Dirt Road Home
by Watt Key
9780374308636, $16.99
FSG, July 2010
Core audience: boys 11-14; also teachers, police, social workers, and attorney
Notable: Characters, suspense, setting, action, strong ending.
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Review: Hal, the bully-turned-buddy from Key’s Alabama Moon, is the main character in Dirt Road Home, though the book stands on its own with or without reading Alabama Moon. It is a very different story, much more serious and suspenseful; it only increases our respect for the author’s skills. Hal’s wayward history has landed him in Hellenweiler Boys Home, a tough reform school run by two gangs and seemingly oblivious staff. Hal has made a deal with his dad: Hal will keep out of trouble and his dad will get sober. Hal longs for his girlfriend Carla, his dad, dogs, and truck as much as he hates being locked into a situation where he has to fight. But all Hellenweiler inmates are in one gang or the other, and neutrality is not an option. The plot twists and tightens as one exit after another is cut off, and a flashlight shines on the character of one inmate after another, the hopeless prospects of kids sucked into the criminal justice system. Readers won’t want to put the book down until they find out how Hal manages to resist the corrosive cynicism, the poisonous self-doubt, the punishing violence, and the urge for revenge – and to take some of the toughest boys along with him.
Reviewer: Carol Chittenden, Eight Cousins
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Half Brother
Kenneth Oppel
9780545229258, $16.00
Scholastic, September 2010
Core audience: 8 & up (no sex, limited violence)
Notable: medieval style fiction, adventure, romance.
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Review: When only child Ben’s family moves across the country Ben has a lot of new things to deal with. On top of the expected new neighborhood & new school, he has to get used to a new member of the family. Zan is a baby chimp that comes to live as Ben’s new brother. Zan lives in Ben’s house and eventually goes to Ben’s school! His parents are studying Zan’s language acquisition & social learning but to Ben, Zan is just his little brother. He helps with babysitting, he reads the bedtime stories and sticks up for his little brother when the neighborhood bullies attack. When funding for the research project gets cut, Zan must go too. But you don’t just give back your little brother and Ben tries to fight for Zan. Funny, authentic, heart-rending & compelling.
Reviewer:
Kat Goddard, The Bookloft
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I Shall Wear Midnight
by Terry Pratchett
9780061433047, $16.99
Harper Collins, October 2010
Core audience: 12+
Notable: for humor, language.
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Review:This, the last of the Wee Free Men series, is bittersweet. Tiffany is growing up and into her her job as the ‘Big Hag’. She is also moving on after her relationship with the Baron’s son changes. Pratchett is always fun and while this book certainly did not disappoint in the humor department there was a bit more introspection on Tiffany’s part.
Dark characters and more mature themes (domestic violence) add to the sense this is a slightly different Pratchett. Of course, even a slightly different Pratchett is still head-and-tails above almost anyone else.
Reviewer: Kat Goddard, The Bookloft
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A Long Walk to Water
by Linda Sue Park
9780547251271, $16.00
Clarion, May 2010
Core audience: 10+ both genders
Notable: A small but potent book. A very effective presentation of the struggles in Sudan: rebellion, starvation, disease, draught. The story of Salva is one of courage, perseverance, love, faith, generosity. There is violence but it is not graphically depicted.
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Review:
The book is a dual narrative telling the stories of two Sudanese children, separated by over 20 years. The story of Salva begins in 1985. An 11 year boy, at school when armed men (rebels or soldiers?) arrive, Salva is forced to flee into the bush. He has no idea what has happened to his home or his family, but he cannot return to his village. If captured, boys are either killed or forced to fight in the brutal war between the Muslim government and the native tribes. Other refugees, desperate to save themselves, refused to let Salva travel with them. Finally a group of Dinkas allowed him to join them and Salva survived the grueling journey to refugee camps in Ethiopia. Later forced out of Ethiopia as well, many of the Sudanese died trying to reach camps in Kenya. Salva led a group of over a thousand boys to safety. Finally, after more than 10 years as a refugee, at 22, Salva moved to Rochester, NY as one of the Sudanese Lost Boys.
Nya’s story starts in 2008, in a dusty village in Southern Sudan. She spends her days getting water for her family. Two trips a day, every day. She does not go to school or even play; she has water to fetch. Her younger sister nearly dies from a fever spread by contaminated water, but the family has no other source of water. Then, one day, strange men come to the village and soon a "large, red, metal giraffe"arrives. The well brings abundant, clean, safe water. Freed from her daily chore of carrying water, Nya will be able to go to school. Overwhelmed by the wonderful changes in her life, she goes up to one of the strange men, the boss, to thank him for bringing water. When asked, she says, "My name is Nya." He replies, "I’m happy to meet you Nya. My name is Salva."A message from Salva Dut follows and concludes the book, which is based on his story. It’s an amazing and inspiring story.
Reviewer: Ellen Richmond, Children’s Book Cellar
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Mindblind
by Jennifer Roy
9780761457169, $15.99
9780761457164, October 2010
Core audience: Ages 12 and up.
Notable: Appealing character with Aspergers; but also a coming of age story with girls, garage bands and alcohol. Way cool cover
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Review: Nathaniel is a likable 14-year-old boy with Aspergers syndrome. He has a fairly good understanding of himself. This, on his friend Molly: "Usually, I do not like to socialize with other Asperger's kids. We are all too self absorbed." He is very bright and wants to be able to consider himself a genius. A genius is not just someone with a very high IQ, which he has, but someone who has accomplished something outstanding and contributed something to the world. This he achieves, in a very teen way. But what sets this story apart are his friends. Cooper, Jessa, Logan, Molly, Sam. They are great, and supportive, in completely believable ways (only Molly has Asperger's). Nathaniel is home schooled (doing an on-line college degree), so their relationships aren't tested in the peer pressure cauldron of high school, but it's wonderful to see teens at their best. I think that will resonate with them, too.
Reviewer: Rondi Brower, Blackwood & Brouwer Booksellers
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Monsters of Men
by Patrick Ness
9780763647513, $16.99
Candlewick, August 2010
Core audience: Ages 12-up
Notable: Re-imagining of New World colonizations in a science fiction setting employing riveting thematic connections to Wuthering Heights.
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Review:Monsters of Men, which concludes the Chaos Walking Trilogy, continues the gradual expansion of the readers comprehension in terms of both theme and scope, by introducing a third narrator. From a reader's perspective the series began by essentially being dropped into a half familiar, half foreign world, seen through a first person narrator, a boy on the cusp of manhood who assumed the reader was from his world. Todd's own knowledge of the world around him was both incomplete and incorrect. The experience is momentarily disorienting and then increasingly compelling, as we gain in comprehension through listening to Todd's voice. In the second book a second narrator, Viola, a key character in book one, comes into play. In Monsters of Men a third voice is added, that of The Return, a member of the planet's indigenous people, The Land.
This sense of expanding perspective is brilliantly handled by Ness, and perfectly compliments the culmination of powerful events which the book depicts. At the heart of this series is an exploration of two issues, the power and nature of the human will and the power and nature of privacy. These issues are explored both as a coming of age story and as a detailed science fiction novel. The power of will is handled in a manner reminiscent of that found in Wuthering Heights, in which Heathcliff's darker side involves his willful subordination of everyone around him with the exception of Catherine, while its bright side is found in his single minded determination to maintain his connection to Catherine, and to be reunited in their separate heaven.
In Monsters of Men this develpoing theme is powerfully realized. We find a dark Heathcliff in Mayor Prentiss whose use of will to control others is increasingly refined and visible, but whose twisted tenderness for Todd, rather like Heathcliff's for Hareton Earnshaw, effects him unexpectedly. The absolute bond between Todd and Viola, their one mutual certainty, strongly echoes that of Heathcliff's and Catherine's, and is the engine of a great deal of compelling emotional exploration. It is also the focal point of Ness's secondary theme of privacy.
As Todd's noise is quieted, his bond to Viola is strained, as is his power. The broadcasting of thoughts, or Noise, initially presented as the curse of Men, is revealed as a source of power and intimacy, a blessing of this new world not a curse. The tension between choosing a private bond over public welfare is shown to be a false paradigm hiding a more profound unity, a unity paralleled in the voice of the Land. Though the Land is one voice, and which apparently has no privacy, it requires a source of will, a Sky. The role of the Sky is very like what Mayor Prentiss has in mind for himself, though in this case benign, and the Land's voice, apart from being fascinating in its own right, provides a marvelous counterpoint to the other narrations. Emotionally riveting, structurally complex, and brilliantly executed, here we have a story as profound as it is exciting.
Reviewer: Kenny Brechner, DDG Booksellers
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Saving Sky
by Diane Stanley
9780061239052, $15.99
Harpercollins, September 2010
Core audience: Ages 10+ girls and boys
Notable: for issues of family, courage, honor, ethnic profiling.
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Review: In a time of shortages, Sky's family has been living as "green" as they can. Making their world a better place is important. Celebrating "blessings" of what life gives them adds hope and optimism to their lives. When local squads begin rounding up people who look like the terrorists of Sept. 11, they courageously hide a classmate of Sky when his notable surgeon father and doctor mother are arrested.
Preparations for the winter solstice, a time of happiness and hope, reinforce the closeness Sky's family feels to the natural forces around them. "Even on the longest night of the year we can strike a match, and light a candle, and drive the darkness away...we have beauty, and kindness, and courage, and fun...we know the light is coming soon..." is spoken by Sky's brother, Luke, and echoed by the rest of the family in their own moving words. Kareem decides he has had enough of hiding and turns himself in.
Especially moving and uplifting is the annual school program four months later where student winners of an essay contest present their written work along with computer generated illustration. Several winners presented essays and pictures of immigrant ancestors who had suffered terribly to come here and become very successfully assimilated in a land of many peoples. Sky told the story of Kareem's family, including the fact that her parents had to plead guilty for hiding the boy but the judge had courage too and refused to punish them, saying that would be wrong. Sky asked her audience, "What would happen if all of us acted like the judge did? If we stopped being afraid and just spoke the truth." This story asks a lot of questions and provokes a lot of thought about where our society is going today, and it does so with heartwarming family values, believable characters and loads of hope.
Reviewer: Sue Carita, The Toadstool Bookshop
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Touch Blue
by Cynthia Lord
9780545035316, $16.99
Scholastic, August 2010
Core audience: Middle grade readers of all persuasions
Notable: Interesting and realistic handling of foster care issues, and remote island living in a larger context.
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Review: If Goldilocks had found a pile of middle grade galleys on the table at the Bear's house, rather than bowls of porridge, the returning bear family would have found her engrossed in Touch Blue rather than sleeping upstairs.
This tale — set on a Maine island whose families with school age children takes on a few foster children to keep their school from being shut down by the state — is the epitome of being just right, its themes of belonging, loss, isolation and perseverance conveyed by metaphoric elements, such as a blue lobster and a sailor's headstone, in a way that opens doors for readers without locking them in.
The book's ultimate message, that living in an imperfect environment the best way possible is the stuff of life, and that a person can belong in more than one place, and have more than one home, is a truly important one. Rules fans will be anything but disappointed in this gentle and profound second novel.
Reviewer: Kenny Brechner, DDG Booksellers
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Tyger, Tyger
by Kersten Hamilton
9780547330082, $17.00
Houghton, October 2010
Core audience: Ages 12-UP
Notable: Creative and succesful projection of Irish mythology surviving into the modern world.
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Review:This dynamic reimagining of the Irish mythos in modern-day Chicago is loaded with convincing romantic tension, intelligent, three dimensional characters, and atmospheric power. Hamilton does a great job extrapolating the Finnian cycle into latter day descendants of Finn and the Children of Amergin and Maeve. Lots of surprises and interesting twists and turns, along with some real depth in the relationship between the half high born Goblin Teagan, and the young Goblin hunter Finn, will hook young readers of both sexes. The story is also bolstered by a good number of intriguing minor characters, great evil doers, and lots dangling plot threads calling out for a book two.
Reviewer: Kenny Brechner, DDG Booksellers
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You
by Charles Benoit
9780061947049, $16.99
HarperTeen, September 2010
Core audience: 12 & up
Notable: Exploration of identity issues.
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Review: Powerful & un-put-down-able, You tells the story of 15-year-old Kyle. Kids like Kyle are found in every high school. He wears the right clothes: black hoodie, black jeans. He gets by without causing enough trouble or getting good enough grades to be noticed. When he meets the wrong person who shows him a different world, everything changes. I read this in one sitting.
Reviewer:Kat Goddard, The Bookloft
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Zora and Me
by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon
9780763643003, $16.99
October, 2010
Core audience: Primarily girls, 10+
Notable: realistic presentation of segregation in historic context, power of imagination, strong friendships.
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Review: The swamp-green, watery light of magical realism suffuses this
unforgettable tale of a young Zora Neale Hurston and her two best
friends during a pivotal summer in their lives. Crocodile men,
sorrowful transient musicians, and the ugliness of racism provide
powerful counterpoints to the bright adventures of childhood. A
gorgeously written coming-of-age story.
Reviewer: Elizabeth Bluemle, The Flying Pig Bookstore
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