as “normal” for her mom.  Black starts The Good Neighbor series at the start of the conflict of Rue’s mom missing, her dad being arrested, and her grandfather showing up all of a sudden.  Through the story and black and white illustrations the story gives us enough that we believe all of this could happen to Rue and we believe there are faeries among us, if only we can have the “sight” ourselves. Middle school and up would enjoy this book.  

                 

The Good Neighbors:  Book Two Kith by Holly Black

The Good Neighbors:  Book Three Kind by Holly Black

Also by Holly Black:

The Spiderwick Chronicles

When You Reach Me

Stead, R. (2009). When you reach me. New York, NY: Wendy Lamb Books.

Time travel…is it possible?  Miranda and Sal are best friends and have been since they were small.  They are now in 6^th grade and things start to change when Sal gets punched by a kid new to the neighborhood.  Now Miranda is on her own walking home from school by the laughing man, but she finds a new friend, Annemarie, at school.  Things start to get weird as Miranda starts to find small notes telling her the future, before it happens.  She tries to figure out who could be writing the notes and leaving them for her to find.  The notes tell her that her friend’s life will be saved, but which friend and how?  Miranda is trying desperately to figure the clues out, but will she be in time?

Stead uses A Wrinkle in Time as Miranda’s favorite book to help introduce this science fiction work and clue the reader into time travel as a possibility, however I did not pick up on the clue.  There are so many subplots going on the book that the time travel hit me out of left field.  We come to find out that the laughing man played a very important role in the story, however his character is a minor one for most of the book even though we see him regularly as Miranda comes and goes from school. Stead does a great job of tying together seemingly unrelated events to where we believe time travel happened in this story because Miranda is telling the story through a letter she was told to write to help the time traveler help save her friend’s life. Great for middle school level.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWdgezFVwUg

Other similar books:

Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead

See you at Harry’s by Jo Knowles

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

The Fault in Our Stars

Green, J. (2012). The fault in our stars. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Hazel.  16. Thyroid Cancer that moved into her lungs.  That is how the book pretty much starts.  Hazel is depressed and her mom makes her attend a support group.  Through the support group Hazel meets Augustus Waters, 17, cancer survivor.  He comes in with a positive attitude and helps her in finding her way past her depression.  Hazel’s favorite author is Peter Van Houten author of An Imperial Affliction.  Hazel, her mom, and Augustus go on an adventure to Amsterdam to find Van Houten, but are disappointed by the meeting.  Wanting answers about the ending of the book, they are disappointed in the real author and his manners and that there is no other ending to the book.  As they return home a twist occurs, Augustus has cancer again and kept it from Hazel, however her time with him has changed her forever.

Green does a great job of taking us through all the feels.  We are mad, happy, excited, depressed, we laugh, cry, yell and experience it all through Hazel’s eyes.  We learn about mortality, fear, loneliness, and depression.  One of the strongest themes is love.  Gus and Hazel fall in love and experience a love they might not ever have because of their terminal illnesses.  Green brings us a timeless love and we feel Hazel’s loss when Gus dies and she can’t have a lifetime of loving him. 8th grade and up would enjoy this book of pain, life and love.  

Similar books:

Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell

If I Stay, Gayle Forman

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Jesse Andrews

Before I Fall, Lauren Oliver

Drama

Telgemeier, R. (2012). Drama. New York, NY: Graphix.

Middle school, ah, the drama.  Callie is in theater and meets two boys who are twins, Justin and Jesse.  She has a crush on a boy, Greg as well.  She gets to know Justin and Jesse and finds out Justin is gay.  She then develops a crush on Jesse and hopes he will ask her to the 8^th grade dance.  As the play gets going and the set designing gets worked out and completed the drama heats up.  Jesse finally asks Callie to the dance and then during the dance skips out on her for a few hours.  She ends up walking home with Greg, but realizes he’s not the guy for her after all and then Jesse admits he’s also gay, but just didn’t realize it.

Telgemeier uses a graphic novel format to discuss a touchy subject, homosexuality.  Middle school students are trying to find their identity and struggle with who they want to become and what they want to become and fitting in.  It is a difficult time in any middle schooler’s life, much less when you are in the minority.  All types of students are portrayed and any student will find themselves in the book from a nerd, technical thinker, to a creative “out there” girl.  In the end we are all the same inside, we all have feelings and we all have the same opportunity to find the true us. I would recommend this for 7th grade and up through high school.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysWrqAMktc0 book trailer

Cinder – Best Fiction for YA (2013)

Meyer, M. (2012). Cinder. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

Cinder is a cyborg and a gifted mechanic.  She lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters, Peony and Pearl.  The city is fighting a deadly virus called letumosis for which there is no cure.  The prince, Kai, brings an android to Cinder to repair for reasons he doesn’t want to say.  As Peony contracts the deadly virus, Cinder is sent to be a test subject for a cure.  She is discovered to also be Lunar, a people who live on the moon, and the Queen wants her executed.  Cinder discovers her past and why some people want her dead and others want her alive.

Cinder is set in the future in New Beijing.  I would say it is based on Cinderella’s story loosely.  There are some similarities like sleeping in the coals, stepmother and stepsisters, and meeting the prince.   But because it is set in the future, the story is so different from the original and there are some things like the Queen wanting to kill her, which actually reminded me of Snow White. With the story being set in the future, androids and robots are on every corner (it seems) and Cinder being a cyborg, not only is this book fantasy, but it falls squarely in the genre of science fiction.   This would be great for middle school and also for literature circles with themes of acceptance, discrimination, or social classes.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXrMAFGWyuE

Scarlet – Best Fiction for YA (2014)

Meyer, M. (2013). Scarlet. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

Scarlet’s grandmother is missing and has been for three weeks.  The police have decided that there is not enough evidence to continue searching and Scarlet is very upset about it.  She and her grandmother run a farm and deliver fresh vegetables to local businesses.  She runs into a street fighter named “Wolf” who wants to help her find her grandmother.  Wolf helps Scarlet go to the city to find her grandmother, but clues start to add up and make her question if he is really helping her or is he one of the bad guys. 

Scarlet combines Cinder from the first Lunar Chronicle book with Scarlet’s story and the two girls’ stories are intertwined without them knowing it.  Scarlet’s story is based loosely on Red Riding Hood in that she meets a man named “Wolf”, she wears a red hoodie and Wolf was involved in taking her grandmother.  Meyer did a great job of switching back and forth from Scarlet to Cinder as the story unravels.  She tied the two stories together neatly, however when reading them you do have a few gaps of time of Cinder getting from one place to another.  This book is another fantasy falling under science fiction.  I would recommend this book for middle school and up. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdTI7zR3amE

We Were Liars – Best fiction for YA 2015

Lockhart, E. (2014). We were liars. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

The Sinclair family is perfect…on the outside. Cadence, Cady, tells us her family’s story from the time she is 15 years old to now when she is 18 years old.  She spends the summer on an island with her extended family with her 2 cousins:  Mirren, Johnny and 1 outsider:  Gat.  The four are inseparable…until the accident.  Cady can’t remember exactly what happened, but it changes her 
life. She now is sick, has migraines, and misses so much school that she has to repeat her junior year. The summer of her 16th year she goes with her dad to Europe and her mom goes back to Beechwood Island. Cady misses her normal summers so her 17th year she forces her parents to let her return to the island and during that time she discovers what happened the 15th summer.

Cady tells the story mostly through flashback as she relives her past and tells us about her background and what happened during the summer of her 15th year. For the most part Lockhart has written a realistic novel about Cady. There are some parts that make a reader question what is going on and even at the end about what really happened in the current summer, were there ghosts or hallucinations? Why was the house so messy? How did people explain what happened that summer? I left the book with lots of unanswered questions, but I guess that’s expected when you have a book with such twists and turns. I could see 8th grade and up reading this book.

Similar books:

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSvjwGrbQOw trailer

Chupacabra – Quick Pics 2014

Smith, R. (2013). Chupacabra. New York, NY: Scholastic.  

Marty and Luther have lost their friend Grace who was kidnapped by her grandfather.  They decide to take it on themselves to go into her grandfather, Noah’s, zoo and find her.  They add to their adventure a new friend named Dylan.  The boys go into the zoo separately, however Luther gets taken as well.  It is now up to Dylan and Marty to rescue him too.  They end up far underground in a secret lab/ bunker.  As they learn more they discover Noah has been creating new creatures, a Chupacabra, and he has sent it after Luther to kill him and Marty’s next. 

This book is the third in Smith’s series about these kids who are involved with scientists, cryptozoologist, and cryptids.  They discover giant squids, dinosaurs and other creatures thought to be extinct.  This science fiction book was slow to start and did not hold my attention very well.  I don’t know if it was because it was the third book in the series and I was not attached to the characters from reading the first books (which I haven’t) or not.  It does seem like it could be read without the first two, Cryptid Hunters and Tentacles, because Smith gives enough information that I knew what happened in Tentacles to help me know what was going on in this book.  I also have the book on my classroom shelf and never see any students read it all the way through.  I think this book is fine for middle school.  I don’t think high school would be into it. 

Other books in the series:

Cryptid Hunters

Tentacles

Mutation

Other books by Smith:

Sasquatch

Storm Runners

Dogs of War – Quick Picks (2014)

Keenan, S., & Fox, N. (2013). Dogs of war. New York, NY: Scholastic.

There are three dogs in this book, Boots, Loki, and Sheba.  Boots was a dog in WWI.  His story is of being a medical dog who is a “mercy dog” that finds people on the battlefield who are still alive and need medical attention.  In his story Boots saves his owner, Marcellinus, when he is shot and in the crosshairs of a German soldier, but is saved by Boots and able to be reunited with his father.  Loki is a dog from WWII and is a sled dog in Greenland.  He is used to pull sleds and with his handler, Cooper, they together try to help destroy a top secret weapon that was left on a crashed plane.  Loki helps Cooper get back to the crash site and away from the Nazi’s tracking him.  Sheba was a dog in the Vietnam War.  She was trained to be a scout dog to help sense snipers, booby traps, and daisy chains. 

This book does a great job of showing through a graphic novel format of how dogs have served in our military throughout the years.  At the end of the book the author leaves a note going into more detail about how and why our military has used dogs.  She also gives a bibliography of other books, dvds, and websites for more information.  The book is not a true story, but is based on stories that were true and she put them into a narrative that could have happened.  This is a great resource to use in a history class as students study all aspects of war. Upper elementary through high school would enjoy this book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4b7Q08oTDo book trailer

Dogs on Duty: Soldiers' Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

Sisters – Great Graphic Novels for Teens (2015)

Telgemeier, R. (2014). Sisters. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Raina is so excited when she finds out she is going to have a little sister.  When Amara is born she realizes that it is not working like she thought it would.  Baby stuff everywhere, invading her room, crying, breaking things, ruining things, and on top of that she is grouchy and just difficult. After a few years a boy is born and Raina and Amara have to make room for him in their room.  The family is taking a road trip from California to Colorado to visit family and dad will join them there later.   As they visit family Raina realizes that the cousin she wishes was her sister doesn’t know her at all and the sister she has is the one she needs. 

Telgemeier tells us an autobiographical story about she and her sister as they go on a trip. She uses a graphic novel format to tell the story.  There are many lessons she learns as she flashes back to when Amara was born, Will was born, and all of them living in a small apartment and moving into a house.  One lesson is about sibling love.  They can’t stand each other and fight, but no one else is allowed to treat them badly and they do realize they love each other and that nothing can take the place of your sister. I could see this in late elementary all the way to high school.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsEXPhq0aIU book trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqy49S48tEQ author talk

                 

Other books:

Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

Uglies: Shay’s Story Great Graphic Novels for Teens (2013)

Westerfeld, S., Grayson, D. K., & Cummings, S. (2012). Uglies: Shay's story. New York: Del Rey.

Shay is six months from turning 16 and getting her surgery to become “pretty”.  She will have plastic surgery to become “perfect”, but she meets a boy, Zane, and his friends.  They call themselves “Crims” for criminals and like to play tricks on people.  They ride hover boards out into the wild past the city and find a group that resists becoming “pretty” and live like humans used to.  Shay has to decide…does she stay “ugly” in the wild or does she turn “pretty” and live like everyone else?

The entire Uglies series is a science fiction read that uses medical surgery to make people “pretty” when they turn 16.  This particular book is told from Shay’s point of view and gives a glimpse of what went on before Uglies, which is told from Tally Youngblood’s point of view.  The bulk of the book keeps a relatively normal teen life with school, friends, friends leaving, and wanting to look beautiful.  The science fiction comes in play because everyone is perfect and beautiful once they turn 16.  Westerfield keeps the theme of looks aren’t everything and there is more to life and people than looks in play throughout the entire book and we see Shay struggle with her decision and makes the decision to stay true to herself.  I can see this for middle school and up.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wopR9Yo2hE trailer

Series by Scott Westerfield:

Uglies

Pretties

Extras

Specials

Glass Sword- NYT Bestseller list week of August 14, 2016

Aveyard, V. (2016). Glass Sword. Harpercollins Childrens Books.

Mare Barrow has just escaped the king and his plan to murder her.  She is a “newblood”, with red blood and Silver powers.  She can create lightning.  She and Cal, a Silver prince, are now on a mission to find the other newbloods and get their revenge on Maven, the king, and his mother who can control minds and forced Cal to kill his own father.  As Cal and Mare struggle with their past, they find newbloods and fight their feelings for each other.  Will Mare give herself back up to Maven to save her people?

Aveyard creates a new world in Red Queen and continues it in Glass Sword.  In this fantasy book Silvers have special powers such as controlling metal, plants, water, minds, fire, and strength to name a few. But some of the Red Bloods that have Silver powers have powers that are things no one has seen before such as manipulating gravity, shape shifting, being able to jump through space, silencing other’s powers, and being able to explode things.   There is a theme of self-discovery as Mare sometimes wants to hurt others and then fights the memory of all the ones she has hurt, as well as wanting to be close to Cal and others, but then fighting against it and staying alone.  There is also themes of sacrifice as Mare sacrifices herself to save the ones she loves; her brother sacrifices himself for her and she sacrifices him for the newbloods. I think this book is great for 6th grade and up.

Other books in the series:

Red Queen

Queen Song (novella)

Steel Scars (novella)

Cruel Crown (novella)

King’s Cage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UbsNfwkZwk Red Queen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCeR_SgQs5s glass sword