Welcome to senior year, time to strive for those scholarships (if you’re Sarah) or coast until graduation (apply to a party-school college like Kristen, yeah). It’s all set for these best friends at their Houston high school, until handsome, brainy Rock arrives… sigh!
Funny and truthful, this debut novel by a Texas author is right on the nose, I mean, right on target. How much should Sarah help her friend as Kristen tries to snag the new guy? Just one text message? Their whole online correspondence?
Grab a big Dr Pepper (make it Diet, if you’re Sarah), ignore the rhinoplasty surgery brochures from her mom, and follow Sarah’s journey as she redefines love, friendship, and her own self-worth.
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My Book Talk: When smart, handsome Rock transfers to their Houston high school, Sarah feels an immediate connection. So does her cute best friend Kristen who does NOT have Sarah’s enormous nose. Sigh…
In fact, the only other person ever burdened with that huge nose is Sarah’s mom, who had plastic surgery on hers before college and is now a popular TV newscaster. No one can believe that they are mother and daughter, because of Sarah’s nose. A career in off-camera journalism is Sarah’s life plan!
When Kristen asks Sarah to help her write ‘smart’ notes and online messages to Rock so that he’ll like her more, Sarah can’t let her feelings for him ruin their friendship, can she? While their English class project brings Sarah and Rock together intellectually, Rock and Kristen become the cutest couple on campus. But can Kris really keep up her pretend love of books and poets when she goes out with Rock? Of course, nothing is easy in high school relationships – does Rock maybe like Sarah a little, too?
Romantic misunderstandings test the bonds of friendship in this fun and funny retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac, as seen from the feminine point of view. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
You’ve gotta feel for Janie – her first year at a small town high school and already labeled as ignorable. And since her mom sometimes blogs about Janie’s personal life, she’s doubly doomed…
But learning about the “citizenship school” that existed near her North Carolina town in the 1950s during the Civil Rights movement and the brave people who taught African-Americans to read and write so they could register to vote helps Janie find her voice in the here and now.
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My Book Talk: Janie loved the idea of moving to a farm when she was 10, but in high school it’s not so cool. Goat manure on her shoe, hay stuck in her hair that awful first week of school – now the kids call her “Farm Girl” and treat her like she’s invisible. Except Sarah, the only friend from their junior high who came to this high school; they only have one class together… so it’s lunchtime in the library, every day, alone.
When a cute guy invites them to play and sing with Jam Band, Janie is amazed to find that she’s a natural on bass guitar. Monster (that’s really his name on his birth certificate – crazy parents) teaches her to play, and she just feels the energy grow.
Researching their women’s studies project introduces them to real heroines in their North Carolina town, women who taught black adults to read and write so they could register to vote in the 1950s, despite threats from the KKK. As Janie and Sarah interview Mrs. Brown and the late Mrs. Pritchard’s husband, they decide that the old farmhouse site of the “Citizenship School” should be preserved as a museum.
Will Jam Band ever make real music? Does Monster like Janie (you know, “like” like)? Can she survive her craft-clueless mom’s blog about farm life that veers a little too often into Janie’s personal life? And Mom’s plan for a hootenanny at the farm for her 15th birthday? Yikes! (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.com.
Plastic trees, pre-fab food, every social and business interaction online only – sounds a little tempting when you’re caught in traffic on the way to school or trapped in yet another blah-blah-blah lecture course.
But if every minute of school occurs online, the only people you see day in and day out are family members, the only birdsong you ever heard was historic digital audio, the only way you know your thoughts are your own is… well, you couldn’t be sure of that, could you?
A prediction? A cautionary tale? Welcome to a future where DigitalSchool shapes young human minds while all other living things become obsolete…
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Recommendation: School is completely online in 2060, so Maddie rarely sees anyone in person, except her mom and dad. Why does this Justin guy want to meet her at a face-to-face Tutor session? She could just see him online 24/7, like her other friends all over the world. Anyway, her dad grounded her till age 18 after she went into his DigitalSchool master computer two years ago.
Her parents say that Justin is dangerous, that his parents were terrorists, that he’s only trying to see 17-year-old Maddie because of her dad’s DigitalSchool business. But Justin actually speaks to her like a thinking human being, showing her the real Portland with pastries instead of nutri-bars and live musicians instead of soundfiles online.
It seems that not everyone is happy with DigitalSchool. Justin wants her to sneak more information from her dad’s computer so they can crash that system and give kids the chance to get outside, away from computer-simulated beach views and back to the real sand and sea, away from thousands of online friends they’ve never seen and back to interacting with real friends.
During a dangerous DS student “rescue” with Justin, Maddie has to decide whether she’ll abide by her dad’s authoritarian rules or risk losing her place in 2060’s society.
Can she trust Justin?
Could she really live where trees aren’t plastic and sunsets aren’t on a computer screen?
Is there something malicious in DigitalSchool, something bad enough for Maddie to risk life in prison?
A glimpse of a potential future where keeping the peace may be more dangerous to humanity than allowing conflicting ideas… (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.com.
Canadian author Jean Little introduces us to Min, abandoned as a toddler at the fairground, knowing only her name and that the man called Bruno will hit when he gets angry. Can you imagine being bounced from foster home to foster home the way that she has? And to be ‘returned’ to Social Services just before Christmas, like a wrong-size sweater! It’s no wonder that Min bottles up her feelings and rarely speaks, not willing to be hurt any further.
As we watch Min tentatively reach out to her newest foster mother and actually talk enough at her new school to make friends, let’s remember that most kiddos are in foster care through circumstances beyond their control and that every childhood deserves happiness. Saluting foster families and the agencies that serve these children during National Foster Care Month.
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My Book Talk: As she waits for her foster mom, Min keeps a toddler from running into traffic. Why can’t someone rescue Min from the endless round of foster homes, from not knowing why she was abandoned as a toddler, from not knowing her own birthday? And being returned to Miss Willis’s office right before Christmas! Twelve year-old Min feels abandoned all over again.
Suddenly, Dr. Jess Hart is there, as she was when Min was in the hospital with pneumonia, and Dr. Jess says that Min is going home with her for the holidays! Her nephew Toby turns out to be the toddler’s big brother and helps Min settle in for a real Christmas.
As they are sledding one day, Min and Toby find a mistreated dog and insist that Jess take the badly injured animal to the vet. Is it a stray pet? An escapee from the suspected puppy mill near their friend’s country house?
The new year brings new worries. Will the kids at her new school make fun of Min because of her unknown past? Does Jess really want Min to stay with her? Can the little dog survive to come live with them? Has Toby’s dad survived the tsunami where he was working? How can the schoolkids help the disaster victims so far away?
The Canadian winter seems a bit warmer as Min gets to know Jess and Toby better in this hopeful story. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
As a school librarian living in India, Monika is writing from the heart. She’s seen too many children who must work instead of go to school, no matter how intelligent they are, because the debts of their family are so overwhelming. The orphans scavenging recyclables from the railway station trash are still there, despite the info-tech revolution sweeping their country.
The author’s book trailer gives us a glimpse of the grim reality and many obstacles that Akash faces as he struggles to get schooling in this luminous story leavened with hope.
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Book info: Saraswati’s Way / by Monika Schroeder. Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site]
My Book Talk: Akash’s talent for math can’t stop the drought in his village in India, can’t grow enough crops to pay back the money his family owes, can’t cure the fever that strikes his father. So he must leave school and the village at age 12 to work off their debt in the landlord’s stone quarry. Everything is fated, his family says – the heavens have control of earth, and we cannot change what is fated. But Akash prays to Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom, that someday, somehow, he will return to school to learn more math and English.
Akash finds that his hard work at the quarry only nibbles at the family’s debt, so he could work there until he was an old man before he paid it off. Not content that fate will keep him at the quarry forever, he sneaks onto a train bound for the huge city of Delhi where he could earn money faster.
The New Delhi train station is like a city itself – huge and crowded and noisy. Akash falls in with a group of orphan boys who collect bottles and boxes for money. Soon he meets up with people who want to help him and people who want to use his talents only to earn money for themselves.
Can Akash keep himself safe in Delhi? Can he survive and earn money for his family in honest ways, as his father taught him? Will he ever get to school again, or will he remain homeless and poor like so many other youngsters in his crowded country?
A fascinating story with too-real situations, you’ll root for Akash as he strives for wisdom, trying to follow Saraswati’s Way in his fight for survival. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
I’ll bet that Raina felt like lots of her days as a teen were Friday the thirteenths, as this autobiographical graphic novel shows. I’ve met her at conferences, and she’s funny and cool and excited about new projects.
And her husband, Dave Roman, is a cartoonist/author, too! He proposed to her using a webcomic!
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My Book Talk: A graphic novel about friends, family, boys, girls, and major dental drama! Autobiography in comic style – with braces! When Raina knocks out her 2 front teeth in sixth grade, getting braces doesn’t seem so bad. But her teeth won’t reset right, so it’s on to root canal surgery and a retainer with false front teeth and headgear to wear at night! Getting her ears pierced for her birthday makes things a little better; having a bratty little sister who teases her… well, Amara’s always like that.
Seventh grade gets interesting, with cute boys and the big San Francisco earthquake of 1989 and more dental surgery (braces and headgear – again!). Raina wonders why some friends don’t stay friendly and why some boys aren’t friendly enough. She decides to try out for the basketball team in eighth grade (teeth-moving still in progress), enjoys being a Girl Scout camp counselor in the summer, and worries about going to high school.
So what will life in high school be like, with new friends and old friends, new classes and old heartaches, and her still in braces? Raina illustrates her own story with humor and style, as we walk with her through junior high and high school, with the next orthodontist’s appointment always on her mom’s calendar. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
It’s tempting to be lighthearted about this British tween book and call it a cross between Project Runway and the Lost Boys, but that would diminish the passion for helping that these best friends discover as they try make a significant difference to children of war, using the best skills that they have.
Just imagine what Crow’s parents went through, sending her away from Uganda to safety in London, their son missing from the refugee camp and perhaps a child soldier now…
First in the series; hope the others cross the Pond from the UK soon!
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Book info: Sequins, Secrets, and Silver Linings / by Sophia Bennett. Chicken House (Scholastic), 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site]
My Book Talk: Three junior high BFFs with different dreams – fashion designer, diplomat, actress – move through life and London with only minor panic. But their classmate Crow, a refugee from Uganda, struggles in school, doodling fashion designs and praying that the teacher doesn’t call on her.
Crow does more than just doodle – she sews and knits her dreams into incredible creations in the tiny apartment she shares with her aunt. Her brother went missing in the refugee camp, so Crow’s family is terribly worried, afraid that he’s been captured to become a child soldier.
Edie puts information on her website about the Invisible Children like Crow’s brother, Nonie helps Crow improve her reading through fashion photo books, and Jenny gets hauled to press conferences and premieres for the movie she had a small part in (wishing she could stay in London and out of sight of her manipulative, pushy father).
A student fashion competition brings them all together, as Nonie’s grandmother lets Crow study her designer gowns, the three friends turn a spare room into a sewing studio for the budding designer, and Crow creates fabulous clothes that can’t be ignored.
But can little Crow keep up with school and the demands of the contest organizers? Can the three friends help her make dreams into reality, without sacrificing their own? Will Crow ever see her parents and siblings again?
First in a series, this book brings friends, fashion, and real life into true focus, without forgetting the fun! (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandhug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
Going blind! How could you handle that diagnosis, that reality? Having to leave her school and her family to learn how to truly cope as a blind person in the modern world… I think Natalie is stronger than I ever could be in that situation.
I recently visited with an old college friend who never let blindness stand in his way as he went to law school, practiced law for years, and is now finding great satisfaction promoting the National Federation for the Blind’s Newsline service, which offers over 300 newspapers and magazines read aloud by phone or online 24/7 for those with visual impairment.
If your grandparents, neighbors, or friends can’t see well enough to read print, help them get connected to Newsline for pop culture, science, health, news (gotta love modern technology!).
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My Recommendation: The summer before 10th grade, Dr. Rose says that Natalie will go blind – completely and absolutely blind, maybe overnight, maybe before Christmas. So she transfers to the Baltimore Center for the Blind boarding school so she can learn Braille and learn how to cope.
With the little tunnel of sight she has left, Nat is sure that she’s not like the other kids there – the ones blind from birth or suddenly blind from an accident – and she just lives for the weekends at home with her parents and the goats, away from lessons about walking with a cane and making the bumps of Braille become letters in her mind. Dr. Rose could be wrong – miracles happen, right?
Bargaining for miracles doesn’t work in real life though. Nat has to decide if she’s going to get ready for her new life or hide forever on her parents’ farm.
Are her old friends starting to forget her?
Can her new friends and teachers help her prepare for a future she can’t envision?
The author’s academic year spent with blind teens and all their hopes, fears, and expectations makes this work of fiction read like real life. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
Canadian author Jean Little introduces us to Min, abandoned as a toddler at the fairground, knowing only her name and that the man called Bruno will hit when he gets angry. Can you imagine being bounced from foster home to foster home the way that she has? And to be ‘returned’ to Social Services just before Christmas, like a wrong-size sweater! It’s no wonder that Min bottles up her feelings and rarely speaks, not willing to be hurt any further.
As a school librarian living in India, Monika is writing from the heart. She’s seen too many children who must work instead of go to school, no matter how intelligent they are, because the debts of their family are so overwhelming. The 
Braces!
It’s tempting to be lighthearted about this British tween book and call it a cross between Project Runway and the Lost Boys, but that would diminish the passion for helping that these best friends discover as they try make a significant difference to children of war, using the best skills that they have.