Brave

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by Svetlana Chmakova
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There’s some bullying, but it’s really appropriate for 4th-6th graders. It’s in the Middle Grade graphic novel section.

I really don’t know what inspired me to pick this up; perhaps it was lack of time, and a graphic novel is easy to get through… I’ve not read Awkward, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying this one.

Jason is a 6th grader, and in his dreams he’s got big plans to be an astronaut at NASA and help figure out sunspots. In real life, however, he’s not so great. He’s bad at math, his friends (such as they are) are constantly poking fun at him, he’s often left out of groups, and he’s got two bullies on his tail. But, as the story progresses, things start to look up for Jason. Because he’s left out of the art club planning, he gets to help out at the newspaper. He makes a friend in Jorge, with whom he has nothing in common, but who is kind and interested in what Jason has to say. And, perhaps most importantly, he realizes he’s being bullied (not just by the kids on his tail, but also by his “friends”), and stands up for himself.

It’s that last thing that made this book so good for me. It’s easy for adults to say “stand up to bullies”, but honestly, not many kids realize they’re being bullied. (I sure didn’t, when I was in middle and high school. Neither did C when she was bullied in middle school) A lot of people brush it off as “jokes” or “criticism” but, honestly, it’s just plain bullying. I loved that Chmakova addressed that, that Jason had to REALIZE he was being bullied in order for him to take ownership of his own world. It makes me want to give it to all kids — because maybe those who are doing the bullying don’t realize they are hurting other people — just to get a conversation going.

I really enjoyed this one.

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by John David Anderson
First sentence: “I push my way through the buzzing mom and freeze.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There’s some bullying and some mild swearing. It’s in the Middle Grade section (grades 3-5) of the bookstore, though it’s probably better for the upper end of that age range.

Eric Voss has found his “tribe”, the people in middle school that he would literally die for. There’s four of them, all of them with nicknames — Wolf, the piano prodigy whose nickname comes from Mozart; DeeDee, an Indian fantasy nerd, whose nickname comes from (you guessed it) D&D; and Bench, who gets his nickname from, well, sitting on the bench on all the sports teams he’s on. Eric himself is Frost, because he wrote an award-wining poem in 5th grade. He doesn’t mind. Frost (he goes by his nickname mostly in the book; they all do) thinks everything is good, until three things happen: 1) the school administration bans cell phones; 2) sticking post-it notes on lockers/walls/people becomes a Thing; and 3) Rose moves in and joins Frost’s “tribe”, at the invitation of Wolf and over the protestations of Bench. Then everything comes to a head, and Frost is left wondering who his real friends are.

It sounds like a simple plot, but it’s an engrossing one. I loved that Anderson caught the angst of middle school, the challenge it is to be the New Kid in the school, and the real desire to, well, fit in with everyone. I liked that the post-it phenomena when viral, and then turned negative, as many things often do. I liked that it was, ultimately, about friendship and fitting in, but there were also side issues like dealing with conflicts at home and how we perceive each other.

I’ve really liked both of  Anderson’s realistic fiction books; he’s got some chops. Definitely worth reading.

(Not Quite) First Sunday Daughter Reviews: September 2017

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First off, tomorrow is the deadline to apply to be a Cybils judge. You want to do this! Seriously. You do. It’s fun, you

She’smeet fantastic people, and you help do something that you can be really proud of.  Follow the link and fill out the application. It’s easy!

School’s back in full swing and while we’re busy, it’s not nearly the level of crazy as last year (yet). So everyone has time to read.

C has picked up this for the first section in her APLit class

She’s liking it so far. What she really likes is that the cover doesn’t have a picture of a constipated woman on it.

A is required to read a William Allen White book and she picked this one

I told her it’s weird, but she’s still game.

And K discovered these graphic novels


She really likes the characters and the stories, which deal with friendship and bullying and finding your place in middle school, really resonate with her right now.

What are your kids reading?

Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman

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by Anne Helen Petersen
First sentence: “On November 8, 2016, I woke up early and said, to no one in particular,’I’m so excited to vote for our first female president!'”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s a lot of f-bombs. It’s in the Sociology section at the bookstore.

I picked this up after hearing an interview with the author on the It’s Been a Minute podcast (which is a fantastic podcast, by the way). It was a smart, interesting interview and I found myself wondering if the book was going to be as smart and as interesting.

And it was. Petersen looks at the representation of women in the media/popular culture through profiling ten celebrities she’s deemed “unruly”, literally not abiding by the set “rules” of culture. They each have a chapter and a reason why they’re unruly, ranging from Too Strong (Serena Williams) and Too Old (Madonna) to To Shrill (Hillary Clinton) and Too Slutty (Nicki Minaj). It’s an interesting look at each of these women’s careers, as well as the public perception of them. I thought it was fascinating. Some of the chapters are stronger than others (the Madonna chapter was actually more a critique of Madonna’s reactions to the cultural perception of her and a wish that she’d be better at resisting aging “gracefully”), but they’re all equally fascinating. There is a lack of people of color (Serena and Nicki are the only two), possibly because there’s a lack of women of color in the celebrity sphere… but I’m not the right person to judge that. I did find it a good, critical look at how we (men and women) perceive female celebrities and, by extension, how we perceive women in general.

A good read.

Audiobook: Orphan Island

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by Lauren Snyder
Read by: Kim Mai Guest
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Listen on Libro.fm!
Content: There’s some mild violence, and some underlying darkness (that I may have noticed because I’m an adult) and some more mature themes (like growing up). It’s in the middle grade section (grades 3-5) at the bookstore, but is probably better for the upper ends of the age range.

Nine orphans live on this island. No less, no more. And once every year (or so) a green boat mysteriously appears, bearing a new young orphan, and the oldest one on the island, the Elder, is supposed to get on the boat and leave, while the new oldest takes care of the new little one. When the book opens, Jinny is saying goodbye to her best friend, Deen, and hello to her Care, Ess. It’s a bittersweet opening: Jinny doesn’t want to say goodbye to her friend, and Ess isn’t happy about being there. And yet, they must go on.

The book covers a huge swath of time, but Snyder does it incredibly elegantly. Jinny struggles with teaching Ess the things she needs to know, and struggles with being the Elder.  In short: she doesn’t want to grow up. For that’s what this book is: an extended metaphor for that transition through childhood. It’s elegant and lovely, and sometimes frustrating and sad (Jinny breaks the rules, and has to deal with the consequences, which aren’t pretty) and annoying. But it’s always a lovely, lovely book.

And the narrator was spectacular. I don’t know what the text is like, but with the narrator, I could not only tell each of the nine kids by her voices, but she caught Ess’s transition from little kid to slightly older one. It was an absolute delight to listen to and one I would recommend.

Solo

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by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content:  There’s some drug use and drinking, mostly by adults. It’s in the Teen Section (grades 9+) at the bookstore, but I’d give it to a 7th/8th grader who is interested.

Blade Morrison is the son of an aging rocker, whose career has been in a steady decline for most of Blade’s life. Drugs, alcohol, and Blade’s mom’s death all contributed to the decline, and Blade has lost patience with his father. Especially when he shows up, mostly naked, at Blade’s graduation. It also doesn’t help that his girlfriend’s father has forbidden her to see him. So, when a long-kept family secret comes out and Blade ends up half way across the world, he is given a chance to figure out his own life and maybe figure out his relationship with his family.

On the one hand, this was a super privileged book, with its Hollywood sensibilities with parties and drugs (mostly on the part of Blade’s dad) and Misratis and paparazzi. And when Blade gets to Ghana, there’s a LOT of “things are solved through the simple people” going on, which didn’t really sit that well with me. (Maybe it’s me?)

That said, Alexander and Hess’s poetry is lovely, and I loved how they incorporated music. There’s a line, near the end of the book about how, in spite of everything, music is something that binds us and brings us together, and that resonated so very much with me. Rock-n-roll, R&B, jazz, classical… music is universal and helps heal, and Alexander and Hess captured that perfectly. Which, in spite of the little complaints I had, really made this book, well, sing.

Monthly Round Up: August 2017

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This month was a bit better with reading. At least I read something other than graphic novels…

My favorite was:

Sweet Spot

I just really loved reading about ice cream. I suppose that says a lot about me.

The rest:

Middle Grade Fiction

Dear Mr. Henshaw
The Countdown Conspiracy

Young Adult Fiction

Mask of Shadows
Genuine Fraud
Thornhill

Adult Fiction

Young Jane Young
Sourdough

Graphic Novels

All’s Faire in Middle School
Mighty Jack and the Goblin King

What was your favorite this month?

Sourdough

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by Robin Sloan
First sentence: “It would have been nutritive gel for dinner, same as always, if I had not discovered stuck to my apartment’s front door a paper menu advertising the newly expanded delivery service of a neighborhood restaurant.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: September 5, 2017
Content: There’s several instances of swearing, including a handful of f-bombs. It’s in the adult fiction section of the bookstore.
Review copy provided by the publisher.

Lois Clary is a Millennial, stuck programming in a tech job in San Francisco. It’s a get up, go to work life, one that, while isn’t bad, isn’t fulfilling either. And then she discovers Clement Street Soup and Sourdough, and is in love. With the food. Run by a couple of immigrant brothers, it’s something that fills her soul. So, when they unexpectedly have to leave the country, they leave her the starter for the sourdough. It’s that small act that changes Lois’s world. She learns to bake sourdough, and discovers that the starter itself is a bit magical. But more than that, Lois finds a purpose in life, a meaning to everything. She becomes involved with an underground experimental farmer’s market, and works on teaching a robot arm how to cook. There’s a bit of conflict with big business and some over-anxious scientists, but for the most part, this is Lois’s story, her discovering there’s more to life than sitting in a cubical.

Which is really the point of this. It lies at the intersection of those who bake/love baking and those who “get” or are technologically savvy. There’s a strong sense of needing to get out of working with computers to find satisfaction in life, but there’s also a sense that technology is inevitable and working with it instead of fighting it is the way to go. It’s a fascinating balance, and Sloan handles it beautifully.

In the end, this isn’t a deep novel (then again, neither was Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore), but it was a thoroughly enjoyable one. Now to go find a good loaf of sourdough to eat! (Or, maybe I should find myself a starter and learn how to make one…)

Genuine Fraud

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by E. Lockhart
First sentence: “It was a bloody great hotel.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: September 5, 2017
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There are at least a half-dozen f-bombs, a murder, some off-screen sex, and some drinking. It will be in the Teen Section (grades 14+), but I wouldn’t give it to sensitive souls.

This will be the teaser-iest of teaser reviews because the less you know going in, the better.

Know this:

  • It’s best read in one (or two, at most) sittings, because otherwise you will forget things, and remembering details IS IMPORTANT.
  • Jule is not a nice person. In fact, there are very few nice people in this book. It’s still incredibly readable.
  • It’s told backward, which is fascinating.
  • The more you know about The Talented Mr. Ripley, the less you will like this. (I didn’t know anything, but about 3/4 of the way through, I had Hubby tell me about it, and yeah… kind of spoiled the rest of the book.)
  • You will want to talk about it when you’re through.

I don’t know if it’s “good”. I know it kept my attention, and that I thought it was cleverly done. And I need people to read it, because this one demands to be processed out loud.

 

Mighty Jack and the Goblin King

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by Ben Hatke
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: September 5, 2017
Review copy provided by the publisher
Others in the series: Mighty Jack
Content: There’s some intense moments, but otherwise it’s good for the Middle Grade set. It’s in the Middle Grade Graphic Novels at the bookstore.

Picking up where Mighty Jack left off… Jack and Lilly have followed the monster who took Maddy up the beanstalk and through the portal to another world. One where there are giants who eat little children, and goblins who are hiding from the giants. Jack and Lilly get split up: Jack heads up to the giant’s lair to try and save Maddy, and Lilly ends up with the goblins. Both have adventures, both do amazing things, and the story is fantastic. There’s even a few Easter eggs for Zita fans, which is fun.

I don’t really have much more to say about this. I still love Hatke’s work, it’s still a LOT of fun, and I still find it funny, and sweet, and thoroughly entertaining. Here’s hoping for more of Jack and Lilly!