Another Middle Grade issue of the Jacket Flap-a-Thon. I promise next month will be more up to our usual diversity standards… In other news, stay tuned for the best-of-post tomorrow!

All the Broken Pieces (Scholastic Press): “Two years after being airlifted out of war-torn Vietnam, Matt Pin is haunted: by bombs that fell like dead crows, by the family — and the terrible secret — he left behind. Now, inside a caring adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events force him to choose between silence and candor, blame and forgiveness, fear and freedom. By turns harrowing, dreamlike, sad, and triumphant, this searing debut novel, written in lucid verse, reveals an unforgettable perspective on the lasting impact of war and the healing power of love. “

I liked that this blurb evoked the simple, haunting style of the book. I don’t like the “lucid verse” part, but otherwise, a good blurb.

Bull Rider (Margaret K. McElderry): “All it takes is eight seconds…. Cam O’Mara, grandson and younger brother of bull-riding champions, is not interested in partaking in the family sport. Cam is a skateboarder, and perfecting his tricks — frontside flips, 360s — means everything until his older brother, Ben, comes home from Iraq, paralyzed from a brain injury. What would make a skateboarder take a different kind of ride? And what would get him on a monstrosity of a bull named Ugly? If Cam can stay on for the requisite eight seconds, will the $15,000 prize bring hope and a future for his big brother?”

This blurb SO effectively sums up this book in a few short sentences. Awesome.

Year of the Bomb (Simon and Schuster): “When Paul and his friends Arnie, Crank, and Oz find out that a horror movie will be filmed in their town, they can’t believe it — they even manage to get onto the set and meet some of the extras. But then they learn that some of the actors are really undercover agents, and the four boys find themselves tangled in an investigation. Nuclear bombs, conspiracies, and pod people are only supposed to exist in horror movies — right? Set against the backdrop of 1950s McCarthyism, this is a masterfully told coming-of-age novel by acclaimed writer Ronald Kidd.”

Again, a great job in capturing the tone and feel of the book. As well as giving the reader enough information to make them interested, but not so much that they give the story away.

Other books read this month:
Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters
The Wine-Dark Sea

Umbrella Summer
Heart of a Shepherd
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis
The Ship of Lost Souls
Leviathan
Leaving the Bellweathers
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
Positively
Operation Yes
The Heretic’s Daughter
Dream Girl